page_title: Pen y Bryn
section_title: Garth Celyn
hierarchical_section_title: Pen y Bryn / Garth Celyn
caption_attribution_description: English: Sir Richard Colt-Hoare, 1811, hand-drawn Sepia, copyright expired. Currently posted to, noting copyright status http://www.llanfairfechan.org.uk/llantaa/e107_images/site_images/Pen-y-Bryn2.jpg
context_page_description: Pen y Bryn is a two-storey manor house, in Abergwyngregyn, Gwynedd, in north-west Wales, adjacent to the A55, five miles east of Bangor and eight miles west of Conwy. It is constructed mainly of broken stone, with roughly dressed quoins and a slate roof. The house is situated within Garth Celyn, a double bank and ditch, overlooking the Menai Strait to Anglesey. A smaller house was immediately adjacent in 1811 when Sir Richard Colt-Hoare recorded it; this was demolished by 1815. The present structure incorporates a four-storey stone tower. The present roof timbers were dated by dendrochronology to 1624, when the house was refurbished. There is evidence of long use with multiple rebuildings before 1624, but there is disagreement on the duration and nature of its mediaeval use.
context_section_description: The modern Garth Celyn is defined by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) as a series of features, including the house Pen y Bryn itself, a large 'barn', and earthen terraces and scarps, collectively interpreted as an enclosure 90–100 metres across. The name "Garth Celyn" may be translated as "Holly Enclosure" or "Holly Hill" in Welsh. "Celyn" is also an element of local field names and of Hafod Celyn up the valley. The use of the term "Aber Garthcelyn" has changed through time; as late as 1725, it could refer to the entire parish.
  Modern Garth Celyn has been scheduled by the Ancient Monuments Board as 'a site of National Importance'. An excavation was undertaken in 1993 by the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust. The complex included other structures, including a barn or gatehouse (possibly rebuilt about 1700 on earlier stonework) and the present tower.
caption: Pen y Bryn in 1811, sepia drawing by Sir Richard Colt-Hoare
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