The long-time heartland of nationalism, North Wales is leading a prolonged campaign for the survival of Welsh language, music and literary culture. When you hear Welsh spoken in the trendiest bar on the Llŷn Peninsula, you know it is here to stay.
Tribes of Celtic Wales
From the round tower of Dolbadarn Castle, 700 years ago, Dafydd, Prince of Wales, looked out at the besieging camp-fires of an invading army.
Today, the ghosts of the Welsh Princes, from their ruined strongholds, watch over friendly tourists who are attracted to the corner of Wales around Mount Snowdon that we call Snowdonia - a countryside of high mountains and deep valleys, of rushing streams, sunlit waterfalls ... and driving, drenching rain.
For it's the climate of Wales which has helped to mould the rocks of Snowdonia into the beautiful and rugged landscape of the present day.
Imagine North Wales 540 million years ago. The climate was very warm because Wales lay near to where South Africa is today. It was part of a large land-mass and attached, not only to England, but to southern Ireland and northern Europe as well.
You may not have needed an umbrella to live here -- but you'd still get wet. A deep ocean separated the Welsh continent from another one, consisting of Scotland, northern Ireland and North America.
Periodically, seas flooded the land, depositing thick layers of sands and muds. Over time, thousands of feet of sediment built up and was consolidated by pressure into sandstone and mudstone rocks. Into the mudstones, volcanoes of a later age injected veins of copper and gold. Some of the mudstone was metamorphosed into the slate which outcrops around Bethesda and Llanberis.
After the tides of fifty million years washed over the land the two continents began to move towards each other. In their battle for dominance submarine volcanoes and volcanic islands were thrown up into the narrowing ocean.
Many of Snowdonia's highest mountains are made of rocks from this explosive age but none were ever volcanoes themselves -- the summit of Snowdon is a mixture of muds and volcanic dust originally laid down on the sea-floor then later uplifted. Nearby, cooled ash sheets and lava flows formed the rock-face of Lliwedd, and volcanic magma lined the cliffs of Crib-y- Ddysgl and Crib Goch.
Many years passed, and the ocean disappeared as the two continents collided. The resulting stresses crumpled the earth for miles, buckling lavas at Cwm Idwal and arching the sandstones of Harlech. The earth moved (up, down, even sideways), chipping out the valleys of Bala and Tal-y-llyn.
Lazily, Wales drifted northwards, passed over the Equator and became part of one immense continent (called Pangaea). Eventually, Pangaea broke up and left a Britain still joined to Europe.
Five million years before the present Britain gently tipped up, dipping England into the sea and raising the rocks of Wales. Rivers cut deeply into these highland plains, carving out v-shaped valleys.
The Ice Ages came and went over 2 million years. Neanderthal Man walked into Britain with the warmer weather -- and walked out again in colder times. Glaciers spilled over the cwms of Nant Ffrancon and the Glyders and flowed away down the valleys.
8,000 years BC and it became much warmer. The ice melted and sea-levels rose, cutting off Britain from Europe and widening into a sea the narrow strait between Wales and Ireland.
Behind it, the ice left a trail of memories: erratic rocks perched dangerously on top of one another and broad, deep, u-shaped valleys.
Rain fell, and lakes formed in these valleys and cwms. Some are deep -- it's 190 feet to the bottom of Llyn Llydaw.
On the mountainsides Stone Age man hunted deer, ox and wild boar through a thick canopy of trees.
By 4,000 BC the first farmers arrived from Europe, bringing with them livestock and grain. The New Stone Age men cleared the forests in order to graze their animals and grow crops.
These people made tools out of stone or bone, and they built cromlechs, like the one at Capel Garmon, in which to bury their dead. On the coast, at Penmaenmawr, they established a centre for making stone axes and traded their goods through-out Britain.
Two thousand years later, the community at Penmaenmawr used bronze knives to sacrifice its children. The bodies were cremated and their ashes placed in urns, which were then buried beneath the standing stones of the Druid's Circle.
Druids themselves didn't actually enter the magic circle until 600 BC when the influence of the Celts from Europe was paramount. These highly cultured people introduced to Britain the Brythonic language, together with a love of music, spoken poetry and storytelling (very little was written down) -- and a love of battle.
