Afon Cych (standard Welsh orthography: Afon Cuch) is a tributary of the

River Teifi , name_etymology = , image = File:Llyn Teifi - geograph.org.uk - 41773.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = Llyn Teifi, the source of the Teifi , map = , map_size = , map_caption ...

in south-west

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. It is 13 km long, passes through a number of small settlements on the border between Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, and is significant in Welsh legend.

Sources

Its "official" source (although not its highest headwater) is at Blaencych .

Course

The river flows north-westwards through a deep, wooded, secluded valley, and joins the River Teifi at

Abercych Abercych (or Abercuch, ) is a small village in the community of Manordeifi, northeast Pembrokeshire in South West Wales, located approximately from the tripoint of the counties of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. The village devel ...

. Its total length is . It receives numerous small tributaries: the Sylgen, Barddi, Mamog, Dwrog and Lŵyd on the east side, and the Pedran, Cneifa and Dulas on the west side. It formed the ancient boundary between the

commotes A commote ( Welsh ''cwmwd'', sometimes spelt in older documents as ''cymwd'', plural ''cymydau'', less frequently ''cymydoedd'')'' Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru'' (University of Wales Dictionary), p. 643 was a secular division of land in Medieval Wal ...

of Emlyn Is Cuch and

Emlyn Uwch Cuch Emlyn was one of the seven cantrefi of Dyfed, an ancient district of Wales, which became part of Deheubarth in around 950. It consisted of the northern part of Dyfed bordering on the River Teifi. Its southern boundary followed the ridge of the ...

, and it today forms part of the boundary between Pembrokeshire and

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

. The river runs through the small settlements of Cwmorgan and

Cwmcych Cwmcych, Cwm Cych or Glyn Cuch (English: Valley of the river Cych) is a small village in the upper Cych valley straddling the border between Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, Wales, in the community A community is a social unit (a group ...

, and the village of Abercych.

Bridges

The Cych is crossed by a number of bridges including (from upstream) Pont Cwmorgan, Pont Wedwst, Pont Newydd,

Pont Cych Pont Cych is a single-arch, Grade II-listed bridge over Afon Cych at Cwmcych in the Cych Valley, bordering Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, Wales. History The bridge was rebuilt in 1737 (indicating an earlier bridge existed) and probably reb ...

(built in 1737 and Grade II listed), an unnamed bridge by Bridgend, Pont Glancych and Grade II listed Pont Treseli which carries the B4332 road at Abercych and has perforated

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

s similar to

Cenarth Bridge Cenarth Bridge ( cy, Pont Cenarth), also spelt Kenarth Bridge, is a three arch bridge which spans the River Teifi at Cenarth, Carmarthenshire in Wales. The bridge was built between 1785 and 1787 and designed by David Edwards, the son of Willia ...

History and legend

The river's name is marked (in Latin, as ''Keach flu.'') on a 1583 map of Pembrokeshire. The valley (Glyn Cuch) is well known in

Literature of Wales (Welsh language) Welsh-language literature ( cy, Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg) has been produced continuously since the emergence of Welsh from Brythonic as a distinct language in around the 5th century AD. Huws Daniel National Library of Wales and Centre for Advanced W ...

as the place where, in the

Mabinogi The ''Mabinogion'' () are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, create ...

Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed , "Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed," is a legendary tale from medieval Welsh literature and the first of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. It tells of the friendship between Pwyll, prince of Dyfed, and Arawn, lord of Annwn (the Otherworld), of the court ...

has his fateful meeting with

Arawn In Welsh mythology, Arawn (; ) was the king of the otherworld realm of Annwn who appears prominently in the first branch of the Mabinogi, and alluded to in the fourth. In later tradition, the role of the king of Annwn was largely attributed to ...

, Lord of the Underworld. Boundary streams were often thought of as portals to the underworld.

References

External links

{{Authority control Rivers of Carmarthenshire Rivers of Pembrokeshire