Place:Nantlle Valley, Caernarvonshire, Wales

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

The Nantlle Valley (Welsh: Dyffryn Nantlle) is an area on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd (before 1974, Caernarvonshire), north Wales, characterised by its large number of small settlements.

The area is also historically important geologically, and owes this importance to the quarrying of slate which commenced in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries.

Between 85-90% of the population of the Nantlle Valley speak Welsh as their first language. Some of the communities (or parishes) came into being as a result of slate quarrying and some have a history stretching back to antiquity. There are Iron Age forts at Caer Engan in Pen-y-Groes and on the coast at Dinas Dinlle and evidence of Bronze Age settlement on the higher ground. The valley was important during the Middle Ages - with an ecclesiastical college developed at Clynnog Fawr. The Glynllifon estate can trace its foundation historically to the 8th century and there is evidence of occupation on the site going back to the Iron Age.

There were a number of quarries in the valley, the largest being the Dorothea and Pen yr Orsedd quarries. Although the major quarries are worked out, there remains demand for slate waste for garden decoration.

Slate tiles (shaped from the natural material) were a very popular roofing material for housing up until 1950. For the most part, they have been replaced by clay tiles or concrete tiles, but slate is still used.

Research Tips

• A 1900 Ordnance Survey map of the historic county of Caernarvonshire is available on the A Vision of Britain through Time website. This shows all the old parishes of the Llyn Peninsula.