•  Nant Gwynant, Caernarvonshire

          Click on the map for other historical maps of this place

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Nant Gwynant like this:

NANTHNYNANT, or Nant-Gwynant, a lordship in Beddgelert parish, Carnarvon; containing part of Bedd-gelert village. Real property, £1, 609. Pop., 599. Aromantic glen here ascends north-north-westward, past Dinas-Emrys, under the S W side of Snowdon; and issaid to have been the retreat of Vortigern and the magician Merlin, after Vortigern fled before the Saxon Hengist, and prior to his taking final refuge at Nant-Gwrtheyrn. ...

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Drayton's Polyolbion says,

Thon heardst wise Merlin first relate
The destinies' decree of Britain's future fate,
Which truly he foretolde proud Vortiger should lose,
As when him from his seat the Saxons should depose;
and to that, mightie king which rashly undertooke
A strong-wall'd tower to reare, those earthly spirits that
shooke
The great foundation still, in Dragon's horrid shape,
That dreaming wizard told; making the mountaine gape
With his most powerfull charms, to view those caverns
deepe;
and from the top of Britt, so high and wondrous steepe,
Where-Dinas Emris stood, shew d where the serpents
foughte,
The white that tore the red; from whence the Prophet
wroughte
The Britain's sad decay then shortly to ensue."

Nant Gwynant through time

Nant Gwynant is now part of Gwynedd district. Click here for graphs and data of how Gwynedd has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Nant Gwynant itself, go to Units and Statistics.

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