Qualla: Llys Rhosyr

Llys Rhosyr: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ceri Thomas, CC BY-SA 2.0. The local people had always known. They called the field cae'r llys - the field of the court - and they could point out the low ridges in the grass where walls had once been. Henry Rowlands, vicar and antiquarian, mentioned it as early as the 18th century: sand drifts had occasionally exposed sections of stonework, then buried them again. But for six centuries after the last prince of independent Gwynedd died, nothing was excavated. The court of Llys Rhosyr - one of the seats of the Welsh princes, the place from which they governed the commote of Menai - lay under turf and sand on the edge of a village called Newborough, waiting. The dig finally began in 1992.

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Image: Ceri Thomas | CC BY-SA 2.0

Llys Rhosyr: What Llys Means

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Welsh word llys originally meant nothing more grand than an enclosed open-air space. Over time it took on the meaning of a place where legal proceedings were held, and then expanded again to mean a royal court - the residence and administrative centre of a Welsh ruler. Mediev...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Llys Rhosyr: Stone, Wood, and Silverware

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 瑞丽江的河水, CC BY-SA 4.0. Excavations by the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust from 1992 onwards revealed an enclosed complex that may originally have covered as much as 450 metres in one dimension. The trust uncovered only about a quarter of the walls but enough to establish the layout: a main surrounding wal...

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Image: 瑞丽江的河水 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Llys Rhosyr: Why It Was Buried

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Greig, CC BY-SA 2.0. The court fell with the principality. Edward I of England's conquest of Wales in 1282 to 1283 ended the independent rule of the princes of Gwynedd, and the entire administrative system collapsed within a generation. Edward then evicted the people of Llanfaes, on the eastern side ...

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Image: Ian Greig | CC BY-SA 2.0

Llys Rhosyr: Llys Llewelyn, Rebuilt

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sean Kisby, CC BY-SA 4.0. The site opened to the public for the first time in 1995, just three years after the dig began. In 2023, Cadw - the Welsh Government's historic environment agency - bought the site outright, and it is now a scheduled monument under permanent state protection. There is also a seco...

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Image: Sean Kisby | CC BY-SA 4.0