What does the name mean?
Swtan takes its name from the Welsh name for Church Bay - Porth Swtan, the harbour of the swtan. But what does swtan mean? There are several theories, but ultimately the meaning remains a mystery, and this adds interest to the cottage.
The dictionary defines swtan as a fish - a whiting, to be exact. But the word does not appear anywhere else in Wales (which is in itself strange when we consider how popular the whiting used to be), and there is no history of a fishing community in this area.
John Leland, writing in 1536-9 at the time of Henry VIII, gives us our first written instance of the name. He refers to the beach as Porth Swttan, and to the little stream that runs into it ("a little rille") as Avon Suttan. Leland states that Swttan is "a propre name of a giant". There is no knowing how he came up with this explanation, for there could only have been an oral tradition at that time, and in a language which he probably did not understand. It is perhaps significant that no other source has ever supported this meaning of the word.
Another theory is that the name derives from Suetonius Paulinus, the governor of the Roman province of Britannia, whose soldiers stormed across the Menai Straits at Menai Bridge in 61AD in order to conquer the island and eradicate the Druid religion. Swtan is held to be a corruption of Suetonius.
FH Glazebrook (Anglesey and the North Wales Coast) calls Porth Swtan the cove of the Swedes, suggesting that Vikings from Ireland landed here. Certainly, the conspicuous yellow cliffs are visible from far out to sea, and we know that there were regular skirmishes between the Welsh and the Irish, who for a time ruled Anglesey.
So it would appear that the origin of the name is lost in the mists of time. The old cottage, and sea whispering in the bay below, probably know the meaning of the name, but will not reveal their secret.
