I went in search of the royal palace at Aberffraw. There is a heritage and accommodation centre at
Llys Llewelyn, and very good they are too. However these are barn conversions from 19th century stone buildings. The church promised something historic, however it has been heavily restored and is generally locked, although I am told that there is a fine Norman arch within. Most of the rest of the buildings in the village are 19th and early 20th century. It is not until you go into the heritage centre (where there is also a good shop and a tea room) that you can read up about the way the village looked in mediaeval times.
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| St Beuno's Church |
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| This is the layout of the original royal palace. No.1 is the church, No.2 is the main court building, No.3 is the Chamber Block, where presumably the royal party slept, No.4 is the outhouse, which I took to be the latrine, No.5 is the stables (in mediaeval times only the very wealthiest has horses), No.6 is the store house where goods taken as taxes would have been stored and No.7 was the brewery, which was essential to purifying the water. |
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| This is an artist's impression of how the palace would have looked in mediaeval times. Archaeologists have revealed traces of a wall and ditch / moat around the heart of the older part of the village which dates back to Roman times. |
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| Note the position of the church and the bridge above. This was not a palace for the whole of the kingdom of Gwynedd. Monarchs and the court were peripatetic, they moved around their territory collecting tribute and taxes by way of food to sustain themselves and so these commote centres were in several locations in Gwynedd. It was the job of the local minor elites and their surfs (bondmen) to maintain the palace in the monarch's absence. |
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| The royal palace at Aberffraw ceased to exist after the defeat of Llewelyn the Last. King Edward the First redistributed the lands to his own followers and this later led to the rise of the great local families - Bodorgan, Bodawen etc. The stones and timbers from the palace were dismantled and taken to Caernarfon, and were incorporated in the great castle there, a castle that was a tribute to another line of kingship altogether. |
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| View of the village from the south west. Note the position of the church at the extreme left on the horizon. |
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| The bridge is still intact, and crosses the river Fraw which runs from east to west. |
The palace and grounds may be leveled to the ground, the royals of the time may lay dead but our Welsh blood, our Welsh spirit lives on in our land.
ReplyDeleteRecent DNA research and evidence has proved that the true Welsh still live on descended from ancient Kings and Princes of Wales.
ReplyDeleteR-L371 aka S300 snp originated in North Wales, possibly Anglesey county around 1000 AD. and is carried in the blood of men living today in Wales.
Incredibly sad to see this area now; there's so much history completely overlooked, undoubtedly in an effort to completely delete the existence of any Welsh royalty from the history books.
ReplyDeleteWho on earth would allow a race track to be built so close to a neolithic burial chamber, 12th Century church and a medieval dynasty? - what are they covering up? or is it a veiled attempt at honoring the wishes of their royal ancestors (Edward I).
Who on earth would allow holiday cottages to be built on one of the most important historical sites in Wales?
Why don't we build a McDondalds at Windsor Castle - whilst we're there, let's move Silverstone to within 100 meters of St. George's Chapel...
It's absolutely ridiculous and I'd be very interested to know how and why Anglesey County Council, our Welsh Assembly and Cadw Cymru allowed any of this to happen.
Yma o hyd.
(Apologies to the author, this is not a rant at the article - thank you for highlighting this very important part of history.)