Gwynedd Archaeological Trust

Ymddiriedolaeth Archaeolegol Gwynedd

01248 352535

The Menai Straits 2000 years of history

During the early sixteenth century the old Llanidan ferry, now in Crown hands, began to operate from a new location at Moel y Don, a small promontory on the Anglesey shore, near Llanedwen church. The ferry took a new name to reflect the change ‘Llanidan alias Bon y Don’. A possible explanation for the move might be to do with silting and sandbar formation along the Llanidan reach. At Moel y Don the crossing is shorter and clear and the ferry again became profitable.

The style of the ferry’s name ‘Moel y Don’ is much more frequently used than the rare ‘Bon y Don’. Nevertheless, the name is of interest as it closely resembles the Welsh name of the ‘castle’, built in Gwynedd, on the mainland side, by Olaf the Viking, king of Dublin, Man and the Isles. The name is given in the Welsh biography of Gruffudd ap Cynan (d.1130) which describes the castle as having a mound and ditch: ‘It was called Olaf’s castle. However, in Welsh, it was called Bon y Dom (translated as ‘the bottom-of-the-mound-castle’)’.

It is possible that the re-sited ferry acquired a new name from the prominent topographic feature on the mainland shore near the landing at Felinheli. The landmark is a natural coastal mound, fortified around its base by an earthwork and now known simply as ‘Dinas’.

Around 1540, John Leland noticed the name, Porth Bon y Don, but could also describe the same ferry as ‘Moileeton' (Moel y Don) a passage a little shot above Aber Pwll (Aber Pwll is the old name, now known as Felinheli or Port Dinorwic). ‘There lyith fery bootes to go ynto Terre Mone’ (Tir Mon = Anglesey) (Toulmin Smith 1964, pt VI, 129; 83).

During the eighteenth century the Moel y Don boat was carrying fifteen men and ten horses at a time. The service continued into the twentieth century.