CHAPTER III 



Llanuwchllyn Bala Lake Cymmer Abbey "Bala has gone and will go 

 again" Fair Vale of Edeirnion and legend of The Dee Grayling 

 Salmon Trout Angling season Size of trout Pike MillerVthumb 

 Pike fishing Perch Gudgeon Minnows. 



LLANUWCHLLYN, or, to write the name in full, 1 Llan-uwch-y- 

 llyn, signifies " The church above the lake," and the village 

 stands not so many feet above the present level of the 

 lake, though now nearly a mile from it on one of several 

 terraces left by the receding water, and formed by the 

 deltas of the streams that here converge upon it from the 

 mountains on either hand. Bala Lake (formerly known as 

 Llyn Tegid, after an ancient Welsh chieftain, or Pemble- 

 mere, " the lake of the five parishes ") is the largest sheet of 

 water in Wales, and is, according to the Ordnance Survey, 

 1352 acres 2 roods in extent. Its greatest length is 6566 

 yards, and width 1276 yards : its greatest depth, nearly 

 opposite to Llangowr, is 132 feet, but it is rapidly silting 

 up. Its shores are shelving and shallow, and the debris 

 brought down by each tributary stream has made large 

 inroads upon its pristine area. At the upper end there is a 

 considerable extent of marshy ground, the haunt of ducks, 

 coots, and snipe, at certain seasons, and the presence of 



1 An older spelling of the name appears to have been Llanywllyn, as seen 

 upon one of the communion cups in the church, said to be of early 

 seventeenth-century manufacture, and which bears the inscription " The Cup 

 of Llanywllyn." The old church was replaced by the present one in 1872. 

 An ancient brass alms-dish, presented by John Williams in 1868, has a 

 representation of the Fall upon it, and is believed to have come from Cymmer 

 Abbey, near Dolgelly. The Abbey was founded about 1198 A.D. by 

 Cistercian monks from Cwm Hir ("the Long valley") in Radnorshire, under 

 the protection of Meredyth and Gruffydd, sons of Cynan ap Gwain Gruffydd, 

 Prince of North Wales. Cymmer signifies "The meeting of the waters." 

 The Litany dish was made from a fallen branch of the old yew which still 

 flourishes in the churchyard. (See Mr Hughes' Short History of the Parish, 

 referred to in note to page 98.) 



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