Gwynedd Archaeological Trust

Ymddiriedolaeth Archaeolegol Gwynedd

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The Menai Straits 2000 years of history

Porthaethwy is first referred to in 1193, in a poem by Prydydd y Moch in praise of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. The context is a campaign by Llywelyn against Rhodri, son of Owain Gwynedd, who held Anglesey at that time. Llywelyn’s force crossed the Menai at: ‘Porth Aethwy’ ‘over the sounding surge, we rode our steeds as they swam’ (Myvyrian Arch. 210-11; Lloyd vol. 2, 589). Llywelyn’s horses clearly swam, but the prefix ‘porth’, carries the meaning ‘ferry’ and occurs, in one form or another, in almost every major landing place on the Straits.

Porthaethwy is a township at the western limit of the commote of Dindaethwy, on the Menai shoreline. The rocky headland of Cerrig y Borth extends from the Anglesey shore to within 250m of the mainland. Porthaethwy, in the Age of the Princes, had two parts. The first was the free gwely of David ap Mabon of which, by 1352, Gruffydd ap Madog Gloddaith and Grono ap Bledd’ ap Heilyn were the principal heirs; although there were, also, an unspecified number of other freeholding families within the gwely.

The second element is represented by a half-gafael (or half-holding) of tir cyfrif land of which David and Cadwgan Morfudd were the two tenants. David and Cadwgan occupy their land under a very restrictive tenure characteristic of the demesne land of the prince, albeit several miles away from the manorial centre of the commote at Llanfaes.

Effectively, the ferry was a joint operation with the freeholders' interest on the one hand and the prince's iterest on the other. The ferry was too important to allow the freeholders be the sole operators. After the conquest, accounts show thatthe King, through his Sheriff, paid half of the cost of running and repairing the ferryboats.

Much later, in the aftermath of an Enclosure Award in the parish of Llantysilio in 1827, it could be shown that the shoreline at Porthaethwy had been reserved for the use of the ferry. This 'ferry land' almost certainly marks the location of the half-gafael occupied by David and Cadwgan Morfudd, the kings tenants in 1352 and the half gafael of bondmen of the free tenants.

The extent of the ferry land ran from Carreg yr Halen to Porth Daniel. The ferry landing places, during its long history, were at Carreg yr Halen and Porthaethwy below the Cambria on the Anglesey side and at Treborth Mill and Borth (below Bodlondeb) on the mainland side. A third route began to operate in the 1760s from the George Hotel on the mainland to Porth Y Wrach.