Cywarch is a location at the head of Cwm Cywarch in the

Snowdonia National Park Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951. Name and extent It was a commonly held belief that the nam ...

, in

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...

, Wales. Several streams flow through the area, uniting to form

Afon Cywarch This is a list of rivers of Wales, organised geographically. It is taken anti-clockwise from the Dee Estuary to the M48 Bridge that separates the estuary of the River Wye from the River Severn. Tributaries are listed down the page in an upstrea ...

, a tributary of the

River Dyfi The River Dyfi ( cy, Afon Dyfi; ), also known as the River Dovey (; ), is an approximately long river in Wales. Its large estuary forms the boundary between the counties of Gwynedd and Ceredigion, and its lower reaches have historically been c ...

. The area is entirely agricultural, based on sheep farming, with some tourism generated by scenery and hill-walking. Until the end of the 19th century there were lead workings that gave rise to a mining village and works. A mining company office remains, mining buildings have been incorporated into local farms and some earthworks remain, otherwise the buildings, including the village, have vanished. An explanatory sign has been sited at a new car park near the end of the public road. Prior to mining, the area was isolated and during the 16th century it was home to a band of

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

s known as Cochion Cywarch (The Reds of Cywarch ), said to be named for the colour of their leader's hair. The "Brigand’s Inn" in

Mallwyd Mallwyd () is a small village at the most southern end of Gwynedd, Wales in the Dinas Mawddwy community, in the valley of the River Dyfi. It lies on the A470 approximately halfway between Dolgellau and Machynlleth, and forms the junction of t ...

, is named after them.

References

Villages in Gwynedd Former populated places in Wales Mining communities in Wales Villages in Snowdonia Mawddwy {{Wales-stub