| Pen-y-garn | |
|---|---|
 Pen-y-garn, looking south towardsBow Street | |
  Pen-y-garn Location withinCeredigion | |
| Population | 1,888 [1] |
| Language | British English Welsh (68.8% of population)[2] |
| OS grid reference | SN6285 |
| Principal area | |
| Preserved county | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BOW STREET |
| Postcode district | SY24 |
| Dialling code | 01970 |
| Police | Dyfed-Powys |
| Fire | Mid and West Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| UK Parliament | |
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Pen-y-garn is a small village in theTirymynach district ofCeredigion, Wales, approximately 4 miles (6 km) north-east ofAberystwyth.[3] Along with the hamlet ofRhydypennau, Pen-y-garn is now often considered to be part of the neighbouring larger village ofBow Street. All three places stretch in a long narrow strip along the main Aberystwyth toMachynlleth road (A487). As well as the houses on the main road from Cross Street (Y Lon Groes) up toYsgol Rhydypennau, Pen-y-garn also includes the housing estates of Maes Ceiro, Bryn Meillion, Maes y Garn and Cae'r Odyn.
Pen-y-garn (head of the cairn) derives its name from its proximity to a formerBronze Agecairn 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 nearbyturnpike road (now represented by theA487).
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 smallhillfort connected with the larger nearbyIron Age hillfort ofHen 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.
At the heart of Pen-y-garn is aCalvinisticMethodist chapel called 'Capel y Garn'. Evan Richardson, teacherJohn Elias andHugh Owen were the firstNonconformists ordissenters to preach in the area in about 1780. A chapel was first erected in 1793, and a new chapel was built on the site in 1833 after the congregation grew too large.
Pen-y-garn has a butcher's shop (formerly I. O. Thomas but now called Bow Street Butchery), and afish and chip shop (taken over by new owners, and renamed 'Greenfield Fish & Chips', it now offersChinese takeaway food as well).
The presentYsgol Rhydypennau is actually located in Pen-y-garn, though the old Rhydypennau school building overlooks nearby Rhydypennau.
