Oxford Archaeologist Finds Roman Fort Behind Welsh Legend — SkimNews
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- Dr. Mark Merrony, a Roman specialist at the University of Oxford, identified a Roman fort roughly 2 miles southwest of Frenni Fawr, the easternmost peak of the Preseli Hills, in 2024 after spotting a convincing outline in satellite imagery and a Roman tile on the ground.
- Two late-fourth-century coins found at the site by Merrony's brother Nick back a legend in the Mabinogion's "Dream of Macsen Wledig," which describes Magnus Maximus pitching camp at Frenni Fawr — a tale that until now had no archaeological footprint.
- The fort measures 180 by 150 metres in a "characteristic playing-card form with rounded corners," and Merrony estimates it could have held about 500 troops, overturning prior assumptions that the local Celtic tribe coexisted peacefully with the Romans.
- Finds include an iron stylus, large quantities of Roman tiles, pottery shards, compacted clay floors, and preserved wagon rut marks; a geophysical survey identified a headquarters building and commander's house oriented east — a layout "consistent" with Roman military sites.
- Merrony's prior work includes a 2022 identification of a Roman road along the southern shoulder of the Preselis, previously thought to lie beyond Roman reach, plus Roman villas at Ford in Pembrokeshire and Cutteslowe in Oxfordshire.
- The excavation was funded by Oxford University and crowdfunding; Merrony's write-up will appear in the quarterly archaeology magazine Antiqvvs, and the emperor will also feature in his forthcoming book Lives of the Roman Emperors: From Augustus to Romulus Augustulus.
Why it matters: The discovery gives physical evidence to a 1,700-year-old Welsh legend and redefines the military footprint of Roman Britain in west Wales — Archaeologists now have a confirmed auxiliary fort in terrain long assumed to lie outside Roman control, with a headquarters and commander's quarters preserved well enough to map individual buildings.
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