Garndolbenmaen is located approximately 15km (9 miles) north west of Porthmadog, on a minor road just off the A487.

The first edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map, published in 1888, shows that the village had two public houses – the Cross Foxes and the Cross Pipes, two places of worship – Horeb Baptist Chapel and Jerusalem Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, a school and a flannel factory. Little had changed by the time the second edition of the Ordnance Survey’s six-inch map was published in 1901, expect that a post office had appeared opposite the Cross Pipes public house, and there was a church dedicated to St David recorded at the end of Cambrian Terrace, on the south eastern edge of the village. The 1920 edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map notes that the factory was disused, although the other amenities in the village remained open. The edition published in 1953 no longer recorded the Cross Pipes public house.

In the twenty first century, The Cross Foxes public house remains open. The village still has a post office and general stores, although it has moved from the south eastern end of the village to a location just north of the Cross Foxes. The school still educates approximately 60 pupils aged 3 to 11.

Sources: historic Ordnance Survey maps; Google street view, Estyn report published November 2015

M. Ryder, RCAHMW, 4th January 2021

Cofnod Safle

Garndolbenmaen