Dolmelynllyn Estate is an area of farmland, woodland and parkland near the village of

Ganllwyd Ganllwyd is a small village and Community (Wales), community in southern Gwynedd, Wales. It lies in the Snowdonia National Park to the north of Dolgellau. A470 road, A470 passes through it. The Community population taken at the United Kingdom ...

in southern

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

, Wales. It is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

. The estate was formerly owned by William Madocks, the architect of

Porthmadog Porthmadog (), originally Portmadoc until 1972 and known locally as "Port", is a coastal town and community (Wales), community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd, Wales, and the historic counties of Wales, historic county of Caernarfonshire. It li ...

. Features of the estate include ancient woodland, temperate rainforest, rare lichens and mosses, as well as archaeological features from prehistoric

cist In archeology, a cist (; also kist ; ultimately from ; cognate to ) or cist grave is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. In some ways, it is similar to the deeper shaft tomb. Examples occur ac ...

s to nineteenth-century gold mines. The estate also has 46 bee boles on it, which is the highest concentration in the United Kingdom.

Location

The Dolmelynllyn Estate is approximately north of Dolgellau, Gwynedd, in the southern area of the

Snowdonia National Park Snowdonia, or Eryri (), is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in North Wales. It contains all 15 mountains in Wales Welsh 3000s, over 3000 feet high, including the country's highest, Snowdon (), which i ...

. It is over in extent and includes landscapes that vary from river terraces to high moorland, as well as boulder-strewn woodland. The highest point on the estate is at , just above Bryn Bedwog.Latham, J. "An Archaeological Field Survey of the Dolmelynllyn Estate." 1983. National Trust. The estate sits within and alongside the village of

. Its geology is predominately Middle-Upper Cambrian strata, but also includes Barmouth grit and Gamlan flags, as well as Cefn Coch grit.Hughes, W. R., A. M. R. Murphy, and A. C. Roberts. "A survey of buildings on the Dolmelynllyn Estate." ''Journal of the Merioneth Historical and Record Society= Cylchgrawn Cymbeithas Hanes a Chofnodion sir Feirionydd'' 10: 38-47.

History

Griffith Vaughan (died ), the fourth son of the antiquary Robert Vaughan, settled at the estate in the late seventeenth century. His great-grandson, also Robert Vaughan, sold it approximately a century later. In 1796 William Alexander Madocks purchased the estate, using inheritance from the death of his father. He paid £1550 for the farm and £950 for the timber and underwood. He created a '' ferme ornée'' (ornamental farm) there, where he entertained friends such as

Thomas Love Peacock Thomas Love Peacock (18 October 1785 – 23 January 1866) was an English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company. He was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and they influenced each other's work. Peacock wrote satirical novels ...

. He was attracted to the location due to its proximity to the waterfalls of Rhaeadr Ddu, Pistyll Cain and Rhaeadr Mawddach. One of Madocks's building schemes included building paths to enable improved access to Rhaeadr Ddu. He also built a privy in the shape of "an old broken tower". However, despite making many changes, Madocks only lived there intermittently, for perhaps four years. By c.1810 he had mortgaged the estate to a group of investors. Despite his entrepreneurial schemes, Madocks died in 1828 owing money to a wide variety of creditors. The estate appears to have been part of a complex set of financial arrangements in the intervening decades after Madocks's death, with a timber merchant called Robert Roberts holding the tenancy for some, if not all of the period. In 1850 the estate was purchased by Charles Reynolds Williams, who made extensive alterations to the landscape that are still present, including the addition of a formal lake, new driveways, formal gardens and a kitchen garden. He passed the estate on to his son, Romer Williams, in 1892. In 1903, Romer Williams sold the estate, moving to Newnham Hall in Northamptonshire. The purchaser was Alexander Campbell Blair of Bronmeillion in

Llandudno Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community (Wales), community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 UK census, the community � ...

, who bought it for £11,850. Campbell Blair left the estate to the National Trust as a legacy in his will when he died in 1936. As of 1992, the Trust had purchased two further parcels of land to add to the estate: the upland fringe of Maes Mawr, which had previously belonged to the Vaughans and another more northerly piece of land.

Conservation

Dolmelynllyn Estate's woodlands include rare

temperate rainforest Temperate rainforests are rainforests with coniferous or Broad-leaved tree, broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rainforests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate ...

and

ancient woodland In the United Kingdom, ancient woodland is that which has existed continuously since 1600 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). The practice of planting woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 1600 i ...

. The Coed Ganllwyd National Nature Reserve (NNR) lies within the estate and covers 183.77 hectares. Within, and also extending beyond the boundaries of the estate, are several significant areas, including: the

Meirionnydd is a coastal and mountainous region of Wales. It has been a kingdom, a , a district and, as Merionethshire, a county. It is currently a committee area within the county Gwynedd. Kingdom (Meirion, with as a Welsh suffix of land, literally 'La ...

