Bodysgallen
The house is about 600 years old. In the gradual addition of one wing and then another, and in their sturdy and conservative style, it is typical of the evolution of the old family houses of Gwynedd. The word "bod-ysgallen" has been interpreted as "house among the thistles"; but Thomas Pennant in his Tour in Wales (1781) wrote "Bodscallan," as a corruption of"the house of Caswallon." The tradition that this was the dwelling-place of Caswallon Law-hir, Cadwallon of the Long Hand, is an ancient one - for Cadwallon is said to have died in AD 517. The key to the origin of the present house at Bodysgallen is the construction of Conwy castle. It seems that the tower at Bodysgallen was built as a watchtower for Conwy castle to command the slopes south-west of the low-lying castle against surprise attack. The place is first mentioned in the mid-14th century Record of Caernarvon, as Bodscathlan. While the tower could hardly be claimed as a work of Conwy's master engineer James of St George, the evidence of the masonry of the spiral staircase is that this is indeed a late-13th-century tower. It has five storeys, consisting originally of a single room on each floor, with the stair turret on the west angle, against the later chimney from the hall and drawing room. Another link with the castle is that the only known source for the pinkish stone in its window mullions is the quarry in a nearby field.
By Elizabethan times Richard Mostyn was the owner of Bodysgallen whilst his elder brother William owned nearby Gloddaeth. Richard had learned Latin and Greek, and collected manuscripts of Welsh literature, and one must assume structures appropriate to his status as a High Sheriff of Caernarvonshire. With the marriage of his daughter Margaret to Hugh Wynn of Berthdu the house came into the Wynn family, who dominated the Conwy valley. It is the son of this marriage, Robert Wynn, whose initials with that of his wife Katherine appear on the datestone with the year 1620 on the south-west gable.
Its two main storeys comprise a large low hall entered at terrace level from the west, and an equally large chamber above, which became the drawing room. Both rooms open in one corner into a curious little bay, with windows on two sides and a fireplace on the third; and both have heraldic overmantels. The hall is carved, with the arms of Gruffydd ap Cynan, Wynn and Collwyn. In the drawing room the chimney-breast has the shouldered form which occurs in Plas Mawr, the magnificent Elizabethan town house built in Conwy by another branch of the Wynns. On it is the Mostyns' motto, "Auxilium Meum a Domino," Psalms 121:2 - [Vulgate 120:2] and above, painted on plaster, are the arms of Wynn and of the Vaughans of Corsygedol. These shields date from the 17th century Colonel Hugh Wynn, born in 1620, was like his young cousin Colonel Roger Mostyn an ardent Royalist, and like him "at his own expense raised a regiment of Foot for the service of King Charles the First." He held Flint castle for his cousin, the Governor, played a prominent part in defending Chester against Parliamentarian siege, and was one of two hostages specified in the Articles of Surrender on February 3, 1646. He also deserves notice for his protest at Lord Conway's despoliation of Conwy castle,
















