I'd love to believe the version which implies that the name was attributed to the sighting of a 'hunch-back mermaid' posing on the muddy reaches of the Cefn-y-Wrâch shoal! I wonder what that observant mariner was under the influence of when he had this apparition! 'But to be sober' it seems likely that the name is linked to vast shoals of tench that once swam the waters. How sad that another timeless folk-myth is destroyed by mere fact!

Unfortunately, Julie couldn't spy the 'hunch-back mermaid' but managed to sketch this adorable creature posing on the mud of the Wrâch only recently ; honest! [124]