Regency Destinations: Pistil Cain and Mawddach Falls

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by trees which give the name of Rhaiadyr ddu or the black cataract Cross Pont ar Gamlan below which the river falls into the Mowdach Not far thence junction of the Mowdach and Eden forms another grand scene Begin a con siderable ascent and find upon the sum mit some groves of handsome oaks in front a naked country Descend through steep fields to another set of wooded din gles which wind along the bottoms and join the former In various parts Cader Idris appears in full majesty Soon after arriving in the woods another cascade called Pistill y Cain astonishes with it's grandeur forming a vast fall bounded on one side by broken ledges of rocks on the other by a lofty precipice At the bottom is an alpine bridge and not far distant is another cascade Emerging from these depths a long extent of woodless tract is reached in the vast parish of Traws fynnydd walled in on all sides by lofty rug ged mountains of various forms This place is greatly isolated from civil society yet retirement may be obtained here with out much enquiry In a farm house not THE CAMBRIAN TRAVELLERʼS GUIDE, IN EVERY DIRECTION (1813)

An adventurous traveler in the Regency era, looking to stand in awe of mother nature and avoid the crowds may have ventured a tromp in Wales to such astounding sights as the falls of Cain and Mawddach.des


After the water reaches the bottom of the concavity it rushes into a narrow rocky chasm a very great depth over which is an wooden Alpine bridge and the whole for a way awfully canopied by trees is called Pistill Cain or the spout of the Cain At no great distance from it is another nature here being profuse in her beauties of kind The Maw for some space runs along deep glen finished by a bare mountain through vistas formed by the woods on each side The water tumbles down a series of ledges of heights into a very black and sullen pool from which it reassumes its violence and is among the far extending woods Tours in Wales (1810)

The Waterfalls At Pont ar Gamlan above the Oakley Arms a road ascends Cwm Camlan to the Fall of Rhaiadr Du now bereft of the trees which formerly added to its beauty but still an object of natural grandeur when the flooded stream dashes down the glen The stream rises in Llyn y Bi and receives small affluents on the left bank from Llyn y Fran and Pen y Ganllwyd It is commended to anglers A path from the Oakley Arms leads across the Mawddach and ascends by the left bank of the river to the picturesque Fall of Rhaiadr Mawddach The Turf Coppermine is passed on this track and is remarkable for a large quantity of copper ore having been derived from the bog There is another path to the Fall about į a mile beyond Pont ar Gamlan across Pont ar Eden near the junction of the Eden with the Mawddach The path leads to the latter stream and ascends its right or west bank till it reaches the meeting of the Mawddach and Cain The latter river also descends over precipitous rocks in a beautiful fall of 200 feet called Pistyll Cain The return to Pont ar Eden may be effected by a different track crossing the hill westward of the Falls of the Cain and then descending southward above the left bank of the Mawddach A guide through North Wales, including Anglesey, Caernarvonshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire (1860)

 

See contemporary pictures and read about this destination now: Pistyll Cain & Rhaeadr Mawddach – From Mountains To The Sea

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