In the uplands the raven, shape-shifter and goddess of battle, soured over the hill-top forts in which these tribes lived in times of war.
At Pen-y-Gaer the hillfort dominated the river Conwy below. The men dug in rows of small, jagged stones to upend enemy horse-riders.
The Celts knew how to make strong weapons and chariots out of iron, as well as beautiful objects from bronze, silver and gold. Sometimes these articles were cast into lakes as offerings to the water-spirits.
For the Celts, all natural phenomena -- from stones and lakes to trees and birds -- were sources of divine power. Dressed in white robes and armed with yew wands, their religious leaders (the druids) conducted human sacrifices in sacred oak groves.
In the first century AD, against an invading Roman army, the druids inspired resistance throughout Wales. However, in AD 61 the druids were forced to retreat to their island stronghold of Anglesey.
Backed by a host of armed warriors and wild-haired, dark-robed women who carried fire-brands, the druids raised their arms and cursed the immaculate soldiers facing them across the Menai Strait.
Eventually, the awe-struck legionaries dared to cross over the water. And it's then that the charismatic druids disappeared from our history -- together with men, women and children they were burnt alive, wrapped in their own torch-flames.
For three centuries the Romans remained in control. Nine hundred feet above sea-level, near Trawsfynydd, 500 auxiliaries lived in the fort of Tomen-y-Mur. The Romans relaxed in a heated bath-house and sat around a small amphitheatre, cheering on fighting cockerels.
Roman roads averaged one day’s march (that's 19 miles) between each fort. The road which ran from Tomen-y-Mur we call Sarn Helen (meaning Helen’s Causeway), named after the Celtic wife of Macsen Wledig, the last Roman general to govern Wales.
Macsen decamped with his troops in AD 383 in order to make himself Emporor of Rome. The Romans left behind them the sign of a red dragon, the Latin alphabet -- and the Christian religion of Emporor Constantine the Great, whose soldiers bore Christ’s monogram on their shields.
This fifth-century grave-stone in Penmachno was inscribed with the Latin text: 'Carausius lies here in this heap of stones' and the sacred chi-rho symbol.
During the Age of the Saints (from the fifth to seventh centuries) missionaries from Ireland and Gaul arrived in Wales, and a monastery developed in Penmachno.
In these days monks lived in small wattle and daub huts, all grouped around a larger hut which was used for worship and dedicated to a chosen saint. The area containing the huts and burial ground was called the llan -- meaning ‘enclosed land'.
The saints also bequeath their names to many Welsh villages -- such as Llanberis, which developed near the Llan of St Peris at the foot of Mount Snowdon.
On Bardsey Island, at the tip of the Lleyn Peninsula, St Cadfan founded a monastery which attracted pilgrims from miles around. The bones of 20,000 holymen are said to be buried here.
At Clynnog Fawr, on the mainland, the Church of St Beuno was a stopping place for these pilgrims, who prayed at the shrine of the saint and bathed in the healing waters of the well. Before the final crossing to Bardsey the travellers rested at the Church of Aberdaron, where the sea lapped against the church wall at high tide.
But apart from the evangelists, other newcomers weren’t so welcome ... With the departure of the Romans, the Britons were left to defend their borders against swarms of land-hungry tribes -- Irish, Picts, Scots, Danes, Angles and Saxons.
Vortigern (son-in-law of Macsen Wledig) retreated to the craggy rocks of Dinas Emrys, near Beddgelert, from a Saxon invasion of Britain. Vortigern tried to build a fortress on the summit, but, mysteriously, the structure kept disappearing over-night.
Young Merlin the Magician revealed why: beneath the foundations was a hidden pool in which two dragons were fighting for control of their crowded kingdom. Although at first the white dragon -- a Saxon interloper -- seemed to be winning, ultimately, Merlin foretold, the red dragon -- a true -- well -- Romano-Briton -- would triumph!
In the south-east of Britain the mixed races settled down together. They adoped a common Germanic tongue and the name of 'Angles', referring to the previous inhabitants as ‘wealhas’.
By the seventh century the Wealhas living in the west of Britain spoke a derived version of their original Celtic language. At the Church of St Cadfan in Tywyn the epitaph for Cingen was recorded -- not in Latin this time -- but in Welsh.
