Mynydd Isa (; cy, Mynyddisa) is a village in

Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...

, in north-east

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 ...

. It lies between the county town of

Mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal seco ...

, and

Buckley Buckley may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Buckley's, a Canadian pharmaceutical corporation * Buckley Aircraft, an American aircraft manufacturer * Buckley Broadcasting, an American broadcasting company * Buckley School (California), ...

(which it is contiguous with) in the community of Argoed which had a population of 5837 according to the 2011 census. Mynydd Isa was originally a small

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

on the north side of the Mold to Buckley road (now the

A549 road List of A roads in zone 5 in Great Britain starting north/east of the A5, west of the A6, south of the Solway Firth/Eden Estuary The River Eden is a river in Fife in Scotland, and is one of Fife's two principal rivers, along with the Leve ...

) just downhill from the now demolished

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

chapel. It did not appear on

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

maps until 1912. Its placename is

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

for "lowest mountain". Another old hamlet nearby was Pant-y-Fownog, on the same road nearer Buckley (centred on the Griffin Inn); although the name was used well into the 1900s on picture postcards of the area and by the local

Co-Op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

shop next to the Inn. The name has long since become disused (except for lending its name to a road in nearby Buckley). Bryn-y-Baal is an old hamlet much enlarged since the 1970s and now contiguous with but not part of Mynydd Isa. Bryn-y-Baal takes its name from a

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

word ''"bale"'' (rhymes with "Carl" in

arhotic Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...

British English) meaning small hill and Bryn (Welsh for hill), i.e. hill hill. It was later written in a

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...

form as 'bâl' with a

circumflex The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around"a ...

over the "â". In Welsh this is pronounced as a long A. This form appears on early Ordnance Survey maps. Eventually it was written in the

Anglicised Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

form 'Baal' - still correctly pronounced to rhyme with "Carl".''Flintshire Place Names'' by Hwyl Wyn Owen (1995) In the area there is a secondary school known as

Argoed High School Argoed High School is a secondary school in Flintshire, Wales. In January 2022, a proposal for a new superschool was accepted, incorporating nearby Ysgol Mynydd Isa. History It was built in Bryn-y-baal in 1978 as the then Clwyd County's first ...

in Bryn-y-Baal and a primary school Ysgol Mynydd Isa - the Junior department being in Bryn-y-Baal (formerly Ysgol y Bryn and before that Mynydd Isa Junior School), and the Infants department (formerly known as Wat's Dyke Infant School) on a separate site in Mynydd Isa. The local community council is Argoed Community Council (Cyngor Cymunedol Argoed) - Argoed being the name of the ancient township which had covered the area since the Middle Ages, which also gives its name to the local secondary school. Amenities include a pub, ''The Griffin'' on Mold Road. (''The Mercia'' on Mercia Drive closed in 2010, and is now a supermarket), various shops and the village centre which houses a cafe 'Caffi Isa', a community interest group located in the old library and other clubs and associations. It is also home to the recently awarded Best Kebab in Wales The village has a large youth organisation (established in 1984) with football teams representing the village in the county league from 7 to 16 years old and adult football dating back to the 1930s; however the adult team disbanded in 2009.

References

External links

Photos of Mynydd Isa and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk
Villages in Flintshire {{Flintshire-geo-stub