Darganfod Tai Hanesyddol Eryri / Discovering the Historic Houses of Snowdonia

This book presents the results of a successful project to establish the date and social context of some of the earliest houses in Snowdonia. This partnership project between the Dating Old Welsh Houses Group and the RCAHM involved many householders and about 200 local people in an ambitious exercise in community archaeology.

Discovering the Historic Houses of Snowdonia presents the results of a successful project to establish the date and social context of some of the earliest houses in Snowdonia. This partnership project between the Dating Old Welsh Houses Group and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales involved many householders and about 200 local people in an ambitious exercise in community archaeology.
The project has dated houses using the scientific technique of tree-ring dating, which can be accurate to the year and even the season of felling. The book presents the revealing, and often surprising, results of the project along with many photographs and plans. There are some twenty-five house histories, researched by members of the Group, including studies of medieval houses with open halls, innovative storeyed houses, and mature complexes. The housing culture of Snowdonia is shown here to be innovative and complex rather than simple and derivative. In sixteenth-century Snowdonia people chose to build for the future, and the older houses of north-west Wales display social ambition as well as the value placed on craftsmanship.