Welsh Journals

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Excavation of the Cefn-y-fan site in 1953 confirmed that it was a house of the medieval hall type, but did not prove its destruction by fire. Such surveys as those of Mr. Gresham are an invaluable preliminary and guide to further study, although they are no substitute for excavation. Surface indications can be very misleading, as Mr. W. E. Griffiths found in 1954 when excavation on Mynydd Bodafon in Anglesey proved that a site thought to be that of an early medieval llys was probably of sixteenth- to eighteenth-century date. Again, the very recent excavation of a long hut group near Aber, which the first volume of the Caernarvonshire inventory (no. 39) suggested might be identified with a hafod recorded in the Black Prince's survey of 1352 (Record of Caernarvon, pp. 138-40) produced no evidence of occupation before the eighteenth century. Such experiences sound a note of warning with regard to the suggestion in the present volume that the long huts in Cwm Brwynog (nos. 1143-4) may be the hafodau recorded in the same survey of 1352 (p. 18), or that some of the huts near Cwm (Clynnog) may be associated with the monastic lands belonging to the abbey of Aberconway in that area (nos. 842-9). But no criticism of the Commission is implied; indeed, it is one of the great merits of the two Caernarvonshire volumes published to date that they attempt, wherever possible, to relate the monuments to the available record evidence. The enigma of the huts, round or long, remains to be solved, and the earliest medieval houses listed in this volume are the halls of Ty Mawr (no. 701) and Pennardd (no. 1090), both dated to the fifteenth century. Surviving ecclesiastical architecture represents a longer span of time, with elements dating from the twelfth century. In general, all buildings are recorded up to the early part of the nineteenth century, and twenty Nonconformist chapels find places in the inventory. Of all monuments recorded-and to the types touched upon in this review must be added such categories as bridges and wells, defensive enclosures, and unclassified earthworks-pride of place must go to Caernarvon Castle and the associa- ted town walls. It is described by the Commission as 'the greatest of the castles erected in Wales by Edward 1'. Although Dolbadarn and Criccieth are much smaller in scale, they have their particular interest-the former as a purely Welsh castle of the thirteenth century, and the latter as a Welsh castle modified after the Edwardian conquest. But whatever the monument, the description is invariably thorough and up to date: in many cases the accounts given completely replace all previous descriptions. This is a work which no antiquarian-amateur or professional-can afford to overlook. Bangor. GLYN ROBERTS.