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Garn Bentyrch

Hillfort

Also known as:
  • Carn Bentyrch

Nearest Town:Pwllheli (8km SSW)
OS Ref (GB):   SH423416 / Sheet: 123
Latitude:52° 56' 53.45" N
Longitude:   4° 20' 50.85" W

Added by Rhiannon


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Folklore

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If you want to walk to the top of Garn Bentyrch, the footpath will take you straight past Ffynnon Gybi, a holy well, which emerges on the south east side of the hill.
Ffynnon Gybi, or St. Cybi's Well, in the parish of Llangybi [..] there the girls who wished to know their lover's intentions would spread their pocket-handkerchiefs on the water of the well, and, if the water pushed the handkerchiefs to the south - in Welsh i'r de - they knew that everything was right - in Welsh o dde - and that their lovers were honest and honourable in their intentions; but, if the water shifted the handkerchiefs northwards, they concluded the contrary. A reference to this is made in severe terms by a modern Welsh poet, as follows:-

Ambell ddyn, gwaelddyn, a gyrch
I bant goris Moel Bentyrch,
Mewn gobaith mai hen Gybi
Glodfawr sydd yn llwyddaw'r lli.

Some folks, worthless folks, visit
A hollow below Moel Bentyrch,
In hopes that ancient Kybi
Of noble fame blesses the flood.
From 'Sacred Wells in Wales' by John Rhys and T. E. Morris, in
Folklore, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Mar., 1893), pp. 55-79.

T E Morris added: "I was [..] at Llangybi, in Carnarvonshire, about two years ago, and saw Ffynnon Gybi (St. Cybi's Well), which lies in a small dale near the parish church, and had been walled in and flagged. It is a large square well, and was formerly very much resorted to by persons suffering from rheumatism and other complaints. To effect a cure it was necessary to bathe in the well; and the building adjoining, the ruins of which remain, was possibly used by the suffers."
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
10th March 2009ce
Edited 10th March 2009ce

A folktale in 'Welsh Fairy Stories' by W. Jenkyn Thomas (1907) relates to the stones on top of Garn Bentyrch (or Pentyrch, as he calls it) - online at V Wales
http://www.red4.co.uk/Folklore/fairytales/gutobach.htm
It's about a boy who goes to play with the fairies on the hills above Llangybi. His parents warn him against it but he will keep going back, and one day doesn't return for two years (though he looks the same age on his return). There are rumours about a hoard of gold hidden under a big rock on the mountain but even the strongest men in the village shoving together can't shift it. His parents are down to their last can of beans due to an ill-advised investment, but Guto knows the fairies will help them out. He goes to ask nicely if they can have the gold, and when he tries to move the rock (sword-in-the-stone style) it bounces off down the hill with no effort at all. Pays to be civil to the fairies, see.

They are mentioned elsewhere in Rhys's 'Celtic Folklore Welsh and Manx'
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/cfwm/cf107.htm
which is online at the Sacred Texts archive.
When I was staying at Pwlltheli the same summer, I went out to the neighbouring village of Four Crosses, and found a native of the place, who had heard a great many curious things from his mother. His name was Lewis Jones: he was at the time over eighty, and he had formerly been a saddler. Among other things, his mother often told him that her grandmother had frequently been with the fairies, when the latter was a child. She lived at Plas Du, and once she happened to be up near Carn Bentyrch when she saw them. She found them resembling little children, and playing in a brook that she had to cross. She was so delighted with them, and stayed so long with them, that a search was made for her, when she was found in the company of the fairies.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
4th August 2005ce
Edited 5th August 2005ce