Site of Aberconwy Abbey, Maenan

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.

The Cistercian abbey of Aberconwy (which was established in the last decade of the 12th century by monks from Strata Florida and which received its principal charter from Llywelyn the Great as prince of North Wales), was removed to Maenan by Edward I in 1283 in order to make room for his new castle and town of Conway. In compensation the monks were granted the township (villa) of Maenan, with exceptional privileges, and were assisted to build a new monastery, henceforward known either by that name or by the old name, Aberconwy or Conway Abbey. It was thoroughly demolished at the Dissolution, timber and stone being taken to Caernarfon for the royal buildings there. Window tracery and other details appear to have been utilised at Gwydir Castle also.

The subsequent house on the site, called Maenan Abbey and built from the old materials, is now represented only by a tablet with the date 1654 and the initials of John and Dorothy Wynne (of Melai, Denbighshire), and by an inscribed sundial top of 1662, now in Llandudno Museum & Gallery. The present house on the site was built 1848-52.

In 1924 a former owner, Dr G H B Kenrick KC, exposed wall foundations considered to be part of the church, with the 'old floor level a few inches beneath the lawn' in front (to the E of) the house. Human burials were discovered, to add to five found in building the tower of the present house and 'a great number in building a greenhouse nearby'.

An 18th century building behind the house, SW of the stable yard, is said to stand on 'two very large underground rooms about 10ft high' (since used as cess-pits) which remain to be explored.

A medieval doorway has been built into the garden wall east of the hotel and there are notes of other fragments of medieval carved stone on the site.

Excavations by L A S Butler in 1963 (pub. 1963), showed that surface irregularities in the orchard (now a caravan park) were natural in origin. Small trenches excavated S of the house revealed that post-dissolution robbing had been severe, and little information was gained to elucidate the plan of the abbey.

Further excavations by L A S Butler and Evans in 1968 (pub. 1980), found further walling E of the hotel, but the remains had been heavily robbed and the results cannot be interpreted with certainty.

Another excavation, by R White, took place in 1982 (pub. 1987) before improvement of the A470, which cut through the lawns E of the abbey hotel. No remains of the abbey were found.

L A S Butler published other evidence to suggest that the house which preceded the present structure contained a part of the western range of the abbey buildings.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of the medieval period. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits. The structures themselves may be expected to contain archaeological information concerning chronology and building techniques.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.