Aberffraw

Aberffraw is a small village and community on the south west coast of the Isle of Anglesey (Welsh: Ynys Môn), in Wales, by the west bank of the River Ffraw, at grid reference SH354693. The UK postcode begins LL63. Access by road is by way of the A4080 and the nearest rail station is Bodorgan. In the early Middle Ages Aberffraw was the capital of the Kingdom of Gwynedd from c.860 AD until c.1170. Under the eponymous Aberffraw Dynasty it came to be the most important political centre in medieval Wales. The Llys remained the symbolic throne of the Kings of Gwynedd from the 9th century to the 13th century. The Royal Annals of Edward I of England show the Llys was dismantled in 1315 to provide building materials for nearby Beaumaris Castle.

...appeared to demonstrate the presence of a two-phase, round-angled, rectangular enclosure, at least 70m NNE-SSW, thought to represent a Roman military work, refurnished in the early medieval period as a llys (Princely court) enclosure; although a radio-carbon date centring on the period 27-387AD, appears to support this thesis, the identification of a Roman work is currently out of favour: the site of the llys, whose (partial?) dismantling is recorded in 1317, is regarded as uncertain: two sculptured heads, of apparent C13 style, are known from the village (White 1978): the putative curving angle of the enclosure has been suggested to hint at the former presence of a motte: excavations at the traditional site of the llys, about 650m to the WSW, recorded only C18 remains. Excavation, 1973-4 (White 1979) .