The Nantlle Valley (, ) is an area in Gwynedd, North Wales, characterised by its numerous small settlements.
The area is also historically important geologically, and featured in one of the most contentious disputes of the 19th century, between the 'Diluvialists' who believed in the Biblical flood, and the ‘Glacialists’, who supported the Glacial Theory, which was substantially established by studies of the drift sediments on Moel Tryfan.
Between 85 and 90% of the population of the Nantlle Valley speak Welsh as their first language.
Some of the communities came into being as a result of slate quarrying in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries, 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 a clas or 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.
In 1991, Antur Nantlle Cyf was established as a community enterprise to work for the benefit of the Nantlle Valley and its surrounding area.
Slate quarrying
The Nantlle Railway
The horse-drawn gauge Nantlle Railway served the quarries from 1828 to 1963, although from 1865 the line was cut back to Tyddyn Bengam, and in 1871 only the portion from the standard gauge railhead at Nantlle railway station in Talysarn was in use. The Nantlle Railway has a long history as an industrial and passenger line.
The line received its Act of Parliament in 1825 and was constructed under the supervision of Robert Stephenson, brother of George Stephenson. It opened in 1828 and was operated using horse power. Although built mainly for the transport of slate, the line is known to have carried passengers at various times between Caernarfon and Pen-y-groes.
It is the last recorded use of horses by British Railways, and closed only with the closure of the branch line to which it connected after the Beeching Review in 1963.<ref>G.H. Williams, Swn y trên sy'n taranu, (Caernarfon, 2018), passim.</ref>
Culture
The Nantlle Valley is famous within Wales for being the main setting of the Fourth branch of the Mabinogi, Math fab Manawydan, the story of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, Blodeuwedd and Gwydion. The story is set mainly in the area with Gwydion finding Lleu transfigured into an eagle in an oak tree at Baladeulyn (the ground that used to exist between the two lakes before industrialisation). There are numerous references to the valley in the Welsh Triads (Trioedd Ynys Prydain) as well.
The valley was noted for its woodlands and was an important area in the Middle Ages, being used as a hunting park for the royal family of Gwynedd. After the Edwardian conquest in 1282, one of the first recorded jousts in Britain was held on the fields of Baladeulyn near the village of Nantlle as the royal entourage made its way from Nefyn after the war. Rules were apparently drawn up here which later were the basis of the 1292 Statute of Arms issued by Edward I to regulate jousting.
The area is also famous for the variety, breadth and amount of folk-lore associated with fairies, right up until the present times. This lore was recorded extensively by John Owen Huws in the 1970s and 1980s and published in his landmark three-volume work Straeon Gwerin Ardal Eryri (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2008).
The Nantlle Valley also became one of the power-houses of Welsh literature during the 20th century. Notable examples include the poetsT.H. Parry-Williams from Rhyd Ddu and R. Williams Parry from Talysarn. Mathonwy Hughes, from Mynydd Cymffyrch, and Gwilym R. Jones, from Talysarn, grew up in the valley, as did the modern dramatist John Gwilym Jones (of Y Groeslon) and the novelist Kate Roberts (Rhosgadfan) also grew up there. Prolific author of children's and young adult novels J. Selwyn Lloyd was born near Talysarn. Angharad Tomos, author and children's author from Llanwnda, also attended the local secondary school and now lives in Pen-y-groes, as does the American-born Welsh-speaking author Professor Jerry Hunter.