Cantre'r Gwaelod, the drowned hundred
Welsh legend tells of Cantre'r Gwaelod, a fertile kingdom in Cardigan Bay drowned when its sea gates were left open, whose church bells can still be heard under the waves.
1250 CE · 52.50, -4.20 · status: legend
The account
The earliest version, the poem 'Boddi Maes Gwyddno' in the Black Book of Carmarthen (13th century), blames a well-maiden, Mererid, who let her well overflow. Later versions blame Seithenyn, a drunken prince in charge of the dyke, under King Gwyddno Garanhir. Near Borth and Ynyslas storms expose a submerged forest of oak, pine and birch stumps, and natural shingle ridges such as Sarn Badrig run out to sea like roads. Bell legends attach to Aberdyfi and to Llys Helig off the north coast.
The sceptical view
Likely a folk memory of the sea rising after the Ice Age, kept alive by the visible drowned forest.
Connections in the atlas
- Kitezh, the city that sank into Lake Svetloyar
- The drowned city of Ys
- Lyonesse, the lost land of Cornwall
- Dunwich and the bells beneath the sea
- Manannán mac Lir and his cloak of mist
- Doggerland, the land under the North Sea