The language of Rome was still used though, and when a 20 foot high stone cross was erected in the ninth century to honour Eliseg, King of Powys, his descent from Macsen Wledig and Vortigern was inscribed in Latin. Close-by the Abbey of Valle Crucis was called after this monument -- its name means Valley of the Cross.
In the thirteenth century, the Welsh people were faced with new enemies: this time the Norman conquerors of England. Iorwerth the Flat-nosed erected a timber castle at Dolwyddelan, and his son lived here as a boy.
Llywelyn set in stone his father’s castle and built others at Dolbadarn, Criccieth and Castell-y-Bere during his battles with the English kings. He also gave money to several monasteries, including Penmon Priory on Anglesey. The monks living on Puffin Island moved over to Penmon, and the puffins, by our own time, died out too -- pickled puffins being considered a delicacy.
At Aberdyfi, Llywelyn called a council of the Welsh princes, who agreed to unite under him and proclaimed him worthy of the title ‘Llywelyn Fawr’ -- that is, 'Llywelyn the Great'.
Llywelyn Fawr, his wife Joan and their hound Killhart held court at several palaces through-out Gwynedd, but the legendary site of Llywelyn's cottage and the grave of his dog are both in Beddgelert.
Joan's coffin ended up on Anglesey at Beaumaris parish church, and when Llywelyn died his stone coffin -- but not his body, which disappeared -- reached its final resting place in the Church of St. Gwrwst at Llanrwst.
For the next 15 years the descendants of Llywelyn Fawr competed for the lands of Gwynedd, until, at the Battle of Bryn Derwin, his grandson (Llywelyn the 2nd) defeated his brothers to take supreme command. One brother, Owain the Red, he then imprisoned in a 2nd floor bedroom in the turret of the keep of Dolbadarn Castle for 22 years.
By strength of arms and personality, Llywelyn forced the English monarch to officially recognise him as ‘Prince of Wales’. But Llywelyn the 2nd became Llywelyn the Last when he marched against the next king, Edward the 1st, and was run through by a spear.
As a traitor to England, Llywelyn’s head was cut off (a Celtic tradition) and displayed on London Bridge, although the rest of his body found peace inside a Welsh abbey.
For a few months Dafydd assumed the title ‘Prince of Wales’ from his dead brother. During the winter King Edward besieged the Welshmen at Dolwyddelan Castle, but Prince Dafydd himself escaped to Castell-y-Bere, remote in the foothills of Cader Idris. Still Edward pursued him. Dafydd retreated to Dolbadarn -- and was betrayed by his fellow countrymen.
In London the two brothers met again: the head of Llywelyn the Last was joined by Dafydd’s head; two princes of Wales, crowned with ivy wreaths.
Dafydd's grandson, however, lies peacefully in the old church of Betws-y-Coed, and in the mountains of Snowdonia two of the highest peaks in Wales, Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llywelyn, were named after the princes.
In order to subdue his new Welsh conquests, Edward of England commissioned a series of castles to be constructed around the coast of North Wales. Designed by a master French architect and built by English craftsmen, each castle was the latest in modern military engineering.
Conwy Castle featured arrow-slits, murder holes, lavish appartments for the king, and a sunless dungeon for the prisoners.
On Anglesey King Edward uprooted the Welsh population of Llanfaes and moved it to a new site -- New Borough -- 12 miles away. The empty buildings of Llanfaes were used to create the town and moated castle of Beaumaris, whose name in French means 'beautiful marsh'.
From his castle at Rhuddlan the King issued a statute which imposed English laws and administration on the Welsh people.
And at Caernarfon Castle, built near the Roman fort of Segontium, King Edward nominated his eldest son, born in the Eagle Tower, as the first in a line of English Princes of Wales ...
But in 1400 a middle-aged country-gentleman, descended from the royal Welsh houses, claimed back the title for Wales. A dispute over land with Lord Grey of Ruthin resulted in Owain Glyndwr's first uprising. After sacking and burning Ruthin, Owain and his men attacked the towns and castles of Denbigh and Rhuddlan.
Over the next few years Owain Glyndwr and his illusive army, camping in the hills and riding on Welsh ponies, waged a guerrilla war against the English intruders. At last, with the help of French warships, Owain captured Harlech and Caernarfon Castles and held most of Wales in his control. This latest Prince of Wales was crowned during his first parliament at Machynlleth.
