One poem describes wines imported from France and a ship moored on the river Conwy between Dolgarrog and Maenan from which monks unloaded the precious casks, carrying them in reverent procession across the fields to the abbey's cellars. Porthlwyd was the medieval township in the area later known as Dolgarrog as the settlement grew larger. In the 1350s the Black Death took a heavy toll in the lower Conwy Valley, particularly among the bond tenants regulated by the King's officers from Aberconwy, Edward I s new English borough. Their visits and contactsin effect spread the disease. Some townships of villeins or crown tenants not to be confused with villains such as Dolgarrog were swept away. People left their lands or hid, unable to pay the taxes on their holdings. A man privy to Guy Fawkes gunpowder plot is said to have lived in the house Ardda r Myneich (Monks Hill) whose ruins lie in the fields above the road between Porthlwyd and Dolgarrog bridges. Dr Thomas Wiliems (1550 1622), rector of St Peter's Church, Llanbedr-y-Cennin, was charged with having papist sympathies. He had warned Sir John Wynn of Gwydir to stay away from the Houses of Parliament on that fateful day. | 
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