#Roman fort viking conquest series

Many of the local hillforts have been said to be site of his last battle against the Roman legions, but current evidence suggests that it may have been Llanymynech Hill a few miles north of Welshpool. Legend has it that the British leader Carradoc, sometimes called Carractacus, led his campaign against the invading armies of Rome from this area. These massive enclosures with their ramparts of earth and stone are a common feature of the Welsh Marches, and fine examples can be seen near Welshpool on Long Mountain (Beacon Ring - left), at Montgomery (Ffridd Faldwyn - right), at the Breidden and Llanymynech (two of the largest in Britain) and most spectacularly at Old Oswestry in Shropshire. More tangible are the many standing stones and burial mounds from the Bronze Age, over 3000 years ago, but perhaps most dramatically are the hillforts, built by the Celtic tribes in the 500 years before the Roman conquest. Little survives of their everyday life but the shadowy remains of their ritual and religion can still be glimpsed from the air. Wales' earliest farmers of the Neolithic (some 4000 year ago) built their homes and buried their dead in the fertile plain of the Severn Valley. The Welshpool region is rich in evidence of ancient cultures.

Please remember that while many of the sites discussed here are visible from public roads and footpaths most of them are private property, and this should be respected. This information comes from the Regional Historic Environment Record (HER), a public-access database about archaeology and history curated by CPAT. Visitors can interrogate the map and read about, and see photographs of, the sites, monuments, buildings and artefacts of archaeological and historical interest, and access background information.

#Roman fort viking conquest series

Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust - Community Heritage - LlanbrynmairДЄs part of our Regional Heritage Management Service funded by Cadw, and in conjunction with the Welshpool Partnership and the BBC Walk Through Time web pages for mid-Wales (linked to the TV series British Isles, A Natural History), the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust have created an interactive map of Welshpool, Powys and various supporting web pages about the town and its surroundings.