Owain made his headquarters in Harlech Castle but after 4 years it was besieged and taken back by Prince Hal of England. However, Owain and one son had already fled to the mountains.
Hiding in caves, like those above Beddgelert, Owain and his men continued to skirmish with the English. And when or where the last Welsh Prince of Wales died, or whether he lives on in the mountains of Snowdonia -- no-one knows.
70 years later a Welshman of royal lineage challenged Richard 3rd of England for his kingdom. Henry Tudor and his army marched along the drovers' roads from Aberdyfi to Shrewsbury. At the Battle of Bosworth Field King Richard was killed, and Henry was proclaimed Henry 7th -- the first Welshman to ascend the English throne.
Henry allowed Welshmen to hold important offices once more, and several of the Wynn family, living in Gwydir Castle, became Members of Parliament for the county.
On their estate near Penmachno William Morgan was born at Ty Mawr. Son of a tenant farmer, he became bishop of St Asaph and, in 1588, the first translator of the Bible into Welsh.
Sir John Wynn's reputation is not so honourable. Because of his harshness towards his servants and tenants, Sir John's soul was forever condemned to the pool below Swallow Falls, where his moans can always be heard.
Snowdonia cradles a wealth of minerals. The Romans mined gold here and fished for pearls in the River Conwy.
Gold was re-found in Snowdonia’s hills during the 19th century:- at Clogau, above the Mawddach Estuary, the discovery of a rich gold vein started a Welsh gold rush in buying shares in the mines; near Bala, beneath the ruined castle of Castell Carn Dochan, a young boy saw gold glinting in a stone wall by the roadside; whilst between the rivers Mawddach and Gain the Gold King (Pritchard Morgan) mined his own weight plus two stone in gold during one fortnight. Today, his old mine at Gwynfynydd makes wedding rings for Henry Tudor’s descendants -- the British royal family.
Gold isn’t the only metal lining these mountains, and copper occurs in the quartz rocks above Llyn Glaslyn on Mount Snowdon itself. The first miners here, 4,000 years ago, smelted copper with tin to make bronze tools. Later on, shepherds carried the copper ore down Snowdon on their backs. By the 19th century horses and carts, laden with ore, were led over a causeway built across Llyn Llydaw and down the Miner’s Track to Pen y Pass.
Most of the miners of this time lived in Llanberis. Early on Monday mornings they climbed more than 3000 feet over the top of Snowdon, returning home on Saturday evenings. Throughout the working week, in the 1-room cottages near Llyn Teyrn, the Welsh and Irish families scrapped like tigers; whilst besides the Glaslyn the miners lived in barracks, 2 to each bed, beneath a roof anchored on by cables against strong winds. Nearby, the blacksmith ran a sideline in selling tea to walkers ...
But it’s at the Sygun Copper Mine where the most exotic income was made: the hills above Beddgelert provided the location for Ingrid Bergman’s 1950s film ‘The Inn of the 6th Happiness’, set -- where-else -- in China.
On the Great Orme, near Llandudno, the Bronze Age people also found copper, which they extracted by lighting fires against the limestone and then hitting the weakened rock with stone hammers.
The Romans continued mining copper here, as well as lead in the hills above Trefriw, which they shipped in galleys to their harbour at Caerhun and on to Rome. They soon learnt from the local people that the iron-rich waters had a beneficial effect on lead-poisoning caused by inhaling the dust.
The Victorians knew Trefriw’s secret too. Travelling up the Conwy by paddle-steamer, the wealthy came both to drink and bathe in the spa waters.
The miners of this Age lived in Pentre-Du -- the black village -- near Betws-y-Coed. To reach the lead workings in the hills opposite, the men crossed over the River Llugwy via the Miner’s Bridge, only yards upstream from the Roman ford used centuries before.
The lead mines near Llyn Sarnau and Llyn Parc were many but small and often worked by only one man. In contrast, the slate mines and quarries of the 19th century employed thousands of men and made huge profits -- for their owners.
With the income from their slate quarry at Bethesda the Penrhyn family home was completely rebuilt and refurnished. But this wasn’t just another Victorian mansion -- it became a neo-Norman castle with square keep, round towers and battlements. Unlike most castles, it wasn't cold and damp inside -- there were log fires and under-floor heating, stained glass windows and silk wallpapers.
