The Village Name

Bekelert (1258)

The illustration to the right is the earliest surviving record of the name, from a copy of a Charter of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd made before 1292. The name of the village has been spelt in various ways from time to time, each depending on the writers idea of its derivation. A certain uniformity has now been attained probably due to a better understanding of the sound of the Welsh dd. In his Topographical dictionary (fourth edition L ewis says that "this extensive parish was anciently called Llan-Ybor", probably he meant - Llan y Porth, but no authority was quoted for his statement. Local tradition has it that the Pass of Aberglaslyn was at one time called "Y Borth" so Lewis may well be right. It is fairly certain that the little village of Aberglaslyn was called Aber y Porth. It is unlikely that the name of the farm Hafod y Porth has any bearing on the name Llan y Porth, since in the case of the farm the name probably relates to the entrance to the fortress of Dinas Emrys.

In "Transaction of the Cymmrodorion" Peter Bailey Williams supposes the place to have taken its name from a "hermit's cell". When the old man died his local disciples built a church on the spot and named it Bwth Cilvach y Garth (the Hut in the Recess of the Hill), this was corrupted or abbreviated into Bwth Cilarth and then into Bethcelert. The position of the church and the supposed process of corruption and abbreviation are probably against this theory.

W. Williams, Llandegai, seems to have given P.B. Williams a part of the above suggestion. He says "This Celert or Cilert must, in all probability, have been some old monk or saint of that name who was interred here, and was either the first founder of the church, or one to whose memory it was dedicated, if built after his time."quot; - Observations of the Snowdon Mountains. There is a church in Carmarthenshire dedicated to the name of Celer, but there is no nearer instance.

The explanation of the name most favoured by D.E. Jenkins in Beddgelert Its Facts, Fairies, & Folk-Lore now follows. Close by the spot which is pointed out as Gelert's Grave is a green hillock on which stands an old cow-shed built in the latter part of the eighteenth century. In order to facilitate the erection of this structure the hill was levelled down. From time immemorial the hill has been called "Bryn y Bedd" (the Hill of the Grave), a name which has nothing to do with the fable of the dog. At the time when Mr. John Prichard was landlord of the Goat Hotel (1821-1846) a large tree was dug up from the western side of the hillock. Mr. Prichard being greatly interested in antiquities had men dig deep into the hillock in search of the ruins of an old building, nothing was found other than stones which must have once been in the bed of a river.

What does the finding of these stones indicate? It is evident that they were not washed there by the river itself, so they may well have been carried by human hand, but for what purpose? The answer may be that it was to form a cairn or mound of mixed earth and stones, the structure and name of the hillock favour this conclusion.

Whose grave is it? In the old Welsh records we are told that a host of Irishmen came into the country at the beginning of the fourth century, under the leadership of "Don, King of Lochlyn and Dublin", and that by a stroke of deception they got the Romans to give them rule of Anglesey, Arvon and the Hundred of Dunodig. Dinas Emrys, then called Dinas Ffaraon. was one of their most important stations. Serigi Wyddel, the last the Irish kincrs was called "Serigi Wyddel, the son of Brynach Wyddel of Dinas Ffaraon".

Taking the statement that these Irish chiefs had one of their most important stations in the neighbourhood in the light of the following genealogical list, it may be supposed that the mound was thrown up in honour of one of these princes: Serigi Wyddel ab Mwrchan, ab Cathal, ab Machno, ab Einion, ab CELERT, ab Math, ab Mathonwy, etc. etc. - Iolo MSS. This list is probably as correct as any other of the same antiquity. Here then is a fairly plausible solution of the name problem. Bryn y Bedd is the burial mound of the Irish chief Celert, and the village is named after him "Bedd Gelert". The traditions of the neiqhbourhood seem to favour this opinion.

There is another fairly plausible solution to the name problem, especially if one is convinced that the name is closely associated with monkish settlers. one of the earliest orders of monks in Celtic countries was called Ceile De or Keledei, which name means "a servant of God". Kurtz, in his Church History (London 1891) says that to the old Celtic priests "was given the Celtic name Kele-de,servus or vir Dei Latinised as Colidei, and in modern form Culdees", and Dr. Skene says that "the Culdees originally sprang from that ascetic order who adopted a solitary service of God in an isolated cell as the highest form of religious life" quoted in Dr. Muir's The Church of Scotland. It was this class of monks, or hermits, that established The Monastery of Bardsey, with which BishoD Anian, in a letter, makes Bedd Gelert Priory coeval

In Pennant's Tours of Wales(1810) he says., "In my possession is a drawing of the seal of the priory, dated 1531: on it is the figure of the Virgin and child, but no part of the legend except BETHKELE". It is quite possible for this to be a corruption of Bwth Celei (the Hut of the Culdees), and for the name of Bedd Gelert to be thus derived.