Heritage

The project name Elenydd is based on an old name for the area and dates back to the Mabinogion then later recorded by visitors such as Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) in 1188.

These hill tops are the heights of the old land of Arwystli. There is no defined boundary for Elenydd and it is a wild expanse of moorland, hills and plunging valleys dotted with archaeological relics of mining buildings and abandoned homesteads. Here is the geographical centre – the true heart – of Wales. Numerous barrows and cairns dot the landscape, the remains of burial sites of the Bronze Age from around 2000-600 BC. Not all are for burials as some may have been sites for religious rituals with some of these historic stones plundered by later generations to build shelters or walls for sheep pens. A disc of gold – a Bronze Age sun disc – was found in 2002 during excavations near the old copper mines and was the first of its type to be found in Wales.