250px, Mynydd Esgairweddan, heather & rough grassland on the open moor. Afon Dyfi meanders in the distance. Mynydd Esgairweddan is a hill near

Pennal Pennal is a village and community on the A493 road in southern Gwynedd, Wales, on the north bank of the Afon Dyfi/River Dovey, near Machynlleth. It lies in the historic county of Merionethshire/ Sir Feirionnydd and is within the Snowdonia Na ...

in southern

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...

, Wales (). Nearby is the tiny settlement of Esgairweddan. It is very close to the site of the old

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

of Cefn Caer (Pennal). The area was described in the ''Topographical Dictionary of Wales'' by Samuel Lewis (published 1833) as;

"A tract of hilly and rocky ground but little adapted for purposes of agriculture. The soil is thin and poor, but, in some of the lower grounds, not altogether unproductive; the declivities of the hills afford only a scanty pasturage for sheep and young cattle: peat, which forms the principal fuel of the inhabitants, is found in various parts."

History

The name Esgairweddan is most associated with the site of the ancestral

demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...

of the

Price of Esgairweddan According to early modern genealogist Lewys Dwnn, Dafydd ap Dafydd ap Llywelyn was the illegitimate son of Dafydd ap Llywelyn, Prince of Wales and King of Gwynedd between 1240 and 1246. He is considered the ancestor of the Prys or Price of Esgair ...

family, the senior branch of the Royal House of

that survived the English conquest of Wales from 1282. Their ancestral home was known during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

as Plas yn y Rofft. It was probably located at the place now named ''Cwrt'' (meaning ''

Court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...

'') close to Esgairweddan. The line of Price of Esgairweddan became extinct with Robert Price, Esq. (died 1702), who left two daughters; Mary and Anne (Anne died in 1750). The estates, at the demise of the former, passed to the Edwardses of Talgarth and formed part of the Pennal Towers Estate. Frances Edwards (c. 1790–1828) married Captain Charles Thomas ThrustonFor more on Charles Thomas Thruston see: (d. 1858) of

Hoxne Hoxne ( ) is a village in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England, about five miles (8 km) east-southeast of Diss, Norfolk and south of the River Waveney. The parish is irregularly shaped, covering the villages of Hoxne, Cross Street a ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. The last Thruston was killed in an uprising at Fort Luburan,

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

in 1897 and since 1927 the land has been owned by a charitable trust. Archaeological findings in the area date back to the Late

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

References

* * * Bryncrug Pennal Mountains and hills of Gwynedd Mountains and hills of Snowdonia {{Gwynedd-geo-stub