Moel y Garnedd, Gwastadros

Nearest town:
Bala (2km ENE)
OS reference:
SH89633551
OS sheets:
124, 125
Latitude:
52° 54' 19.15 N
Longitude:
3° 38' 28.45 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Moel y Garnedd, Gwastadros (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

Brightest it got all day..........

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 8, 2016
Image of Moel y Garnedd, Gwastadros (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

The sun shines upon the righteous; on TV, too... well according to Morten Harket, anyway. Didn’t get as far as the traveller perched upon Moel y Garnedd, however. Funny, that.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 8, 2016
Image of Moel y Garnedd, Gwastadros (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

Hello my matey peeps. Llyn Tegid – aka Bala Lake – can be see beyond ‘Stadros’, innit?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 7, 2016
Image of Moel y Garnedd, Gwastadros (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

Arenig Fawr and her little sister peak keep their own monuments tucked away out of sight.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 7, 2016
Image of Moel y Garnedd, Gwastadros (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

Not the most upstanding of summit cairns... but facing the onslaught of the prevailing wind, that made two of us.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 7, 2016
Image of Moel y Garnedd, Gwastadros (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

The remains of the summit cairn...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 7, 2016

Articles

Folklore

Moel y Garnedd, Gwastadros
Cairn(s)
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Dec 10, 2017
comment 2 comments

Bala Lake

Long, long ago, there was a fertile valley where now roll the waters of Bala Lake.

“At last he reached the top of a hill, some considerable distance ‘from the palace”.... Although the story isn’t specific – mythical legends, eh? – I guess it’s not utterly unreasonable to suppose Moel y Garnedd, overlooking Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), may have been the inferred destination of the harper... being an old man and presumably not up to a trek up any mountain proper:

sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/wfb/wfb23.htm

comment 2 Comments

Miscellaneous

Moel y Garnedd, Gwastadros
Cairn(s)
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 7, 2016

With such a prosaic name... it doesn’t take a visionary Citizen Cairn’d (luckily for me) to suss that here, crowning this (relatively) low hill top overlooking the northern aspect of Llyn Tegid (incidentally Wales’ most copious natural lake), we have the remnants of a prehistoric cairn.

Coflein is curiously non-committal... but not so The Ordnance Survey, depicting the monument immediately to the east of their triangulation pillar upon the 1:25K version of their unsurpassed mapping. The Gwynedd Archaeological Trust complicate matters somewhat by additionally citing a monument a little to the north-east at SH89633551:

“(PRN 6239) Low flat-topped cairn... to North East of cairn on summit. Site completely turfed over apart from eroded area around a large boulder on South East. Cairn pock-marked with several holes (now completely grass grown). Erosion on South East side reveals small stones and earth. Stones max. 0.2m (apart from 2m long boulder)... Material excavated from largest hole appears to be very strong (Smith 2001).”

So... perhaps we have more than just the one monument, then? Whatever the truth, for me the 360 degree unrestricted panorama of mountains and hills is instructive – in short, the positioning is classic, nigh on perfect. Yeah, on a clear day the views would be breathtaking, taking in The Arans, Arenigs and associated wonders; my visit, dictated by a lowering cloudbase obscuring the encircling summits, was hostile, to say the least. But nevertheless well worth the effort.

Sites within 20km of Moel y Garnedd, Gwastadros

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