Mathrafal
Encyclopedia
Mathrafal near Welshpool
Welshpool
Welshpool is a town in Powys, Wales, or ancient county Montgomeryshire, from the Wales-England border. The town is low-lying on the River Severn; the Welsh language name Y Trallwng literally meaning 'the marshy or sinking land'...

, in Powys
Powys
Powys is a local-government county and preserved county in Wales.-Geography:Powys covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire , and a small part of Denbighshire — an area of 5,179 km², making it the largest county in Wales by land area.It is...

, Mid Wales
Mid Wales
Mid Wales is the name given to the central region of Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the National Assembly for Wales covered the counties of Ceredigion and Powys and the area of Gwynedd that had previously been the district of Meirionydd. A similar definition is used by the BBC...

, was the seat of the Kings and Princes of Powys probably from the 9th century until its destruction in 1212 by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth of Gwynedd
Kingdom of Gwynedd
Gwynedd was one petty kingdom of several Welsh successor states which emerged in 5th-century post-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages, and later evolved into a principality during the High Middle Ages. It was based on the former Brythonic tribal lands of the Ordovices, Gangani, and the...

.

Location

Mathrafal is located about six miles northwest of Welshpool at the junction of the A495 and B4389 on the banks of the River Banwy.

Description

The site known today as "Mathrafal Castle" is a roughly 100 m square rectangular compound defended by ditches. Little remains of the original walls. This structure probably dates from around the 9th Century and replaces an earlier hill fort, about 1 km away, which probably dates from around 656
656
Year 656 was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 656 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Asia :* The Battle of Bassorah between Ali and Aisha,...

 at the time of the fall of the neighbouring Kingdom of Pengwern
Pengwern
Pengwern was a Brythonic settlement of sub-Roman Britain situated in what is now the English county of Shropshire, adjoining the modern Welsh border. It is generally regarded as being the early seat of the kings of Powys before its establishment at Mathrafal, further west, but the theory that it...

, or perhaps as early as 520
520
Year 520 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rusticus and Vitalianus...

 when the capital of Powys was moved from the old Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

 town of Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter
Wroxeter
Wroxeter is a village in Shropshire, England. It forms part of the civil parish of Wroxeter and Uppington and is located in the Severn Valley about south-east of Shrewsbury.-History:...

). Prince Gwenwynwyn ab Owain of Powys moved his capital from Mathrafal to Welshpool (Y Trallwng) after it was destroyed during warfare between Powys and Gwynedd in 1212.

External links

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