Llangorse Lake

Llangorse Lake from Llangorse Mountain

Llangorse Lake is the largest natural lake in Brecknockshire, and lies deep within the Brecon Beacons, near the village of Llangors, from which it is named, and the town of Brecon.

The lake is famous for its coarse fishing (particularly pike), watersports, the legendary "afanc" (nicknamed 'Gorsey') and the only example of a crannog in Wales. Llangorse Lake is also one of the most mentioned sites in Welsh folklore. It is a site of international conservation importance.

Name

Due to the lake's long history of human activity, it has been known by several different names during its history, both in the Welsh language and in English. In Welsh today it is known as Llyn Syfaddon or Llyn Syfaddan'. Other names include the lake's original Welsh name, Llyn Syfaddon/Syfaddan, and Brycheiniog Mere. The name 'Llangorse Lake' is comparatively recent.

In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle it is named Brecenanmere.

Geography

Llangorse Lake is a eutrophic glacial lake with a 5-mile circumference covering an area of 327 acres. The lake is a mile long and 505 feet above sea level. The lake is sited between the basins of the River Wye to the north and the River Usk to the south, and was formed by debris deposited by melting glaciers trapping water on a plateau over time. The River Llynfi provides the main input of water into the lake and continues as the lake overflow stream.

Natural history

The lake from the southwest

The lake is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and has long been regarded as a place where fish and birds are found in unusually high numbers. Gerald of Wales mentioned the abundance of waterfowl in his topographical work, The Description of Wales in the 12th century. It is a Special Area of Conservation (under the EU Habitats Directive) as an example of a natural nutrient-rich lake with pondweeds.

The supposed largest pike caught by rod in the UK was caught in Llangorse Lake in 1846 by O. Owen and supposedly weighed 68 lb, but this is unsubstantiated. If true, it would have been the largest pike in the world. The largest verifiable pike in the United Kingdom was actually caught from Llandegfedd Reservoir near Pontypool and weighed 46 lb. More recently the skull of a pike of unknown weight, though undoubtedly large (35–40+ lb), was found on the shores of the lake in 2004; it was taken away by the Environment Agency for age testing.

The Llangasty Nature Reserve forms an important protected area around the lake's boundary.

The lake is a habitat of the Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ishnura pumilio).

In May 2011 hundreds of water voles were released near Llangorse Lake in an ongoing programme to try to restore their numbers.

History

Crannog

The crannog

The crannog is a small artificial island about 45 yards from the north shore. It is constructed of massive planks of oak behind which was built a dwelling platform formed from layers of stone, soil and brushwood. It was investigated by archaeologists from the National Museum of Wales between 1989 and 1993. Finds included a high quality textile and a bronze hinge from an 8th–9th century reliquary decorated in a style similar to that seen in Ireland. The 1993 dig was joined by the TV series Time Team and featured in series one, episode four in 1994. In 2005, works were carried out to protect the island from erosion.

The crannog may have been occupied intermittently for centuries and may be the royal site of King Clydog of Brycheiniog attacked by Æthelflæd Lady of the Mercians in 916.

Dugout boat

In 1925, archaeologists discovered a virtually complete dugout boat. Radiocarbon dating indicates that it originated from the 9th century.

Llangorse Lake in literature

As Lake Leucara, the lake (and surrounding area) features in the works of Raymond Williams, who wrote People of the Black Mountains detailing the lives of ordinary people in the area at intervals from 30,000 years ago through to mediæval times.

In his diary of the 1870s, Francis Kilvert noted several visits to Llangorse Lake, including a July 1878 outing in the company of his father, when the pair caught a brace of perch in an hour.

Gorsey, the Afanc of Llangorse Lake

The earliest known surviving literary reference to the "afanc" or lake monster of Llangorse is in a poem by the 15th century poet or bard, Lewys Glyn Cothi (English translation by John Rhys):

Yr avanc er ei ovyn Wyv yn llech ar vin y llyn; O don Llyn Syfaddon vo Ni thynwyd ban aeth yno: Ni'm tyn men nag ychain gwaith, Oddiyma heddyw ymaith.

The afanc am I, who, sought for, bides In hiding on the edge of the lake; Out of the waters of Syfaddon Mere Was be not drawn, once he got there. So with me: nor wain nor oxen wont to toil Me to-day will draw from here forth.

The afanc would have been well known in local folklore at the time of the composition of the poem.

Oll Lewis, an ecologist and cryptozoologist at the Centre for Fortean Zoology, has been studying the Afanc of Llangorse Lake for several years, and has proposed that it may represent sightings of the abnormally large pike of the lake. Adrian Lloyd Jones of the Welsh Beaver Project believes that afanc stories in Wales are folk memories of the presence of beavers. (The modern Welsh word for beaver is afanc).

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Llangorse Lake)

• Brecon Beacons national park information at the mountain hut
• S.S.S.I. listing
• 'The Description of Wales' by Giraldus Cambrensis at Project Gutenberg
• Pictures of Llangorse Lake and the area on Geograph.co.uk

References

• The Description of Wales by Geraldus Cambrensis at Project Gutenberg
• The Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike by Fred Buller, Hutchinson, 1979 (ISBN 0-09-136170-2)