DOLGARROG is said to have got its name from a flying dragon called Y Carrog. This mythical beast preyed on livestock and Dol-y-carrog was the favourite meadow on which it swooped down from the heights above to carry off sheep. So serious were the losses that the farmers went on a dragon hunt armed with bows, arrows and spears. One farmer, Nico Ifan, refused to go, claiming a dream had forewarned him the Carrog would cause his death. His fellow farmers laid a poisoned sheep s carcass on the heights above Eglwysbach across the river.The unsuspecting Carrog seized the bait, was caught and beaten to death. Nico Ifan then came along to gloat over the dead dragon and cursed and kicked the corpse, whereupon the poisoned barbed wing of the Carrog pierced his leg thus fulfilling the death warning in his dream. The new abbey at nearby Maenan was built in 1283 AD with money and land given by Edward I when he moved the monks there from Aberconwy (Conwy). Many of these land-holdings feature on old maps as abbey lands broken up when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1538. They incorporate the area today known as Dolgarrog. We are inclined to think of the Cistercians White Monks as a strict, austere order.Yet 15th century Welsh bards praise the abbot of Maenan Abbey for hosting a table of fine meat and wine. | 
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