19678

 

I  

Designated  

07/06/1963  

22/04/1998  

Pillar of Eliseg  

 

Denbighshire  

Llantysilio  

Llangollen  

Valle Crucis  

320272  

344528  

E  

The pillar is raised on a tumulus, approximately 50m from the road, and 400m N of Valle Crucis Abbey  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

The cross was set up in the C9 by Cyngen, 808-854 AD, last king of Powys in honour of his great grandfather, Eliseg, who had enlarged the kingdom by taking land occupied by the English. The presence of this outstanding cross here indicates the presence of a royal estate in this valley. The mound on which it stands could well be his burial place as excavation prior to the re-erection of the cross in 1780 revealed a burial cist, but this could equally be a prehistoric tumulus. The recording of the inscription by Edward Llwyd in the late C17 has been fundamental to any understanding of the early history of the Kingdom of Powys.  

The base section of a sandstone 'round-shaft' cross, approximately 2.41m high, the upper part broken and lost after being thrown down in the Civil War, set in a socket on a large flat base, approximately 1.65m x 1.65 m x 0.42m thick. The cross was inscribed with a long text of 31 lines in round half-uncial script, and was most fortunately recorded by Edward Llwyd in 1696. It is now almost invisible, and has an added inscription on the opposite, NE, face recording the re-setting up in 1780, by T Lloyd de Trevor.  

 

Included at Grade I as a very important cultural icon in the history of Wales, and of the greatest significance as an early Celtic cross, unusually fully inscribed, illuminating the early history of the kingdom of Powys. Scheduled Ancient Monument