Historical background
The site of a hillfort, in which, it has been suggested, a
small primary bivallate hillfort is overlain by a still smaller
and later ‘citadel' which is defended by strong banks and rock-cut
defence ditches, possibly an post- Roman/Early Medieval re-occupation
overlying a putative earlier hillfort.
The ridge has been quarried since at least the nineteenth
century. A narrow-gauge link to the Cambrian Railways was put
in c. 1898, superseded by a standard-gauge siding in 1906,
around the time it was taken over directly by John Corbett
of Ynysymaengwyn, working as Tonfanau Granite Quarries. In
1965 this became a subsidiary of Penmaenmawr and Welsh Granite
Co., and operated as Kingston Minerals from 1965 to 19181.
It was thereafter worked by Mr G.C. Evans of Aberllefenni,
and is now the only operati ng
quarry within the Snowdonia National Park .
Quarrying has had a significant impact on the landscape setting
of the hillfort and possibly on its stability also.
Key historic landscape characteristics
Industrial landscape threatening earlier archaeological landscape
A ridge overlooking the Dysynni valley, on the crest of which
is situated the Tal y Garreg hillfort; to the south west, at
Llechlwyd, the ridge is also defended by massive bivallate
ramparts. Their chronological relationship with each other
is unclear. These have been truncated by quarrying operations.
Tal y Garreg has a strong visual relationship with Craig yr
Aderyn, on which a further hillfort is located. It has been
suggested that as a post-Roman feature, the citadel feature
is the precursor of the commotal centre at Tal y Bont in Area
1.
The quarry exploits a NNE-SSW tending sill of coarse dolerite/gabbro,
suitable for road surfacing material. Traces of earlier internal
arrangements including inclines, chutes, aerial ropeways and
gravity assisted crushing plant are visible in and amongst
modern haul roads. There were at one time four working levels.
The rail connection was removed post-1970.
Back to Dysynni
Landscape Character Map
