Historic Landscape Characterisation
Llŷn - Area 11 Caer Saethon,
Carneddol, Mynytho and Mynydd Tirycwmwd PRN 33490
Mynytho
Foel Gron, Mynytho
Mynydd Tirycwmwd
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Historic background
Early activity is evidenced by a chambered
tomb on the neck of Mynydd Tirycwmwd promontory and to the
west of Mynytho at Hen Efail (PRNs 445, 1250). At Carnedd y
Brenin Engan, the site of a cairn and the possibility of burial
remains at Hen Fynwent, east of Foel Gron, suggest further
burial activity of the Early Bronze Age in that area and, immediately
to the south, burials at Pen-y-Graigwen (PRNs 1249, 1796, 3657).
Cremations have been recorded near Nant y Castell PRN 3656).
A concentric enclosure at Cefn Deuddwr, to the south of Mynytho (PRN
1241), and a defensive enclosure at Gadlys (PRN 1240) are indicative
of settlement in later prehistory. Hut circles have been recorded south
of Mynytho Common (PRNs 1244, 6885); and also near Gadlys. Hillforts
are known at Carn Saethon where a small stone-walled rampart which
utilises the outcropping rock for defence (PRN 415); at the south end
of Mynytho Common (PRN 5795) and either side of the ravine between
Mynytho and Mynydd Tirycwmwd at Nant y Castell and Pen y Gaer (PRNs
442, 443).
Several wells and springs issue from the rocky landscape. Two, within
the character area are considered to have special properties. These
are Ffynnon Arian, east of Foel Gron and Fynnon Fyw near Gadlys (PRNs
409, 1251).
Key historic landscape characteristic
•Colonisation of common land at Mynytho
before regular enclosure. The settlement pattern still retains
evidence of more ancient encroachments recognisable by their
irregular outline within the enclosure area
•Parliamemtary Inclosure in early
19th century with ruler-straight plots and paddocks
•Several traditional cottages retain
the character of both the encroachment period and the Inclosure
period
There is a chain of igneous intrusions and
high ground which run from north-west to south-east from Carn
Fadryn in the parish of Llaniestyn to the sea at Llanbedrog.
This character area describes the Parliamentary Inclosures
at Mynytho and Mynydd Tirycwmwd and the contiguous high ground
of Carn Saethon, Carneddol and Foel Fawr.
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Carn Saethon and Carneddol are included within
this character area, together with Mynytho, as they continue
the line of volcanic intrusions from Carn Fadryn to Mynydd
Tirycwmwd. Carn Saethon and Carneddol lie between Carn Fadryn
and Mynytho. Mynydd Tirycwmwd extends, as a promontory, into
the sea at Llanbedrog.
The landscape of Mynytho is undulating and
much of it rough ground at around 80m to 140m OD, wet and moorish
in places with several springs. Igneous intrusions at Foel
Fawr (179m OD), Mynytho Common (170m OD) and Foel Gron 170m
OD) puncture the landscape with rock outcrops.
Mynydd Tirycwmwd is an extension of this chain of igneous rock, projecting
into the sea as a visually dramatic bare, rounded headland, rising above
the shore to 132m OD.
The colonisation of the common land of Mynytho
had begun before the early nineteenth century Inclosure Act
and continued after it. The character of the landscape now
reflects this process of settlement, with its characteristic
early nineteenth-century ruler-straight plots and paddocks,
in contrast to the irregular pattern of fields in the wider
landscape. Nevertheless the settlement pattern of Mynytho still
retains evidence of more ancient irregular encroachments recognisable
by their irregular outline within the enclosure area.
Although several new houses have been built at Mynytho in the recent
past and their concentration at two focal points, Pen Lon and Pen y Groeslon,
has dislocated the original dispersed pattern, there are still sufficient
traditional cottages in the area which retain the character of both the
encroachment period and the Inclosure period. Several of these are Listed
Buildings in respect of their context and character. Good examples may
be found at Rhedyn and Tyn y Mynydd, both encroaching on the very edge
of the common and at Bryn yr Efail, a single storey, crogloft cottage,
built with local stone rubble walls. The roofs of these cottages are
uniformly slated but it is well to remember that thatch was predominant
in the Llanbedrog area at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
There is a ruined windmill on the summit of Foel Fawr. It was ruinous
in 1810 when Hyde Hall saw it. The elevated position was eminently suitable
for a windmill but, as our laconic chronicler observes, ‘with the
general supply of water in this part of the country, it is not so much
surprising that a mill of this sort should be permitted to go to ruin,
or that one should ever have been built’.
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