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Aberffraw
Aberffraw is a village and community on the south west coast of the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. The village is 9 miles from the island's county town, Llangefni, and is on the west bank of the Afon Ffraw (Ffraw River). The community includes Soar and Dothan. It is on the A4080 and the nearest rail station is Bodorgan.
The village has a long history as a settlement from the Mesolithic Age. More recently, in medieval times, the site became the capital of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and a royal residence for the family of the House of Aberffraw.
The name of the village is often truncated to "Berffro" in the local dialect of Welsh. Local attractions include a part of the Anglesey Coastal Path, the beach and dunes at Aberffraw bay, a lake for recreational fishing, historic churches and prehistoric burial chambers.
Aberffraw is one of the oldest Mesolithic sites from prehistoric Wales, dating to c. 9,000 years ago. At Aberffraw Bay is the Trwyn Du (Welsh: Black nose) site. The burial was discovered whilst excavating a Bronze Age kerb cairn (bowl barrow) from 2000 BC, which was excavated because of the threat of coastal erosion. The 1977 dig revealed that the cairn was built on top of a deposit of 7,000 flint tools and two axes from 7000 BC, a few millennia after the last Ice Age.
An intact monument near Aberffraw is Din Dryfol, a Neolithic chambered tomb from 3000 BC, and around the banks of the nearby River Gwna are the remains of a stone hut circle and roundhouses, which were lived in during the Welsh Iron Age, c. 500 BC, until the British Roman period, before the 4th century.
In Welsh mythology Aberffraw features as the site of Branwen and Matholwch's wedding festival, where Efnysien maimed Matholwch's horses.
In the early Middle Ages Aberffraw was settled by Cadwallon Lawhir ap Einion who built a palace in the 5th century. Rhodri the Great, the King of Gwynedd rebuilt the residence in the year 873 and had returned the capital of the Kingdom of Gwynedd to the Aberffraw cantref after Cadwallon ap Cadfan (c. 620) moved the royal court to Caernarfon in mainland Wales in the 7th century. Rhodri's palace (Welsh: Llys) became a royal court and his son Anarawd ap Rhodri started a cadet branch named the Royal House of Aberffraw. Anarawd's descendants settled the area for centuries as Kings of Gwynedd and were eventually titled the Prince of Wales. Llywelyn ab Iorwerth in 1201 re-established the palace as a residence and installed personnel to work similarly to the original set up of the King's royal suite based on the rules from their creation in 914. The court was then dismantled in 1317 to provide building materials for Caernarfon Castle across the Menai Strait.
The royal court was destroyed on Saint Nicholas Day, 6 December 1331, when a sandstorm buried 186 acres from Aberffraw north to Rhosneigr on the west of Anglesey in the Aberffraw cantref. This disaster drove families living in this area from their homes, and they migrated south to the villages of Llanddwyn and Newborough.
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Aberffraw
Aberffraw is a village and community on the south west coast of the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. The village is 9 miles from the island's county town, Llangefni, and is on the west bank of the Afon Ffraw (Ffraw River). The community includes Soar and Dothan. It is on the A4080 and the nearest rail station is Bodorgan.
The village has a long history as a settlement from the Mesolithic Age. More recently, in medieval times, the site became the capital of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and a royal residence for the family of the House of Aberffraw.
The name of the village is often truncated to "Berffro" in the local dialect of Welsh. Local attractions include a part of the Anglesey Coastal Path, the beach and dunes at Aberffraw bay, a lake for recreational fishing, historic churches and prehistoric burial chambers.
Aberffraw is one of the oldest Mesolithic sites from prehistoric Wales, dating to c. 9,000 years ago. At Aberffraw Bay is the Trwyn Du (Welsh: Black nose) site. The burial was discovered whilst excavating a Bronze Age kerb cairn (bowl barrow) from 2000 BC, which was excavated because of the threat of coastal erosion. The 1977 dig revealed that the cairn was built on top of a deposit of 7,000 flint tools and two axes from 7000 BC, a few millennia after the last Ice Age.
An intact monument near Aberffraw is Din Dryfol, a Neolithic chambered tomb from 3000 BC, and around the banks of the nearby River Gwna are the remains of a stone hut circle and roundhouses, which were lived in during the Welsh Iron Age, c. 500 BC, until the British Roman period, before the 4th century.
In Welsh mythology Aberffraw features as the site of Branwen and Matholwch's wedding festival, where Efnysien maimed Matholwch's horses.
In the early Middle Ages Aberffraw was settled by Cadwallon Lawhir ap Einion who built a palace in the 5th century. Rhodri the Great, the King of Gwynedd rebuilt the residence in the year 873 and had returned the capital of the Kingdom of Gwynedd to the Aberffraw cantref after Cadwallon ap Cadfan (c. 620) moved the royal court to Caernarfon in mainland Wales in the 7th century. Rhodri's palace (Welsh: Llys) became a royal court and his son Anarawd ap Rhodri started a cadet branch named the Royal House of Aberffraw. Anarawd's descendants settled the area for centuries as Kings of Gwynedd and were eventually titled the Prince of Wales. Llywelyn ab Iorwerth in 1201 re-established the palace as a residence and installed personnel to work similarly to the original set up of the King's royal suite based on the rules from their creation in 914. The court was then dismantled in 1317 to provide building materials for Caernarfon Castle across the Menai Strait.
The royal court was destroyed on Saint Nicholas Day, 6 December 1331, when a sandstorm buried 186 acres from Aberffraw north to Rhosneigr on the west of Anglesey in the Aberffraw cantref. This disaster drove families living in this area from their homes, and they migrated south to the villages of Llanddwyn and Newborough.