YSTRAD-GUNLAIS (YSTRAD-GYNLAIS), a parish, comprising the Upper and Lower divisions, in the union of NEATH, hundred of
DEVYNOCK, county of BRECKNOCK, SOUTH WALES, 14 miles (N. E. by a.) from Swansea; and containing 2885 inhabitants. The
name of this place, according to some authorities, is derived from the dedication of its church to St. Gunleus, a prince
of " Glewissig," who, by his residence here, gave his name to the small vale in which it is situated: but others more
correctly state that the church is dedicated to St. Mary; and it has been thought that the proper appellation is Ystrad-
Gurlaia, or Garwlais, signifying " the vale of the rough-sounding brook," and is derived from a stream so called, a little
below the church, which separates this parish from that of Kilybebill, and also forms a boundary between the counties of
Brecknock and Glamorgan. The parish, situated in the Vale of Tawe, is bounded on the south-east by the river of that name,
and on the south-west by the brook Garwlais above noticed, and is intersected by the turnpike-road from Swansea to
Brecknock. Its surface is adorned with several gentlemen's seats, the principal of which, Ynieeedwia House, once the
residence of the Aubreys, and now the property of R. D. Gough, Esq., by marriage of one of his ancestors with the heiress
of that ancient family, is a handsome mansion, in a delightful part.of the Vale of Tawe, environed by some richly-varied
scenery, and in the centre of a highly improveable and extensive domain: in the Upper division stands the old seat of
Glnlltteli ls&v. The entire district abounds with mineral wealth, and in the parish are valuable mines of iron-ore, atone-
coal, and limestone, which combining with other local advantages, have led to the establishment of very large works at
this place. The ironworks belonging to the Yniscedwin Company are considered as among the oldest of the kind new in
operition in the kingdom; and the opinion of their antiquity has been confirmed by the discovery of an old pig of iron in
a cinder bank in 1795, on which was the date 1612. These extensive works comprise two blast furnaces for smelting the ore,
air furnaces and cupolas for converting the pig-iron into castings, with fineries for making the refined metal used by the
tin-manufacturers. The furnaces are blown by a powerful machine, erected in 1828, from designs by Mr. Brunton, of London,
and worked by a water-wheel of large diameter. The iron-ore and limestone used are procured in the parish; but the stone-
coal being unfit for the purpose of smelting iron, a supply of another kind is obtained from mines in some of the
adjoining parishes. The works, when in full operation, afford employment to five or six hundred men, exclusively of whom,
about two hundred and sixty are constantly engaged in the collieries of the parish; the stone-coal and allot raised in
these is chiefly used in drying malt and burning lime. Great quantities of limestone are quarried at the Cribarth rock,
and are purchased by farmers and others along the line of the Swansea eanal, to burn for manure and other purposes. On the
limestone to the north of this rock is found an abundance of tripoli, or lapis carionts, of a veripure quality, mach of
which is collected and sent the canal to Swansea, and thence shipped to di erent parts of England, to be used in the
burnishing of metals. The Swansea canal, a branch of which reaches to the Yniscedwin works, terminates at a place called
Hin Nenadd, in this parish, two miles above the church; and to it converge numerous tram-roads from the works, for the
conveyance of their produce. A tram-road was laid down in 1825, by John Christie, Esq., of London, extending from the
Gwain Clawdd, over the forest of Devynock, to Rh,d-y-Briw, in the Vale of Usk, by means of which a communication is
established between this mineral district and the heart of Brecknockshire; and a branch, six miles in length, from Penwyll
to the head of the Swansea canal, forming a junction with the main road, has also been constructed. The annual value of
the rateable property in the parish has been returned at £4363, of which £2954 is for the Lower, and £1409 for the Upper,
division. The LIVING is a rectory, rated in the king's books at £9. 10. 7i., and in the patronage of the proprietor of the
Yniscedwin estate: the tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £372: the church is a small neat fabric,
