Many years ago, before people started to write history, there was a wonderful rich land in North Wales. This land was called Cantre' Gwaelod and today you can just see where it once was in Cardigan Bay where the waves break far out to sea.
This magical land that was once the richest part of Wales is now deep under the sea because of one manŐs folly. The land of Cantre' Gwaelod was actually below the level of the sea all those years ago but the clever people of the land kept the sea at bay by building a huge wall to protect their land from the sea. Rather like the people of Holland do today with their system of dykes. The King of Gwaelod appointed two princes to ensure the wall was kept in good repair so that the seas would never endanger the rich and happy life of Gwaelod.
Prince Seithenin was in charge of the south half of the wall but he did not take his duties seriously. He enjoyed having parties and spent all his time with his friends playing games and jousting. Seithenin often boasted that his enemy was the sea and he could defeat it with one swipe of his massive sword. His workers followed his example and thus the wall was left to fall into disrepair. Prince Teithrin was a hard working prince who was in charge of the northern part of the wall. He worried about Seithenin's section but did not want to say anything because he wished to marry SeitheninŐs daughter Rhonwen.
One night in spring a huge dark storm came hurtling across the Irish Sea and hit Cantre' Gwaelod. At once Teithrin became worried about the southern section of wall and hurried to see the effect of the storm. His worries were justified as he saw cracks starting to appear in the wall. Teithrin rushed to SeitheninŐs castle where he found the prince drunk. When Teithrin could not persuade the workers to start mending the wall he shouted to Seithenin that his enemy was upon him. With this Seithenin grabbed his sword and ran onto the wall where he started brandishing his sword at the storm. In his drunken state he then hurled himself into the sea with a scream, never to be seen again.
Teithrin realising that all was lost found Rhonwen and ran to safety along the wall to where it joined the land. Exhausted they slept in the shelter of a sheepfold until they were woken by bird song and sunshine the following morning. They looked to where Cantre' Gwaelod should have been only to see waves breaking far out to sea where the wall once was.
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Still
visible at low tide this ancient forest lies to the North of Borth beach immediately behind the Victoria Inn..
Among the medieval peat diggings are still to be found the tree stumps
and roots of this sunken land. Perhaps here is the source of the legend
of the lost lands of Cantre'r Gwaelod in the Celtic imagination. |
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The sunken Forest at Borth |