| Pen y Bryn | |
| House information | |
|---|---|
| Location | Abergwyngregyn, Aber, in Gwynedd, north Wales |
| Coordinates | |
| Built | by about 1700 |
| Architectural style | Romanesque |
| Construction type | Stone |
Pen y Bryn is a two-storey manor house, in Abergwyngregyn, Gwynedd, in north-west Wales, adjacent to the A55, five miles east of Bangor, eight miles west of Conwy. It is situated within Garth Celyn, a double bank and ditch, overlooking the Menai Strait to Anglesey. A smaller house was immediately adjacent in 1810 when Colt Hoare recorded it; this was demolished by the mid 1840s. The present structure incorporates a stone tower, known locally as Tŵr Llywelyn, 'Llywelyn’s Tower'.[1][2]
The site was acquired by Rhys Thomas and his wife Jane from the Crown in 1553. The central block and the northwestern porch are thought to date from the first phase of construction. The present roof timbers were felled between 1619 and 1624.[3] The tower may be a slightly later addition, and there were further additions in the early eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is constructed mainly of rubble, with roughly dressed quoins and a slate roof.
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Garth Celyn is a series of features, including Pen y Bryn itself, a large barn, and earthen terraces and scarps, collectively interpreted as an enclosure 90-100 metres across.[4] The name "Garth Celyn" means "Holly Enclosure" in Welsh. It is scheduled by the Ancient Monuments Board as 'a site of National Importance'. Excavations were undertaken in the early 1990s by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW), the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, and its then owners. The complex included other structures, including a barn or gatehouse (possibly rebuilt about 1700 on earlier stonework) and a possible dovecote (forming the base of the present tower), which predate the house.[5] The report of the RCAHMW suggests, depending on a number of assumptions, that the site may have been the home farm of the demesne of Aber; similar examples are known from the fifteenth century.[6] Nothing of definite medieval date has been found on the site.
A royal llys (palace) of the Welsh princes was located at Abergwyngregyn. There are longstanding local traditions pointing to Pen y Bryn / Garth Celyn as its site. The home is currently owned and occupied by Kathryn Pritchard Gibson, who together with her husband Brian and daughters Hannah, Alex and Emily, acquired the manor in 1988.[7] A charity, Ymddiriedolaeth Aber, the Aber Trust, exists to preserve the living history of the location.[8] The Gibson family donated the barn/gatehouse and adjacent land to the Trust. The Trust has suggested that Garth Celyn derives its name from Celyn ap Caw, a legendary sixth-century chieftain with connections to the north-west corner of Anglesey. The Trust also identifies this as the site of the royal llys (palace) in the 13th century, the centre of government before the Conquest, and suggests that many notable events in Welsh history occurred here.[9][10][11] The Trust reports that it has found letters in the Lambeth Palace Archives from Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, written in November 1282 from Llywelyn's home, described as "Garth Celyn".[12]
A report of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales accepts that the llys of Aber with its domestic and administrative buildings were located in the valley bottom, on the other side of the river from Pen y Bryn, by the mound known as y Mŵd. High-status 14th century structures including a hall have been found there.[13][14][15] In January 1993, the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust remained "unconvinced there is any evidence available at present to confirm or even suggest that Pen y Bryn was the location of the royal llys."[16]
A medieval Palace of Aber features in the novels of Sharon Kay Penman, 'Here Be Dragons' and 'The Reckoning'.