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CEREDIGION CYLCHGRAWN CYMDEITHAS HYNAFIAETHWYR CEREDIGION JOURNAL OF THE CEREDIGION ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY CYFROL (VOLUME) IX 1980 Rhifyn (NUMBER) I HAFOD, HAFOTY AND LLUEST THEIR DISTRIBUTION, FEATURES AND PURPOSE Hendre and hafod are well known as farm names in all parts of Wales. The meaning of the words is also well known, hendre (lit. the old home- stead) being the name of the permanent or the ancestral settlement on the lower land and hafod being the summer dwelling to which some members of the family moved in order to depasture and tend the flocks and herds on the uplands. The period of summer grazing was, traditionally, from May Day until All Saints' Day (Galan Mai & Calan Lluest (pi. lluestau, lluestydd) similarly, is a familiar name but its distribution is not, like that of hafod, general on the contrary, it is clearly restricted. It is not known as a farm name in North Wales north of the line of mountains that extends from the Cader Idris Range to the Berwyn. If one defines North Wales by historic counties, there are five isolated instances which are known mainly from documents. One of the aberrants is in the extreme south of Denbighshire,* between the villages of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant and Llangedwyn. It does not appear to have survived on the ground or on maps, but a lease of 1636 refers to 'a summer house called y llyest yn havod y maen in Ban- hadla'2 The other aberrants, mostly known from records, are all in Merioneth, one in the parish of Pennal and the others among the headwaters of the river Clywedog in Mallwyd and Llanymawddwy parishes; all are close to the boundary with Montgomeryshire. There are a score or so of farms and small holdings named Lluest, or with lluest as part of their names, in Glamorgan, almost all of them in the *The names of counties and parishes mentioned in this paper refer to those areas as they existed before the passing of the Local Government Act, 1972 such a practice simplifies the historical references.