Oakwoods and Bat Sites are Important Plant Areas and

Special Areas of Conservation A special area of conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

; the Ganllwyd Sites of Special Scientific Interest. The woodlands are notable for their wide variety of rare bryophytes and lichens, including the genus '' Lobaria,'' in particular '' Lobaria pulmonaria.''K. N. A. ALEXANDER, Historic parks and pasture-woodlands: The National Trust resource and its conservation, ''Biological Journal of the Linnean Society'', Volume 56, Issue suppl_1, December 1995, Pages 155–175. The estate also has a population of the epiphytic lichen, '' Agonimia octospora,'' which rarely occurs outside the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

. The estate has successfully used

conservation grazing Conservation grazing or targeted grazing is the use of semi- feral or domesticated grazing livestock to maintain and increase the biodiversity of natural or semi-natural grasslands, heathlands, wood pasture, wetlands and many other habitats.

by Highland cattle to restore and manage the woodland. Its woods supplied green oak to support the conservation of Egryn, a medieval farmhouse also owned by the Trust. The Welsh National Sheepdog Trials took place on the estate in 2018. In 2019 pine martens were recorded on the estate for the first time; they were lured there from territories nearby with jam and eggs. In 2021 ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' named the estate as one of the United Kingdom's top ten places for a spring walk.

Buildings and structures

Dolmelynllyn Hall is the former centre of the estate and was run as a hotel, until it closed for refurbishments. It is a Grade II listed building, that was expanded by Charles Williams during the nineteenth century, around an earlier core, probably designed by his brother, George Williams of Liverpool. The earliest part of the building dates to the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. Its Tudor-effect half-timbering was added after 1890. One former name is the Oakley Arms. North Lodge stands at the driveway to the hall; it is now a farmhouse. The estate is home to the highest concentration of bee boles in Wales. A bee bole is a cavity in a wall, built to hold a

skep A beehive is an enclosed structure which houses honey bees, subgenus ''Honey bee, Apis.'' Honey bees live in the beehive, raising their young and producing honey as part of their seasonal cycle. Though the word ''beehive'' is used to describe th ...

. There are 46 boles, built in the nineteenth century, likely by the owner of the estate Charles Williams. The estate also includes Nant Lasa nineteenth-century

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

rented out by the National Trust as a holiday cottage. The estate also included a water-powered

corn mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

, potentially built by the Vaughan family, which was later converted to a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

and turning-mill. As a turning-mill it mainly produced

broom A broom (also known as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool, consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. It is thus a ...

handles. There are several ruined farms across the estate, the oldest of which is likely to be Berth-Lwyd. The gardens and park are designated Grade II on the

Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales The Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales is a heritage register of significant historic parks and gardens in Wales. It is maintained by Cadw, the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and ...

Archaeology

Eighteen sites of potential prehistoric date occur at scattered locations across the estate. They include a wide range of monument types: hut circles, cairns, cists, enclosures, platforms and a possible chambered tomb are all represented. There are two cairnfields on the estate: one near Berth-Lwyd, which also includes an enclosure; the other near Hafod y Fedw, a former farm. The

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

cairn and cist at Cefn Coch are a scheduled monument. Medieval and post-medieval landscapes are represented by an estate-wide mosaic of remains which are associated with the past agricultural landscape. Monuments include walls, sheepfolds, enclosures, platforms and the remains of buildings.

Gold mining

The estate includes the remains of the gold-mining industry. The first mine to open was at Berth-Lwyd in 1860. Joseph Mosheimer, an American prospector who had worked in the Californian gold fields, was commissioned by the Welsh Gold Mining Company to establish the mill and mines there. A tramway to the workings was established in 1864. It had ceased production by 1866, having processed 648 troy ounces of gold. A mine was then reopened further up the hillside at Cefn Coch, following the same

lode In geology, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fracture (or crack) in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock. The current meaning (ore vein) dates from th ...

. The remains of the mill are ruins, but visitors to the estate are able to reach them; they include two water-wheel pits. At the edge of one of the pits is a grinding device, unique to Welsh gold-mining, known as an "edge-runner". A reservoir was built at the site. In addition to these sites, there are also other traces of trial adits across the estate.

Copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

was also mined on the estate from 1861 to 1865 and again from 1891 to 1895. File:Approaching the Cefn Coch Mine Mills - geograph.org.uk - 538743.jpg, alt=, Approaching Cefn Coch ruins File:Inside Cefn Coch Gold Mine - geograph.org.uk - 539166.jpg, alt=, Closed-off mineshaft at Cefn Coch File:Adit and rise in the upper section of the Cefn Coch Gold Mine - geograph.org.uk - 742008.jpg, alt=, Adit and rise in the upper section of Cefn Coch mine File:Ruined buildings at Cefn Coch Mine - geograph.org.uk - 2105597.jpg, alt=, Ruined buildings at Cefn Coch File:Ruined building of Cefn Coch Mine - geograph.org.uk - 2105670.jpg, alt=, Ruined building at Cefn Coch

Notes

References

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