> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://theromanfiles.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# A Roman Fort Near Frenni Fawr: What Its Finder Says It Means for a Welsh Legend
- URL: https://theromanfiles.com/roman-fort-frenni-fawr-pembrokeshire-macsen-wledig/
- Published: 2026-10-16T09:19:53.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-22T15:33:36.000Z
- Description: Dr Mark Merrony reports a Roman fort in Pembrokeshire and argues it connects to a medieval Welsh tale of the emperor Magnus Maximus. Wolfson College says further research is needed to establish any such link.
- Author: J E Cowie
- Tags: News

A Roman fort has been identified in west Wales, and the Wolfson College, Oxford, fellow who found it argues that it may explain a medieval Welsh legend. The claim is his own, set out in a first-person piece for The Conversation on 15 October 2026\. The Guardian reported the find as an exclusive on 12 October. Oxford's Wolfson College, in a news item on 14 October, called the legend link something that "further research will be needed to establish".

The case is a good one to read slowly. It rests on a satellite image, a handful of trenches and a few coins, set against a story from a collection of medieval Welsh tales.

![Map showing where Crymych is](https://theromanfiles.com/content/images/2026/10/map_crymych-4.jpg)

Crymych, Pembrokeshire, Wales

## The legend

The story comes from the Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh tales. In one of them, *The Dream of Macsen Wledig* (also called *The Tale of Emperor Maxen*), the emperor of the title is generally identified with Magnus Maximus, a late 4th-century usurping emperor. According to The Guardian, the tale has him pitching his camp at Frenni Fawr, the 395-metre (1,300ft) easternmost peak of the Preseli Hills.

The Guardian reports that there had been no archaeological evidence for a Roman marching camp or fort on the summit or below it until now. Merrony himself notes in The Conversation that no visible remains of such a camp exist on the mountain.

## How the fort was found

Merrony, a Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, traces the find back to 2002, when he rediscovered a Roman villa about 30 kilometres south-west of the later fort site. A volunteer there asked what such a high-status Roman site was doing in the middle of nowhere. Merrony did not know, and the question started him looking for a network of Roman roads through west Wales. He dates a breakthrough in that search to 2022\. The Guardian says he identified a Roman road along the southern shoulder of the Preselis that year.

In 2024, Merrony writes, he noticed earthworks suggestive of an auxiliary fort beside an almost certain Roman road near Crymych. The Guardian says satellite imagery showed a convincing outline in an overgrown field about 2 miles (3.5km) south-west of the summit, and that shortly after visiting it he spotted a Roman tile, the first of many. Merrony describes the enclosure as having the characteristic playing-card shape of an auxiliary fort and an area of about three hectares. The Guardian gives its dimensions as 180 by 150 metres, on a slope with a commanding view, and says it is likely to have held about 500 troops.

Merrony is open about how his work has been received. He writes that his observations of the Roman road network have "attracted a good deal of scepticism", a line he ties to the reception of the antiquarian Richard Fenton, who first identified the villa in the early 19th century.

## What the dig turned up

A limited geophysical survey and trial excavations preceded the main dig. Merrony says the survey placed two rectilinear buildings in the right place, and the trial digs produced a steady trickle of finds, including coins, a gaming counter, some Roman pottery and a spindle whorl. The Guardian reports that the survey confirmed a rectangular building in the middle of the enclosure and a larger one immediately to the south. Merrony told The Guardian that the arrangement is consistent with a headquarters building and a commander's house.

The main test, in Merrony's account, was an excavation of five trenches in early September:

- **Three trenches across the suspected principal buildings** (the commander's house, headquarters building and granaries). The first two revealed clay floor bases packed with the remnants of thin stone blocks, many disturbed by intermittent ploughing over many decades. One trench had a clay floor that Merrony calls consistent with Roman granaries, and another yielded a kiln that produced many fragments of Roman ceramic tile.
- **A trench to the north**, where a perimeter road would be expected. It found the base of a rampart and a road surface below plough level with rut marks in the expected orientation.
- **A trench up-slope**, where the survey had indicated a track. It did reveal a track. Merrony wrote that its date had yet to be established, though a small number of seemingly Roman pottery sherds were recovered.

