The selection of places in Pentir brings together Roman transport and ecclesiastical history with parkland, gardening and historic buildings. These places span different scales: from a route through a parish to a walled garden and a single mausoleum.

Roman Route and St Cedol

The Roman road known as Iter XI ran through the parish of Pentir. At St Cedol, a distinctive dedication is linked with the history of an older church: St Cedol is the only church in Wales dedicated to this saint. In the churchyard, a low wall marks the remains of the original church. It was damaged during the wars under Edward I from 1282 to 1283. The dedication and the wall offer different historical points of focus: the church’s association with St Cedol and the damage to its original predecessor.

Faenol: Mausoleum and Landscape

The Faenol Mausoleum is on the Coastal Path in Faenol Woods. Henry Kennedy designed and built it in 1855 in the French Gothic style. The mausoleum brings a 19th-century architectural form into the range of themes. Glan Faenol, with its many paths through different woodland areas and parkland reaching close to the Menai Strait, offers a contrast. There is also a bird hide from which birds in the waterside and woodland areas can be observed. A single building and the different landscape settings thus stand alongside one another as distinct focal points.

Park, Garden and Architectural History in Vaynol

Vaynol Park is a walled coastal landscape park on the Menai Straits. At its centre is the Old Hall garden: a well-preserved Elizabethan garden area, enclosed by walls and laid out in terraces. The park and garden represent different scales; the garden is set within the landscape park as an enclosed, terraced space.

Vaynol Old Hall adds the development of a building to this garden history. It appears to have been built in the early to mid-16th century as a two-roomed house with a lateral chimney. It acquired its present E-shaped plan in the early to mid-17th century. The early room layout and the later E-shape thus represent two distinct aspects of its architectural history. The mausoleum’s style is specified, while the Old Hall’s development is described through its floor plan. Vaynol Chapel also contains a small family vault.

A Different Historic Form at Ty'n-Llwyn

Ty'n-Llwyn farm is surrounded by a roughly circular or oval arrangement of six standing stones and two mounds. Unlike the houses at Vaynol, the focus here is not on a floor plan or room layout, but on the arrangement of stones and mounds. This adds another form to the range of historical themes: alongside churches, houses and gardens stands a striking stone arrangement.

The sites also span a broad period: from the Roman route and the damage to the original church in 1282–1283, through the architectural history of the 16th and 17th centuries, to the mausoleum of 1855. This chronology helps distinguish the very different sites and architectural forms from one another.

Discover more destinations: Llwyngwril, Penmorfa, Llanrug, Harlech, Aberangell, Ffestiniog, Porthmadog, Arthog

For the wider travel overview: Gwynedd.