Pen-y-garn, Ceredigion

Old milestone at Pen-y-garn

Pen-y-garn (head of the cairn) derives its name from its proximity to a former Bronze Age cairn known as Carn Maelgwyn, which is believed to have once stood near the present Capel y Garn somewhere in the vicinity of what is now Maes Ceiro (formerly known as Cae Dôlmaelgwyn).[4] The cairn is remembered in the house names of 'Maelgwyn House' and 'Llys Maelgwyn'. It appears to have been destroyed in the eighteenth-century, when its stone seems to have been plundered for work on the nearby turnpike road (now represented by the A487).

On the hill overlooking Pen-y-garn, called Foel Goch, is Caergywydd farm. John Graham Williams claimed that the hill was the site of a small hillfort connected with the larger nearby Iron Age hillfort of Hen Gaer.[5] But his claims with regard to this have not been substantiated, and appear to be based solely on the name of the farm and its position, as well as a misplaced belief that the first element of this was the Welsh word ‘caer’ meaning ‘a fort’. However the earliest available attestations of the farm name are in the form ‘Cae’r Gowydd’, where the words ‘cae’r’ means ‘the field’ and not ‘a fort’. Neither was the original farm on its present location. Rather it was actually some distance down the slopes of the hill on the north side of the Aberystwyth to Machynlleth road, near to Bow Street brook, and its name is probably connected with this location instead of that of the current farmhouse.