For the quarrymen who lived in the barracks, bare stone walls and roofs kept off the wind and rain. And, if it was dry, there was a mountain stream in which to wash.
In the quarries of Bethesda and Llanberis the rockmen swung and clambered across the open rock-face, forcing out massive blocks of slate with pointed rods and gunpowder. For safety’s sake, a chain hitched around one thigh left both hands free to work -- or to cling on in the midst of falling rocks.
From the mines at Blaenau Ffestiniog the slates were transported by tramway to the harbour at Porthmadog and sailed onto the roofs of millions of homes through-out the world.
Initially, the slate wagons were hauled by horses until, in the 1860s, the first steam locomotives took on the role. Within a few years the steam trains which travelled between the slate quarries and their ports also carried passengers. And Victorians who once climbed Mount Snowdon on ponies to watch the sunrise could sit more comfortably on the Snowdon Mountain Railway, which followed the original pony track from Llanberis.
A new holiday resort developed on the north coast for these tourists, among them Lewis Carroll and the family of 'Alice', who stayed at Llandudno near the Llan of St Tudno on the Great Orme.
During the late 19th century the National Eisteddfod of Wales was established. As now, these annual competitions in music and poetry were announced one year and one day in advance from within specially erected circles of stones.
On the banks of Llyn Geirionydd rival eisteddfods were held for many years around the monument to Taliesin, a bard at the court of the King of Powys in the 6th century.
Much later, an International Music Eisteddfod was set up in Llangollen, and choirs and soloists, folk-singers and folk-dancers from all over the world still compete in it.
Back in 1895 an aspiring land-owner arrived in Wales -- the newly formed ‘National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty’ acquired its first property: 41/2 acres of cliffland overlooking Barmouth and Cardigan Bay.
By today, the Trust’s acquisitions range from the Roman fort of Segontium and the slate baron’s Penrhyn Castle, to the mountains of the Welsh princes -- Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llewelyn -- and Tryfan, on whose northern flank mountaineers train for their ascent of Mount Everest.
Many of our mines and quarries closed during the first half of the 20th century, but in 1919 a new organization was set up to replenish the woodlands of Britain, felled for timber during the Great War. The Forestry Commission employed some of the ex-miners to plant thousands of acres with thousands of trees -- completely transforming the hills of North Wales.
Snowdonia's lakes and rivers aren't free from interference either: Llyn Celyn near Bala provides water, via the River Dee, for Merseyside. Beneath the lake lies the ruins of a small village, drowned on the orders of Liverpool Corporation despite loud protests from both the villagers and Welsh MPs.
At Trawsfynydd the reservoir waters cool the reactors within Britain’s first inland nuclear power station, frowned on by the Roman ghosts of Tomen-y-Mur, in the hills above, who created heating and hot water with such ease 2,000 years ago.
Nowadays most of Snowdonia's grazing land is used for sheep-farming but in the past rearing cattle and goats was more popular. In these earlier times the Welsh farmer had 2 homes: from the winter farm-house -- called the hendre -- in the lowlands the family and herds travelled in May upto their summer-house -- the hafod -- in the mountains.
As the wool and clothing industries increased in importance sheep became the dominant farm animals. Overnight, commonland was turned into private land, enclosed by dry-stone walls winding across mountains and pastures.
On the river-sides near Penmachno and Trefriw fulling mills were built in the 19th century, powered by water-wheels, to take the rough hand-woven cloths from the villagers and smooth them into superior woollen clothing.
Today the remaining upland farms are self-sufficient units. Despite the harshness of Snowdonia’s winters, the Welsh Mountain Sheep and Black Cattle -- plus the goats and ponies whose ancestors escaped into the wild -- are ideally suited to the mountainous land in which they live.
To ensure that the beauty of this countryside is protected from uncontrolled planning, over 800 square miles of the land around Mount Snowdon was designated in 1951 as the Snowdonia National Park.
In reality British national parks are neither nationally owned nor parkland: much of the land is in private hands, and people live and work here as they have since the Ice Ages, taking care of "y greigfa ddeniadol, Cymru" --
this beautiful rockery of Wales.
