Industrial:

The Trap area is rich in minerals and

these have been exploited over hundreds of

years. One of the mineral resources found on the

mountain- limestone, was used in the early iron-

works and blast furnaces, but was also used, as a

traditional right, by tenants and cottagers on the

edges of the mountain. Limekilns are found

dotted around the area, in the region of Carreg

Dwfn and above the source of the Loughor, for

example.

Wherever limestone meets areas of millstone

grit, deposits of silica sand and rottenstone — a

light rock formed of weathered limestone - are to

be found. The silica sand, crushed at quarries

close to Pal-y-Cwrt, was used to make firebricks

for furnaces, and the rottenstone, when crushed

to a paste, was used for metal polishing.

Sandstone from the Ludlow Rocks (Silurian)

formation was quarried above Cilmaenllwyd in

the eighteenth century. These stones were used

in the area as roof tiles.

Llandyfan was the centre of an early iron industry

as all the raw ingredients necessary could be found

in abundance at Llandyfan or nearby on the Black

Mountain. According to legend, Sir Henry

Vaughan of Derwydd supplied Charles l with

cannonballs from Llandyfan in the English Civil

War, but the first documentary evidence of a forge

at Llandyfan was not until 1669. A second forge

was built in l78O, called the New Forge. The old

Forge continued until l807. In 1808, the New

Forge was acquired by the Du Buisson family of

Glynhir who used the iron for their knife works.

The New Forge closed in the l83Os and was

converted into a woollen mill in the l84Os.