consisting simply of a nave and chaneel, with a belfry at the west end. The chapel of Coelbren, situated in the Upper
division of the parish, and formerly a chapel of ease to the mother church, has been endowed, and the living is now a
perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the rector, with a net income of £45: the structure was rebuilt in 1799, almost
entirely at the expense of Walter Price, Esq., of Glyhillec.h, who owns five of the seven tenements of which the hamlet of
Coelbren consists. There are places of worship for Baptists and Independents; that for the latter, a remarkably neat
building at Ty'n-y-Coed, in the Upper division, erected by subscription, in 1831; that for the Baptists, situated at
Nant-y-Fin. In the Lower division is a day school, in which 40 children are educated at the cost of their parents; also a
Sunday school, supported by voluntary contributions, and consisting of 87 males and females, who attend the Established
Church; and another, appertaining to Calvinistic Methodists, and containing about 100. In the Upper division is a day
school, where 40 children are taught at their parents' expense, in a neat house erected almost exclusively at the cost of
Howell Gwyn, Esq.; and two Sunday schools afford gratuitous instruction to about 70 males and females. Morgan Aubrey, of
Yniscedwin, Esq., bequeathed a rent-charge of £4. 5., payable out of a farm called Twyn-y-Ceiliog, in the parish of
Devynock, for the benefit of the poor. A Roman road, now called the Sans Lleon, or Sam Helen, is still visible in the
parish, passing along a high ridge of rock which separates it from Ystrad-velltey, and from Cadoxton in the county of
Glamorgan, and hence declining southwards towards the station Nidum (Neath). On this ridge, between Coelbren and Cevn-hir-
Vynydd, was formerly an erect stone, supposed to have been a Roman milliary, with an inscription, of which only the
letters IMPC were in later times legible, but it has been removed or destroyed. Upon the hills towards Llywel, and
bordering on Carmarthenshire, are several cameddau, and the remains of three ancient British encampments, but nothing has
been recorded of their original formation. Near the chapel of Coelbren is an encampment, which, from its quadrilateral
form, and its contiguity to the Sarn Helen, is thought to be Roman; and at a short distance from this place is a kind of
natural wall, formed by the side of the limestone rocks, in which is a small cavern, styled Cradock's Church, or
Hermitage, which, according to Mr. Jones, the historian of Brecknockshire, is erroneously so called, as he supposes it to
have been the cell in which Gunleus died in the arms of his son Cattwg, who gave his name to this cavern, as hit father
had in like manner given his to the vale. About three-quarters of a mile to the east of Coelbren chapel is the most
remarkable waterfall in this part of the county, designated 'Sgwd yr hen Rid. It is formed by the Llech, or Llechog, a
small mountain stream, which, for a considerable distance from its source, flows over a rocky bed, in a part of its course
entirely destitute of vegetation, and without any feature of beauty, except where in some places it expands into a river;
it afterwards crosses the road from Ystrad-velltey to Coelbren, when it is lost in a deep-wooded glen, on its emerging
from which the whole river, in one unbroken sheet, descends from a perpendicular height of more than a hundred feet; being
interrupted in its fall by a projecting ledge of rocks, about ten or twelve feet below the summit, it dashes into foam,
and, after its descent for the remaining ninety feet, without further impediment, it disappears in the thick foliage of
the woods which clothe its precipitous banks, and pursues a winding course to the river Tawe. Though this fall is of much
.greater height than that of Eno Hepste, the water in its descent has less grandeur and breadth, when both rivers are
equally full. At an inn, known by the sign of the " Lamb and Flag," in this parish, the outlawed criminal Hatfield, who,
under the assumed name of the Hon. Colonel Hope, had seduced into marriage the beautiful and artless Mary of Buttermere,
in Cumberland, was arrested; he was committed by the magistrates to the gaol at Brecknock, and thence conveyed to
Carlisle, where be was tried and executed.