Llidiart y Barwn (Baron's Gate) - unconfirmed marker
Not confirmed - no source checked here describes an actual inscribed stone or plaque at the site; 'Llidiart y Barwn' is a place name (a field gate) that has persisted in local and antiquarian usage since at least the 19th century, not a confirmed physical monument.Context & sources
UNCONFIRMED PHYSICAL FORM - approximate coordinates only (exact grid reference not confirmed here); worth someone visiting Cwm Dugoed, in the hills east of Dinas Mawddwy/Mallwyd, Gwynedd, to establish whether any marker exists at the gate itself. Found while searching Cadw/Coflein/Archwilio for Welsh 'murder stone' candidates - none of those three databases surfaced it (Cadw's own site has no full-text search of listing descriptions; Coflein and Archwilio returned nothing relevant for this site specifically). The underlying story is one of the best-known murder legends in Wales: in 1535, as sheriff of the newly united Merionethshire, Baron Lewis Owen of Dolgellau set out to suppress the Gwylliaid Cochion ('Red Bandits') of Mawddwy, reportedly trying and hanging some 80 of them at Collfryn. On 12 October 1555, returning from the Montgomeryshire assizes at Welshpool, he was ambushed and killed in revenge at a field gate in Cwm Dugoed - between Ty Coch farmhouse and Nant yr Ehedydd - ever since known as Llidiart y Barwn, the Baron's Gate. One account says his body had up to 30 arrows in it. The named attackers - minor local gentry rather than outlaws in the usual sense - included John Goch ap Gruffudd ap Huw, Robert ap Rhys ap Hywel, Siencyn ab Einion and Dafydd Gwyn ap Gruffudd ap Huw; they and those who sheltered them, including a pregnant woman, were eventually caught and hanged. A hillside opposite, Ffridd y Groes ('field of the cross'), is said to be named to commemorate the murder. A separate, apparently unrelated local tradition holds that a maid named Ann was killed nearby with a bow and arrow, in a field still called Cae Ann. Note: an Archwilio record for a 'Llidiart y Barwn Hoard' (CPAT1201) at a similar grid reference is an unrelated Bronze Age axe hoard found near the same landmark in 1902/1929, not evidence of any monument.
- Dinas Mawddwy walking-trail site, 'Cwm Dugoed a Clywedog Path', point 7 (fullest single account found, incl. named attackers and the Cae Ann tradition)
- Dictionary of Welsh Biography, 'OWEN, LEWIS ("Baron Owen"; died 1555), judge'
- Wikipedia, 'Lewis ab Owen'
- GENUKI, 'Mallwyd - Gazetteers, Merionethshire' (1868 gazetteer text)
Needs an in-person visit
- Cwm Dugoed, between Ty Coch farmhouse and Nant yr Ehedydd, east of Mallwyd/Dinas Mawddwy - to establish whether any inscribed stone, plaque or waymarker actually exists at Llidiart y Barwn today, as opposed to it being a persisting place name only; coordinates given here are approximate, taken from a walking route description rather than a grid reference.
- Town
- Dinas Mawddwy
- County
- Gwynedd
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates
- 52.68, -3.63
- Year
- 1555
- Condition
- Unknown
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