About

The village of Dinas Mawddwy in Southern Snowdonia has a population of around 600. It is located just off the main A470 Machynlleth to Dolgellau road. Turn off the main road for the village and from here there is a narrow road that runs through Llanymawddwy and climbs very steeply up through the mountains to Bwlch y Groes, the highest road pass in Wales and onto Llanuwchllyn at the southern end of Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake); there is also a turn off for Lake Vyrnwy.

Meirion Mill
Meirion Mill is just outside of the village; it has a large gift shop and is at the site of the terminus of the Mawddwy Railway which carried slate from Minllyn and Aberangell to the main line at Cemmaes Road.

Pont Minllyn | Minllyn Bridge
This early road bridge over the River Dyfi was built by Dr John Davies of Mallwyd (1604-1634). He was rector in the area and a famous Welsh scholar of the Welsh language and culture, and translator of the Bible, who undertook many works of improvements in the first decades of the 17th century. Today the bridge is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is very close to the modern road bridge on the A470 at the entrance to Meirion Mill

Mawddwy Walking Trails
The area is popular with walkers and there are a number of trails that start from Dinas Mawddwy. There are eight circular waymarked self-guided routes with different colours are within the Mawddwy community area, with five starting and finishing in Dinas Mawddwy, while the others and finishing in the other three nearby villages – Llanymawddwy, Mallwyd and Aberangell.

Local History
Early industrial activity in the Mawddwy area included the development of a tramway to connect to the Mawddwy Railway, brought to Aberangell after 1865. This was associated with the slate industry and mining in the early 1800’s.

Sir Edmund Buckley purchased the local estate in 1856 and he intended to develop Dinas Mawddwy as a model village, with new education facilities, a hotel, and chapels, served by the railway which was officially opened in 1868, the year he was elevated to the baronetage. Meirion Mill is the original siteof the old Railway Terminal.

Once the main road was diverted out of Dinas Mawddwy, Buckley built a mansion, Plas Dinas in 1864-7, Minllyn Cottages, 1868, and Mawddwy Terraces, 1870-76, all for his estate and industrial workers.

The Buckley Arms Hotel was built in 1873 for Sir Edmund Buckley. It was one of the first building in Wales to be built of concrete construction parallel in time to those being undertaken for Lord Sudely at Gregynog, near Newtown in Powys.