² Cf. the mabinogi of Branwen daughter of Llyr in The Mabinogion, Gwyn and Thomas Jones trans. Everyman edtn 1949.

‘Alas, son of God, said she, ... two good islands have been laid waste because of me ... and with that her heart broke. And a four-sided grave was made for her and she was buried there on the bank of the Alaw.’

In 1813 an Anglesey farmer requiring stone for repairs is said to have uncovered a mound by the River Alaw and to have found a square cist containing a funerary urn. This is said to have occurred on a site traditionally known as ‘Bronwen’s Island’. Alaw rhymes with vow, accent on ‘Al’.