Cantre'r Gwaelod is the legendary ancient sunken kingdom said to have occupied a tract of fertile land lying between Ramsey Island

Ramsey Island

Ramsey Island is an island about 1 km off the coast of the St David's peninsula in Pembrokeshire on the northern side of St Brides Bay, in southwest Wales....

 and Bardsey Island

Bardsey Island

Bardsey Island , the legendary "Island of 20,000 saints", lies off the Llŷn Peninsula in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The Welsh name means "The Island in the Currents", although its English name refers to the "Island of the Bards", or possibly the island of the Viking chieftan, "Barda". It is ...

 in what is now Cardigan Bay

Cardigan Bay

Cardigan Bay is a large inlet of the Irish Sea, indenting the west coast of Wales between Bardsey Island, Gwynedd in the north, and Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire at its southern end. It is the largest bay in Wales....

 to the west of 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...

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Myth

Cantre'r Gwaelod's capital was Caer Wyddno, seat of the ruler Gwyddno Garanhir

Gwyddno Garanhir

Gwyddno Garanhir was the supposed ruler of a sunken land off the coast of Wales, known as Cantre'r Gwaelod. He was the father of Elffin ap Gwyddno, the foster-father of the famous Welsh poet, Taliesin, in the legendary account given in the late medieval Chwedl Taliesin .-Legend:The basket of...

. There are several versions of the myth. It is described as a walled country that was defended from the sea by a dyke called Sarn Badrig

Sarn Badrig

Sarn Badrig, also spelled Sarn Padrig , is one of several more or less parallel shingle reefs extending under the sea in Cardigan Bay on the west coast of Wales...

 (Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints....

's causeway), over which two princes of the realm held charge. One of these princes, called Seithenyn

Seithenyn

Seithenyn is a figure from Welsh legend, apparently contemporary with King Gwyddno Garanhir. He is the protagonist of a poem in the Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin...

, is described in one version as a notorious drunkard and carouser, and it was through his negligence that the sea swept through the open floodgates, ruining the land.

The church bells of Cantre'r Gwaelod are said to ring out in times of danger.

Origins of the myth

The myth, like so many others, may be a folk memory of gradually rising sea levels at the end of the ice age

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

; and its structure is comparable to the deluge myth found in nearly every ancient culture. The physical remains of the preserved sunken forest at Borth, and of Sarn Badrig nearby, could have suggested that some great tragedy had overcome a community there long ago, and so the myth may have grown from that. There is no reliable physical evidence of the substantial community that legend promises lies under the sea.

Reported sighting

In 1770, Welsh antiquarian scholar William Owen Pughe

William Owen Pughe

William Owen Pughe was a Welsh antiquarian and grammarian best known for his Welsh and English Dictionary, published in 1803, but also known for his grammar books and 'Pughisms' ....

 reported seeing sunken human habitations about four miles (6.4 km) off the Ceredigion

Ceredigion

Ceredigion is a county and former kingdom in mid-west Wales. As Cardiganshire , it was created in 1282, and was reconstituted as a county under that name in 1996, reverting to Ceredigion a day later...

 coast, between the rivers Ystwyth

River Ystwyth

The River Ystwyth is a river in the county of Ceredigion, Wales. Its source is a number of streams that include the Afon Diliw, located on the border of Ceredigion and Powys in the Cambrian Mountains....

 and Teifi

River Teifi

The River Teifi forms the boundary between the counties of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire in south-west Wales for most of its 75 mile length, flowing into the sea below the town of Cardigan. The catchment of the river is estimated to be 1,008 square kilometres yielding an average flow at Glan...

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In popular culture

The legend inspired a Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

-novel, The Misfortunes of Elphin

The Misfortunes of Elphin

The Misfortunes of Elphin is the fifth novel by Thomas Love Peacock, published in 1829. It is set in a somewhat historically-fanciful Arthurian Britain which incorporates many Welsh legends, but avoids all supernatural and mystical elements. Seithenyn appears as a major character.-External links:*...

(1829), by Thomas Love Peacock

Thomas Love Peacock

Thomas Love Peacock was an English satirist and author.Peacock was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each other's work...

. The kingdom also plays a major role in Silver on the Tree, the last book of The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper

Susan Cooper

Susan Mary Cooper is an English author best known for The Dark Is Rising, an award-winning five-volume saga set in and around England and Wales. The books incorporate traditional British mythology, such as Arthurian and other Welsh elements with original material ; these books were adapted into a...

, parts of which are set in Aberdyfi

Aberdyfi

Aberdyfi , or Aberdovey is a village on the north side of the estuary of the River Dyfi in Gwynedd, on the west coast of Wales....

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External links

• Cantre'r Gwaelod - The Lost Land of Wales
• The submerged forest of Borth
• Experts look for 'watery kingdom'
• An exploration of the 'walled realm' version of the myth, and the semi-legendary King Gwyddno
• local history page looking at possible documentary evidence
• British band - The Lowland Hundred named for the English translation of Cantre'r Gwaelod