Qualla: Yr Eifl

Yr Eifl: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Velela, Public domain. The Welsh name does not mean what the English think it means. Yr Eifl, the three peaks dominating the north coast of the Llyn Peninsula, picked up the English nickname The Rivals somewhere along the line -- presumably from sailors and travellers who heard Yr Eifl and thought of rivalry. The name actually means The Fork, after the way the peaks splay apart when seen from the right angle along the coast. There are three of them. Garn Ganol in the centre at 561 metres, Tre'r Ceiri to the southeast at 485 metres, and Garn For nearest the sea at 444 metres. From the central summit on a perfectly clear day, you can see four countries -- Wales beneath your feet, England's Lake District to the east, Ireland's Wicklow Mountains to the west, and the Isle of Man between them.

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Image: User:Velela | Public domain

Yr Eifl: The Central Summit

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Garn Ganol is the highest point on the entire Llyn Peninsula. The Ordnance Survey used to mark it at 564 metres; a more recent survey adjusted that down to 561. An ancient cairn crowns the top -- prehistoric, of unknown date -- and beside it stands a modern trig point. The summit...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Yr Eifl: The Town of the Giants

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stemonitis, CC BY-SA 2.0. On the southeastern peak, Tre'r Ceiri, sits one of the best-preserved prehistoric hill towns in Europe. The Iron Age people who built it around 200 BC, and the descendants who kept it going through the Roman occupation, left about 150 stone house foundations and a defensive wall ...

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Image: Stemonitis | CC BY-SA 2.0

Yr Eifl: Garn For and the Quarry

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Garn For is the northern summit, also called Mynydd y Gwaith -- the Mountain of the Works. It carries a microwave radio relay station, a few small cairns, and the visible scar of Trefor Granite Quarry on its seaward flank. The quarry produced granite so dense and water-resistant ...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Yr Eifl: Vortigern's Valley

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Trevor Rickard, CC BY-SA 2.0. The story is that Vortigern, the fifth-century British warlord who let Hengist and Horsa land in Kent and could not later get them to leave, fled to the wild end of north Wales when the Saxon takeover began. He hid, the legend says, in the valley that still bears his Welsh name. ...

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Image: Trevor Rickard | CC BY-SA 2.0