ast week the Prince of Wales visited the ruins of Abbey Cwmhir in the valley of the Clywedog brook in Wales to highlight the area’s history and the preservation work happening.
Prince Charles visited the Abbey ruins to meet with local historians and community members. Since the mid-1980s, the Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust has worked hard to preserve the ruins and to promote local history and heritage. Historians there toured the sit with the Prince and discussed the history of the Abbey.
Abbey Cwmhir was a Cistercian Abbey that was founded in 1176 by Cadwallon ap Madog, a Welsh Prince who was killed by Sir Roger Mortimer. The site holds particular significance in Welsh history, as it is the burial site of the famed Welsh poet, Dafydd ap Gwilym, as well as several different Welsh princes.
The last Welsh Prince of Wales was buried at Abbey Cwmhir. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd was the last sovereign Prince of Wales and was born in ~1222 CE. At the Battle of Orewin Bridge, he was killed by beheading on 11 December 1282. Without his head, his body was buried at the Abbey.
Each 11 December, the Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust holds a Service in the Abbey ruins and then hosts a lecture afterwards to mark the Prince’s death.
Prince Charles also visited Strata Florida, another Cistercian Abbey to open the Arddangosfa Mynachlog Fawr Exhibition. The exhibition looks at the lives of people who lived and worked on farms in the area.
The current Prince of Wales has a long-standing interest in Welsh history. He spent a term studying at the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth to learn the Welsh language, as well as history and culture. During his 1969 Investiture, the new Prince of Wales gave two speeches- one in English and one in Welsh.
