Caerhun is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 and rural community

Community (Wales)

A community is a division of land in Wales that forms the lowest-tier of local government in Wales. Welsh communities are analogous to civil parishes in England....

 (and former civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

) on the west bank of the River Conwy

River Conwy

The River Conwy is a river in north Wales. From its source to its discharge in Conwy Bay it is a little over long. "Conwy" is sometimes Anglicized as "Conway."...

, to the south of Henryd

Henryd

Henryd is a small village on the western slopes of the Conwy valley in Conwy county borough, north Wales. It lies about two miles south of Conwy, off the B5106 road.The river Henryd, a tributary of the river Conwy, flows through the village...

 and to the north of Dolgarrog

Dolgarrog

Dolgarrog is a small village in the Conwy County Borough in North Wales situated between Llanrwst and Conwy, very close to the Conwy River. The village is well known for its industrial history since the 18th century and the Eigiau dam disaster, which occurred in 1925...

, in Conwy County Borough

Conwy (county borough)

Conwy County Borough is a unitary authority area in North Wales.-Geography:It contains the major settlements of Llandudno, Llandudno Junction, Llanrwst, Betws-y-Coed, Conwy, Colwyn Bay, Abergele, Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan, and has a total population of about 110,000.The River Conwy, after...

, north

North Wales

North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...

 Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. The population was 1200 at the 2001 Census.

Features

Surrounding the 14th-century parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 of St. Mary are the banks of the Roman fort

Castra

The Latin word castra, with its singular castrum, was used by the ancient Romans to mean buildings or plots of land reserved to or constructed for use as a military defensive position. The word appears in both Oscan and Umbrian as well as in Latin. It may have descended from Indo-European to Italic...

 of Canovium

Canovium

Canovium was a fort in the Roman province of Britannia. Its site is located at Caerhun in the Conwy valley, in the county borough of Conwy, in North Wales....

. The excavations of the Roman site were directed by P.K. Baillie Reynolds, of Aberystwyth University, over a period of four summers in the 1920s, although there have of course been several other publications since.

The church and its churchyard

Churchyard

A churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language or Northern English language this can also be known as a kirkyard or kirkyaird....

 occupy the north-east quarter of the original Roman

Roman Britain

Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

 site. Canovium was built at an ancient river crossing and was an important post on the Roman road

Roman road

The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...

 and ancient drovers

Drover (Britain)

A drovers' road, drove or droveway is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to market or between summer and winter pasture...

 road via Bwlch-y-Ddeufaen

Bwlch-y-Ddeufaen

Bwlch-y-Ddeufaen is a mountain pass in Conwy county borough, north Wales, traversable only on foot or horseback, following the former Roman road from Caerhun to Caernarfon...

 to Abergwyngregyn

Abergwyngregyn

Abergwyngregyn is a village of historical note in Gwynedd, a county and principal area in Wales. Under its historic name of Aber Garth Celyn it was the seat of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd....

 and the Menai Strait

Menai Strait

The Menai Strait is a narrow stretch of shallow tidal water about long, which separates the island of Anglesey from the mainland of Wales.The strait is bridged in two places - the main A5 road is carried over the strait by Thomas Telford's elegant iron suspension bridge, the first of its kind,...

. Latterly the best crossing point, now with a bridge, has been at nearby Tal-y-Cafn

Tal-y-Cafn

Tal-y-Cafn is a small settlement in Conwy county borough, north Wales.It lies in the Conwy valley close to the Roman settlement of Canovium at Caerhun, and was the site of a Roman river-crossing point of the River Conwy...

. After the end of Roman rule in Britain, the fort was associated with King Rhun Hir

Rhun Hir ap Maelgwn

Rhun ap Maelgwn Gwynedd , also known as Rhun Hir ap Maelgwn Gwynedd , was King of Gwynedd . He came to the throne on the death of his father, King Maelgwn Gwynedd. There are no historical records of his reign in this early age...

 of Gwynedd

Kingdom of Gwynedd

Gwynedd was one petty kingdom of several Welsh successor states which emerged in 5th-century post-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages, and later evolved into a principality during the High Middle Ages. It was based on the former Brythonic tribal lands of the Ordovices, Gangani, and the...

, hence the subsequent name.