CRICCAETH
is a small borough and market town. Its population is now about four hundred: it, jointly with Caernarvon, &c. sends a member to parliament.
Its ruined castle is not unworthy of attention; it stands on an eminence projecting into the sea, and the entrance to it by land, being only along an isthmus, defended by a double foss and vallum, it must formerly have been strong. The gateway is between two towers, or bastions, externally round, but square within; the facings of which are ascribed to Edward the First: the other towers are entirely square. There have been two courts, but neither of them large, nor indeed has the whole castle been a building of any other than small extent.
It is now in a ruinous state. The view from the ruins over the bay to Haerlech is beautiful. In the neighbourhood of Pwllheli are several respectable family seats; and the country in its vicinity is generally better cultivated than the rest of the promontory: the town itself is irregular and unpleasant; but it carries on a good coasting trade, and vessels of considerable burthen are here built. The petty sessions for the district of Llyn are held here; it is likewise contributory to Caernarvon, in sending a member to parliament. Along the coast to Bardsey Island, a considerable trade in fishing is carried on. Herrings frequent this coast in great abundance, and are very fine: some are cured here, and quantities sold to the Irish. Here likewise are taken both john dories and smelts; the former of which was rejected by the fishermen on the score of its ugliness.
To sail from hence to Bardsey Island is both tedious and dangerous. Passing the bay called Hell’s Mouth, of which Mr. Bingley says, “I never saw a place which presented so favourable an appearance, and that was at the time so much dreaded by the mariners as the present. It is at the very end of the promontory, and from point to point is supposed to measure about eight miles; it is also nearly semicircular. None but strange vessels, even in the most boisterous weather, ever seek for shelter here; and when they are so unfortunate, they are soon stranded, and never again return. ‘We remember,’ says Mr. Jones, in one of his letters, ‘more misfortunes to have happened in this bay, and more inhumanity shewn to the sufferers, than we have ever heard of any where else on the Welsh coast.’ My pilot, who had been long acquainted with every part of these coasts, informed me, that, from whatever point of the compass the wind blew out at sea, on account of the surrounding high rocks, it always came into the mouth of this bay; and from whatever quarter the tide flowed, the upper current here always sets inwards. From these circumstances the common tradition is, that the place obtained the appellation of Hell’s Mouth.
“The whole coast, from the Rivals round the end of the land, nearly to Pwllheli, is terminated only by high and steep rocks, inhabited in the summer by a variety of sea-fowl.” Mr. Bingley, having failed in his attempt to land in Bardsey, gives the following account of that island, from the letters of the Rev. — Jones, vicar of Aberdaron, to whose parish it belongs.