The truly amazing Iron Age Capel Garmon firedog was found not far from here. You can visit it in person at the museum in Cardiff (or perhaps at St Fagans at the moment).
In Archaeologia Cambrensis (1863) it says:
The relic [...] was discovered in May, 1852, by a man cutting a ditch through a turbary on the farm of Carreg Goedog, near Capel Garmon, Llanrwst. It lay on the clay subsoil, flat upon its side, with a large stone at each end, and at a considerable depth. The spot is quite unfrequented, nor are there any remains of ancient buildings. It is all of iron, and the execution indicates considerable taste and skill. It is in some parts much corroded, and exposure to the air decomposed the metal considerably [...]
Although the journal suggests the firedog was found “at the foot of” Dinas Mawr, at the confluence of the Conway and Machno rivers (which would be Romantically Celtic), the farm of Carreg-coediog isn’t actually at its foot at all. But it’s not far away.
Being a Cardiff boy I have seen the firedog a few times and it is certainly worth a look. A fine bit of metal work.
It's a lovely thing isn't it. It looks very majestic in the exhibition. It must have looked pretty impressive in the flickering firelight of an important building in the Iron Age. Or outside. Or wherever they were showing it off.