While cycling through north Pembrokeshire in 2024, archaeologist Mark Merrony noticed a piece of roofing slate poking out of the ground near the hill of Frenni Fawr. Two seasons of digging later, he believes he has found a Roman fort, Smithsonian Magazine reports, and one with a place in Welsh legend.
Finds so far include fourth-century coins, an iron writing stylus, a gaming piece and fragments of tile. A breakthrough in early September exposed floors, a stretch of Roman road, a kiln and the kind of raised flooring used in granaries. The site may have covered up to three hectares, enough room for around 500 soldiers.
Merrony thinks the fort was built in the 70s AD under the governor Sextus Julius Frontinus and used again centuries later by Magnus Maximus, the general remembered in the medieval Mabinogion as Macsen Wledig. “If Magnus Maximus was there, there must have been an army there,” he told the Guardian. If he is right, a story told in Wales for a thousand years has solid ground beneath it.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine