North Wales Honeycomb Pens

There are numerous multi-cellular, or honeycomb, sheep pens in North Wales, in much of Britain they are unknown or rare at best, and then rarely stretching to more than 4 or 5 cells.

AS OF 26-8-16 IF YOU ARE LOOKING AT THIS PAGE IT MAY WELL BE BEING UPDATED AS YOU DO SO

Images are from Google earth, click on image to give a larger version all these images (including thumbnails) are from around 200m above the pens and so should provide relative scale
Click on image name for 600x400 image on same basis

click on satellite reference to give a close up

Titles are for location reference only and might not be what local farmers/users call them... time will tell I hope

Llefn Pens
Llefn
53°11'45.50"N 4° 2'30.55"W
Gyrn Pens
Gyrn
53°11'58.52"N 4° 1'29.94"W
Aber
Aber
53°12'23.16"N 3°59'27.84"W
Anafon East Pens
Anafon East
53°13'14.76"N 3°58'32.36"W
Anafon West Pens
Anafon West
53°13'12.28"N 3°57'51.36"W
Afon Lafar East
Afon Lafar East
53°10'5.64"N 4° 1'16.16"W
Afon Lafar West
Afon Lafar West
53°10'8.70"N 4° 1'25.86"W
Afon Caseg
Afon Caseg
53°10'31.00"N 4° 0'43.28"W
Afon Wen
Afon Wen
53°10'39.07"N 3°59'8.94"W
Northern Afon Ddu
Northern Afon Ddu
53°14'3.57"N 3°56'7.38"W
Foel Lwyd
Foel Lwyd
53°12'9.80"N 3°55'25.68"W
Garreg Wen N
Garreg Wen N
53°11'26.03"N 3°55'32.95"W
Garreg Wen S
Garreg Wen S
53°11'19.27"N 3°55'40.13"W
Southern Afon Ddu
Southern Afon Ddu
53°11'37.72"N 3°55'12.98"W

The greatest concenration is probably on the Carneddau where they run into double figures (20+ ?). The next greatest concentration can be found on the Rhinogs (Or so I'm told... can't find any).

The mountain grazing around these pens is on common land. The farmers/commoners would all have had a pen, sheep would have been rounded up from the pens associated Cynefin (in the unfenced uplands flocks stick to their 'homelands'), and divided to pens depending on their ownership.

The use of these pens has declined in recent years and the merging of flocks/increased sizes means many of the cells are too small.

A number of sets have been repaired in recent years, with funding from the Snowdonia National Park's Tir eryri scheme.

Most of these pens are on National Trust land.