Ynystawe (also Ynysdawe in Welsh) is a small village in the City and County of Swansea in Wales, falling in the electoral ward of Morriston. It is situated approximately half a mile North of Junction 45 of the M4 motorway, between Ynysforgan and Clydach in the lower Swansea Valley. The Welsh name Ynystawe/Ynysdawe derives from two words: Ynys, meaning "island" or "river-meadow", and Tawe, the name of the river running through the village.
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The village lies on the western side of the Lower Sansea Valley, occupying a mainly elevated position overlooking the valley floor. The river Tawe is diverted westwards below the village owing to the presence of the Glais moraine. This is a rare crescentic terminal moraine left over from the southern edge of the ice sheet from the last glaciation (approximately 10 000 years ago), and can be seen from the upper parts of the village as a distinctive elevation of the valley floor.
In Ynystawe Park there stands a memorial stone to Hopcyn ap Tomos (ap Einion) of Ynystawe (c 1330 – 1408). Tomos was a very learned man who commissioned the compilation of the ‘Llyfr Coch’ (Red Book), which brought together most of the great Welsh literature of the time into a single volume. This included Cymric (Welsh) prose & poetry as well as the Mabinogion romances. The Llyfr Coch is considered to be the most complete and impressive collection of Cymric literatiure, and is currently housed in the University of Oxford’s Bodleian library.
Tomos was also considered to possess prophetic powers. For this reason, he was called to court at Camarthen by Owain Glyndwr in 1403 to predict the outcome of the coming conflict between the Welsh and the English.
Ynystawe Primary School is the only school in the village. It is a small English-medium school which acts primarily as a feeder school for Morriston Comprehensive School. Welsh-speaking children are able to attend Welsh-medium primary schools in the neighbouring villages of Clydach and Llansamlet.
The village has one public house named "The Millers Arms", situated on the main road near Ynystawe Park. Ynystawe Cricket and Football Club is a sporting-social club located on the periphery of the village. Ynystawe cricket team won the England & Wales National Village Cricket Championship in 2001. Ynystawe Park is a large open space comprising a children's play area, tennis and basketball courts, bowling green, skateboard ramp, and football & cricket pitches.