Folklore & legend

The Fairies of Gwastad Meirionydd

Also known as: Plain of Merioneth

Gwastad Meirionydd, between Llwyngwryl and Llanegryn

Early 19th century, collected late 1890s

William Pritchard of Pentre Bach and Rhys Williams, the parish clerk of Llangelynin, were going home late one night from a cock-fight at Llanegryn. On the way from Llanegryn towards Llwyngwryl the road passes a small patch of ground called Gwastad Meirionydd, the Plain of Merioneth. It is only about twenty square yards. Step outside it and you have a wide view of Cardigan Bay and the mountains of Merioneth and Caernarfonshire, but from inside it neither sea nor mountain can be seen.

That night the fairies were singing and dancing there, and the two cockfighters found themselves surrounded. They swore at the fairies and ran for it, and the fairies came after them as far as Clawdd Du.

Another Llanegryn story told to Rhys concerned Elen Egryn, who wrote the poems of Telyn Egryn. As a girl, looking after her father's sheep on the side of Rhiwfelen, she would see the fairies come out at sunset near a little brook, dancing and singing and crossing back and forth over the water. She was scolded for talking about them, but held to it until she died.

The old road between Llanegryn and Llwyngwryl runs over open hill country; the exact patch of ground is not marked.
Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
Open ground
Location
52.628, -4.069 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)

Sources: John Rhys, "Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx", vol. 1 (1901), Project Gutenberg [public-domain]

View on the map →

Comments

Loading…