Historical background
The east-facing slopes between Coed Dolgarrog and Llanbedr
y Cennin were formerly densely settled in a pattern of tiny
irregularly-shaped holdings between the 250m and the 40m contour.
The lower and upper farmsteads are still inhabited, but those
in between, centred on Arddgron and Hengae, have been abandoned
and the area has become densely wooded. The abandoned dwellings
are built of local field-stones, and have become roofless and
severely dilapidated. There are traces of field systems in
the undergrowth.
The holdings are connected by a series of zigzag roadways
and pathways, partly built up, and walled. According to tradition
the area was settled by the survivors of the Gwylliaid Cochion
Mawddwy in the sixteenth century, whose descendants practised
a garden type of agriculture, keeping cows on the common and
perhaps also fishing. 1
John Owen, the historian of Llanbedr y Cennin, published several
accounts of the Alltwyllt in local newspapers in the 1930s,
which suggest that the area was inhabited until approximately
the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He describes
the cottagers making use of donkeys to carry fuel and other
necessities along the paths. They made their living by various
different means, augmented when necessary by parish relief
- by knitting stockings, basket-making, as carriers, hone-quarrymen,
sulphur miners, household servants, a captain on a river-boat,
fisherman.2
The Alltwyllt constitutes a unique relict landscape within the
study area, akin to the dual economy settlements (quarrying and
pastoralism) of Arfon, such as the Bethel - Deiniolen areas,
and the former crown lands between Cilgwyn and Rhostryfan.
1 R.E. Hughes, op.
cit ., p. 24.
2 Newspaper
articles by John Owen, copies in private possession.
Key historic landscape characteristics
Dual economy settlement, irregular fields, cottages
An area of irregular enclosures and cottage dwellings. This
has been studied by a number of scholars as an example of a
dual-economy settlement.
Back to Creuddyn
and Arllechwedd Landscape Character Map