The finds Merrony lists in The Conversation include a lead spindle whorl, an iron stylus for writing on wax tablets, a woodworking axe, a gaming counter, a third-century coin and two coins from the later fourth century. The Guardian adds that the site has yielded many pottery shards, large quantities of Roman tile and extensive compacted clay floors.

## The coins, and the argument built on them

The two late 4th-century coins date from Maximus' own period, and The Guardian reports that they, among other finds, suggest the medieval tale was rooted in reality. The Guardian reports that Merrony's brother, Nick, had jokingly asked him to find a couple of coins to prove the Maximus theory, and then found two dating from the late 4th century. Merrony told The Guardian it was "fascinating to consider that the two coins may be linked to the tale of Macsen Wledig".

His broader reading is in The Conversation. He says the collective findings indicate a typical timber fort, probably established during the campaign of the governor Sextus Julius Frontinus between AD74 and 78\. He adds that this "does indeed suggest a connection" between the camp of Magnus Maximus in the Mabinogion and the site. Speaking to The Guardian, he said: "If Magnus Maximus was there, there must have been an army there."

That is a chain of inference. Merrony frames some of its steps with "probably" and "suggest", though he ends his piece by calling the discovery "an extraordinary fusion between myth and reality" that "demonstrates that folklore is often underpinned by fact". Wolfson College's announcement is more cautious. It says the discovery could lend archaeological support to the legend and offers "important new evidence about the Roman presence in west Wales", while stating that further research will be needed to establish any connection with Magnus Maximus. In my view, the fort and the legend are two separate questions. The excavation bears directly on the first. Whether it bears on the second depends on how far two coins can carry a medieval tale.

## What comes next

According to The Guardian, one of several planned excavations had just finished as of 12 October, with support from Oxford University and crowdfunding. Merrony's research is due to appear in the magazine Antiqvvs, and Magnus Maximus will feature in his forthcoming book, *Lives of the Roman Emperors: From Augustus to Romulus Augustulus*.

## Sources

Guardian, The (2026) 'Roman fort found in Wales could prove myth of emperor's camp is real', The Guardian, 12 October 2026, available at: [https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/oct/12/mythical-roman-fort-frenni-fawr-wales-emperor](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/oct/12/mythical-roman-fort-frenni-fawr-wales-emperor?ref=theromanfiles.com) (Accessed: 22 October 2026).

Merrony, M. (2026) 'I discovered a Roman fort in Wales – it may hold the key to the ancient Welsh legend of Macsen Wledig', The Conversation, 15 October 2026, available at: [https://theconversation.com/i-discovered-a-roman-fort-in-wales-it-may-hold-the-key-to-the-ancient-welsh-legend-of-macsen-wledig-294506](https://theconversation.com/i-discovered-a-roman-fort-in-wales-it-may-hold-the-key-to-the-ancient-welsh-legend-of-macsen-wledig-294506?ref=theromanfiles.com) (Accessed: 22 October 2026).

Wolfson College, University of Oxford (2026) 'Roman fort discovery by Wolfson Fellow sheds new light on Welsh legend', Wolfson College, 14 October 2026, available at: [https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/news/roman-fort-discovery-by-wolfson-fellow-sheds-new-light-on-welsh-legend/](https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/news/roman-fort-discovery-by-wolfson-fellow-sheds-new-light-on-welsh-legend/?ref=theromanfiles.com) (Accessed: 22 October 2026).

## Picture credits

- Top picture: Crymych, Pembrokeshire. Image: Crymych, Pembrokeshire by Dylan Moore, via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crymych,%5FPembrokeshire%5F-%5Fgeograph.org.uk%5F-%5F3982184.jpg?ref=theromanfiles.com) ([CC BY-SA 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=theromanfiles.com))
- Map: drawn from [Natural Earth](https://www.naturalearthdata.com/?ref=theromanfiles.com) (public domain) and [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3460580?ref=theromanfiles.com).