The Boys' Brigade Mountaineering Club

Carnedd Llewelyn is the 3rd highest peak in Wales. Like most of the mountains in the Carneddau, it has a flat boulder-strewn summit plateau with some areas of grass between the boulder fields. The normal Welsh spelling is Llywelyn, but it is spelt with an e on Ordnance Survey maps. We will use the OS spelling, as this is also used in mountain tables. To the north of its SE ridge is a poplular rock climbing area called Craig yr Ysfa (Rock of the Common Land) which boasts the classic Amphitheatre Buttress route.

See its entries on Walkhighlands or Wikipedia or view it from above on Google Earth.

Carnedd is a Welsh word that can mean Cairn, Tumulus, Mound, Heap, Pile or Ruin. In the context of a mountain name, the best translation would be Cairn.

Llewelyn is a personal name that is usually spelt with a y in Welsh. Given that the adjacent peak is called Carnedd Dafydd, the Llewelyn referred to is likely to be Llywelyn ap Gruffudd whose younger brother was Dafydd ap Gruffudd (ap means son of, equivilant to the Gaelic Mac or Irish O'). Llywelyn ap Grufudd was the son of Grufudd ap Llywelyn who was the son of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, also known as Llywelyn Fawr (Llewelyn The Great). Llywelyn ap Grufudd ruled Wales for 24 years before he was killed by the English in a skirmish near Builth Wells in 1282. He is known in Welsh as Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf, literally Llywelyn, Our Last Leader and in English as Llewelyn the Last.

An alterative theory is that Carnedd Llewelyn and Carnedd Dafydd are named after two successive Princes of Gwynedd: Llywelyn Fawr (Llewelyn The Great) and his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn, who was the first Welsh prince to claim the title Prince of Wales. See Virtual History for details

There is no concept similar to an apostrophe s in Welsh. Possession is indicated by juxtaposition. So, Carnedd Llewelyn is translated as Llewelyn's Cairn.