Penmachno
Encyclopedia
Penmachno 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...

 in the isolated upland
Highland (geography)
The term highland or upland is used to denote any mountainous region or elevated mountainous plateau. Generally speaking, the term upland tends to be used for ranges of hills, typically up to 500-600m, and highland for ranges of low mountains.The Scottish Highlands refers to the mountainous...

 valley
Valley
In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...

 of Cwm Penmachno
Cwm Penmachno
Cwm Penmachno is a former quarry settlement at the head of the Penmachno valley in North Wales. The slate quarry was formerly linked by narrow-gauge railway to the Ffestiniog railway at Blaenau Ffestiniog...

, 4 miles south of Betws-y-Coed
Betws-y-Coed
Betws-y-Coed is a village and community in the Conwy valley in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It has a population of 534. The name Betws or Bettws is generally thought to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon Old English 'bed-hus' - i.e. a bead-house - a house of prayer, or oratory...

 in the county
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...

 of Conwy
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 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...

.

It is renowned as the home of Bishop William Morgan
William Morgan (Bible translator)
William Morgan was Bishop of Llandaff and of St Asaph, and the translator of the first version of the whole Bible into Welsh from Greek and Hebrew.-Life:...

 (1545 - 1604), who lived at Tŷ Mawr
Ty Mawr Wybrnant
Tŷ Mawr Wybrnant is a house located in the Wybrnant Valley, in the parish of Penmachno, near Betws-y-Coed in Conwy County Borough, North Wales. It was the birthplace of Bishop William Morgan, first translator of the whole Bible into Welsh....

, Y Wybrnant, near the village. He was one of the leading scholars of his day, having mastered Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 in addition to Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

. He was the first to translate the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 in its entirety into Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

.

The 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 Saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

 Tudclud, although not ancient itself, contains five important Early Christian inscribed stone slabs dating from the 5th century or 6th century, notably one commemorating Cantiorix as a citizen and magistrate 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...

.

Penmachno briefly featured during the revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn
Madog ap Llywelyn
Madog ap Llywelyn, or Prince Madoc, was from a junior branch of the House of Aberffraw and a distant relation of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last recognised native Prince of Wales.-Lineage:...

 in 1294-5 as the place at which Madog signed the so-called Penmachno Document
Penmachno Document
The Penmachno Document was drawn up at Penmachno in Gwynedd on 19 December 1294 by Madog ap Llywelyn at the height of his revolt against English rule in Wales...

, the only surviving direct evidence for the rebel leader's use of the title of prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

.

A world-class mountain bike
Mountain bike
A mountain bike or mountain bicycle is a bicycle created for off-road cycling. This activity includes traversing of rocks and washouts, and steep declines,...

 trail has been built on the nearby forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

ed slopes. It consists of a 20km loop with an optional 10km extension.http://www.mbwales.com/en/content/cms/bases/betws_y_coed/penmachno/penmachno.aspx There are little car parking facilities on the site however, and no visitor centre, as local residents believed increased visitor numbers would spoil village life.http://www.northwalesweeklynews.co.uk/conwy-county-news/local-conwy-news/2008/06/05/penmachno-residents-reject-mountail-bike-trail-car-park-and-visitor-centre-55243-21023930/

External links

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