The highest of several mounds in the valley below Llyn Tecwyn Uchaf, near the road between Maentwrog and Llandecwyn. It was cut into during work by Dwr Cymru around the turn of the twenty-first century and is evidently a natural ridge of rock.

The site is, however, of local cultural and folkloric importance as the supposed grave of ‘Dorti’, a reputed witch who lived nearby, who was killed by being forced into a barrel and thrown from a high ledge and buried where she fell. The mound is covered in white quartz stones which the legend maintains must be placed on it by passers-by, lest they die within a year. Those who passed the site should also sing:

"Dorti, Dorti

Bara gwyn yn llosgi

Dŵr ar y tân

I olchi'r llestri."

This may not be the original site of the ‘grave’, however, as W. J. Hemp was told in 1943 that the ‘grave’ was moved c.1920 during the construction of a dam at the foot of the lake.

(Sources: RCAHMW, Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in … Merioneth (London: His Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1921), p. 78; W. J. Hemp, ‘Two Cairns’, Caernarfonshire Historical Society Transactions, 5 (1944), 101–102; Leslie V. Grinsell, Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain (Newton Abbott: David & Charles, 1976, p. 262); GAT HER, ‘Bedd Dorti, Llyn Tecwyn Uchaf’, PRN 1437, https://archwilio.org.uk/arch/query/page.php?watprn=GAT1437, accessed 09/10/2023)

A.N. Coward, RCAHMW, 09/10.2023