Llanddeiniolen (; ; ) is a hamlet and name of a

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

in the county of

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 Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, and is from

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

and from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It comprises the villages of

Deiniolen Deiniolen (; ; ) is a village in Gwynedd, Wales, at the foot of Elidir Fawr, in Llanddeiniolen Community. Deiniolen has views over Caernarfon (7 miles away) and on a clear day, Holyhead Mountain and occasionally the Wicklow Mountains in Irelan ...

Bethel Bethel ( he, בֵּית אֵל, translit=Bēṯ 'Ēl, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; el, Βαιθήλ; la, Bethel) was an ancient Israelite sanct ...

Dinorwig Dinorwig sometimes spelled Dinorwic ( ; ; ), is a village located high above Llyn Padarn, near Llanberis, in Wales. The name is shared with the fort of Dinas Dinorwig, also within the community of Llanddeiniolen, on a foothill from Dinorwig v ...

, Rhiwlas,

Brynrefail Brynrefail () is a small village in north-east Anglesey, Wales. Location It is located in the civil parish of Moelfre on the A5025 between Amlwch and Benllech. Amenities As the settlement is very small it has very few amenities. Those ...

and

Penisarwaun Penisa'r-waun is a small village which is located 4 miles to the east of Caernarfon and a mile to the northeast of Llanrug on the A4547 in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. Education The village includes a primary school, Ysgol Gymuned Penisarwaun, th ...

, and is the third-largest community by population in Gwynedd, with 5072 people in the 2011 census. Also in the community is the dispersed settlement of Fachwen, located on the north shore of

Llyn Padarn Llyn Padarn is a glacially formed lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd, north Wales, and is an example of a moraine dammed lake. The lake is approximately long (about 240 acres) and at its deepest point is deep, and is one of the largest natural lakes ...

. The name derives from the Welsh saint

Deiniol Saint Deiniol (died 572) was traditionally the first Bishop of Bangor in the Kingdom of Gwynedd, Wales. The present Bangor Cathedral, dedicated to Deiniol, is said to be on the site where his monastery stood. He is venerated in Brittany as Sai ...

(died 584).

Castell

Castell Llanddeiniolen, some 900m west of Rhiwlas, is a hill of

glacial drift In geology, drift is a name for all sediment (clay, silt, sand, gravel, boulders) transported by a glacier and deposited directly by or from the ice, or by glacial meltwater. Drift is often subdivided into (unsorted and) unstratified drift (glaci ...

whose sides have been dug away to give a steeper slope. It has been identified as a Norman

motte A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

but is not a typical one. It may be a medieval

ringwork A ringwork is a form of fortified defensive structure, usually circular or oval in shape. Ringworks are essentially motte-and-bailey castles without the motte. Defences were usually earthworks in the form of a ditch and bank surrounding the sit ...

- approximately, a

motte and bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or Bailey (castle), bailey, surrounded by a protective Rampart (fortification ...

without a motte - but may also be a small

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

fort.

Dinas Dinorwig

The hill-for
Dinas Dinorwig
enclosing about a hectare of land, lies 1km south-east of the hamlet centre and 3.5km from the

Menai Strait The Menai Strait ( cy, Afon Menai, the "river Menai") is a narrow stretch of shallow tidal water about long, which separates the island of Anglesey from the mainland of Wales. It varies in width from from Fort Belan to Abermenai Point to from ...

. It has an inner wall, surrounded by two massive ramparts of earth and rubble, surrounded in turn by a ditch some 4 metres wide. It is thought that it was part of the territory of the Ordovices tribe, and the element ''-orwig'', ''-orweg'' has been derived from the tribal name ''Ordovices''; although this idea was rejected by the linguist

Melville Richards Grafton Melville Richards (1910-1973) was a Welsh scholar in the field of Welsh language and literature and Celtic studies. Early life He was born on 29 September 1910 as the third son of William and Elizabeth Richards (his father was a railway for ...

for lack of a sufficiently early record of a form ''*Orddwig.''. In 77 CE, at some unknown location in the territory of the Ordovices, the Roman governor

Agricola Agricola, the Latin word for farmer, may also refer to: People Cognomen or given name :''In chronological order'' * Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40–93), Roman governor of Britannia (AD 77–85) * Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, Roman governor of the mid ...

led his troops up a hill to a decisive victory. ''He collected a force of veterans and a small body of auxiliaries; then as the Ordovices would not venture to descend into the plain, he put himself in front of the ranks to inspire all with the same courage against a common danger, and led his troops up a hill. The tribe was all but exterminated.'' He went on to conquer Anglesey, sending cavalry recruited in other parts of Britain swimming over the Menai Strait before the defenders of Anglesey were ready.

References

Llanddeiniolen Communities in Gwynedd {{Gwynedd-geo-stub

Castell

Dinas Dinorwig

See also

References