Pennal is a village and

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 ...

on the

A493 road The A493 is a road located on the west coast of mid Wales and connects Dolgellau to Machynlleth via the coast, avoiding Corris and Cross Foxes. Route The road passes through Pennal, Aberdyfi, Tywyn, Bryncrug, Llanfendigaid, Rhoslefain, Llan ...

in southern

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, on the north bank of the

Afon 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 ...

River Dovey 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 ...

, near

Machynlleth Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a popul ...

. It lies in the historic county of

Merionethshire , HQ= Dolgellau , Government= Merionethshire County Council (1889-1974) , Origin= , Status= , Start= 1284 , End= , Code= MER , CodeName= ...

/ Sir Feirionnydd and is within 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 ...

Roman fort

It was the site of a small

Roman fort In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, the Latin word ''castrum'', plural ''castra'', was a military-related term. In Latin usage, the singular form ''castrum'' meant 'fort', while the plural form ''castra'' meant 'camp'. The singular and ...

, known as Cefn Caer in

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 ...

, probably guarding a ford or ferry crossing of the Dyfi on the

Sarn Helen Sarn Helen refers to several stretches of Roman road in Wales. The route, which follows a meandering course through central Wales, connects Aberconwy in the north with Carmarthen in the west. Despite its length, academic debate continues as t ...

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

. The remains of the fort lie under the 14th-century house of Cefn Caer, overlooking the village.

Price Family of Esgair Weddan

Just outside Pennal is the farmstead of 'Esgair Weddan' which from the 14th century until the mid 18th was the home of the Price (ap Rhys) family of Esgair Weddan, patrilineal descendants of

Dafydd ap Llywelyn Dafydd ap Llywelyn (''c.'' March 1212 – 25 February 1246) was Prince of Gwynedd from 1240 to 1246. He was the first ruler in Wales to claim the title Prince of Wales. Birth and descent Though birth years of 1208, 1206, and 1215 have ...

, son of

Llywelyn fawr Llywelyn the Great ( cy, Llywelyn Fawr, ; full name Llywelyn mab Iorwerth; c. 117311 April 1240) was a King of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually "List of rulers of Wales, Prince of the Welsh" (in 1228) and "Prince of Wal ...

(the great) Prince of Wales (1240–1246). Their home was called Plas yn y Rofft in Elizabethan times and was located in a field behind the present farmhouse above the village of Cwrt, (originally Pont y Cwrt), meaning "court", near to Mynydd Esgairweddan.

Owain Glyndŵr

Pennal is known for its historical association with

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...

. In Pennal Owain composed the famous

Pennal Letter The Pennal Letter was a historical letter by Owain Glyndŵr to Charles VI, King of France. Owain composed the letter in Latin, in Pennal, in the north of Wales, in 1406, and set out his vision of an independent Wales. The letter is regarded as uniq ...

of 1406, a letter to the King of France setting out his plans for an independent Wales – the only document which stands as a policy document for an independent Wales in the Middle Ages. The letter was briefly returned to Wales from France for an exhibition at the

National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales ( cy, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru), Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million boo ...

in 2000, and a campaign has started for it to be returned permanently to Wales and be put on show at the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

building in

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 ...

Anwyl Family of Llugwy

Just outside Pennal, on the banks of the Dyfi opposite the hamlet of

Morben Morben is a hamlet in northern Powys, Wales. Part of the historic county of Montgomeryshire ( Sir Drefaldwyn) from 1536 to 1974, it lies on the Afon Dyfi and was once the home of a number of riverside quays, including Cei Ward and Y Bwtri. The s ...

, is " Llugwy", the home of the Anwyl family since 1682. This family have

patrilinear descent Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...

from

Rhodri Mawr Rhodri ap Merfyn ( 820 – 873/877/878), popularly known as Rhodri the Great ( cy, Rhodri Mawr), succeeded his father, Merfyn Frych, as King of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd in 844. Rhodri annexed Kingdom of Powys, Powys c. 856 and Seisyllwg c. 8 ...

through Anarawd, his eldest son, and

Owain Gwynedd Owain ap Gruffudd ( 23 or 28 November 1170) was King of Gwynedd, North Wales, from 1137 until his death in 1170, succeeding his father Gruffudd ap Cynan. He was called Owain the Great ( cy, Owain Fawr) and the first to be ...

(king of

c.1137 – 1170) to the present day.

Recent history

In the early 19th century there were quays on the Dyfi where

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

from the quarries around

Corris Corris is a village in the county of Gwynedd, Wales, about north of the town of Machynlleth. The village lies on the west bank of the Afon Dulas (which here forms the boundary with Powys), around that river's confluence with the Afon Deri. Its ...

Aberllefenni Aberllefenni is a village in the south of Gwynedd, Wales. It lies in the historic county of Merionethshire/ Sir Feirionnydd, in the valley of the Afon Dulas, and in the Community of Corris. Government The village has a community council. The ...

and

Abergynolwyn Abergynolwyn ( en, Mouth of the River with a Whirlpool) is a village in southern Gwynedd, Wales, located at the confluence of the Nant Gwernol and the Afon Dysynni. The population of the community which is named after the village of Llanfiha ...

was brought by packhorse for loading onto seagoing vessels. This trade died out when the

Corris Railway The Corris Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Corris) is a narrow gauge preserved railway based in Corris on the border between Merionethshire (now Gwynedd) and Montgomeryshire (now Powys) in Mid-Wales. The line opened in 1859 as a horse tramway, runni ...

to Machynlleth and the

Talyllyn Railway The Talyllyn Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Talyllyn) is a narrow gauge preserved railway in Wales running for from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1865Drummond 2015, page 17 ...

Tywyn Tywyn (Welsh: ; in English often ), formerly spelled Towyn, is a town, community, and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd, Wales. It was previously in the historic county of Merionethshire. It is famous as the loc ...

were built. The

Cwm Ebol quarry The Cwm Ebol quarry (also known as Cwmebol quarry) was a slate industry, slate quarry about north west of the village of Pennal in Mid Wales. It operated from about 1860 to about 1906. It was the last Welsh slate quarry connected only to a tran ...

operated a mile north west of the village between 1868 and around 1906. A gauge tramway (later converted to gauge) operated between the quarry and the village. Between 1918 and 1920 part of the tramway was reused in another gauge railway, serving timber felling operations at Cwm Dwr, two miles north of the village. The early internal combustion locomotive Baguley 774 was used on the line. The village also has a place in music history, as it was at nearby

Bron-Yr-Aur Bron-Yr-Aur (Welsh for "breast of the gold", or by extension, "hill of the gold" or "golden hill"; ) is a privately owned 18th-century cottage, on the outskirts of Machynlleth, in Montgomeryshire, mid-Wales, best known for its association with ...

cottage that

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...

was living when he wrote the

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

classic, "

Stairway to Heaven "Stairway to Heaven" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in late 1971. It was composed by the band's guitarist Jimmy Page and lead singer Robert Plant for their untitled fourth studio album (often titled ''Led Zeppelin IV'') ...

References

External links

Description and photos of the ChurchCefn Caer website – occasional residence of Owain Glyndŵrwww.geograph.co.uk : photos of Pennal and surrounding area
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