Cylchgronau Cymru

Andrew Breeze The Hereford Map, lately discussed by Valerie Flint, was probaboy begun at Lincoln before 1278 and completed at Hereford by 1283. One place on it is an unidentified 'Mons Clece' in central Wales. Professor Flint notes that GR Crone in 1954 thought this might be Plynlimon near Aberystwyth or Clee Hill in Shropshire. Yet she suggests that 'Lleyn, the hill jutting out south-westwards from the present county of Caernarvon, seems a far more likely solution. Lleyn was adjudged to Llywelyn's brother after the treaty of Conway in 1277, and remained a vital section of Llywelyn's lands until his death in 1282." There are four objections to this. First, Lleyn (<Irish Laigin 'Leinstermen') is not a hill but a district, low-lying by Welsh standards, and extending from Bardsey Sound to Pwllheli.2 Second, while Lleyn forms part of a peninsula and is thus all but surrounded by water, the Hereford Map shows 'Mons Clece' as firmly inland, with the Dee and Severn rising on each side of it. Third, Professor Flint does not explain how the n of Lleyn can appear as 'c' in 'Mons Clece'. Fourth, it is hard to see why Lleyn, remote from Hereford, should be of special interest there. Another explanation seems likelier. The only name in mid-Wales resembling 'Mons Clece' is Cefnllys, where the first element is cefn 'back: ridge, hill', and the second is llys 'court'. In the thirteenth century the Mortimers built a famous castle at Cefnllys, sited (at grid reference SO 089614, two miles east of Llandrindod Wells) on a hilltop above the 1000 foot contour, with the river Ithon snaking through a gorge around it. The castle occupied the site of an Iron Age hill-fort, using some of its defences.4 Originally put up in 1240 x 46, Cefnllys castle was damaged by a Welsh attack on 29 November 1262.5 It was rebuilt in 1273-4 and provided with a borough, first recorded in 1297, and having 25 tenants and a mill by 1304, but thereafter slowly declining.6 Yet the castle still impressed the bard Lewys Glyn Cothi (c. 1420-89), who praised its moat and likened its white walls to those of Gloucester.7 In 1461 castle and manor became crown property, thanks to the marriage of Edward IV's grandfather to Anne Mortimer.8 The castle is now little more than rubble. Nothing remains of the borough but the riverside church of St Michael. As regards forms of the name, Cefnllys is recorded as 'Keventhles' in a letter of 1262 by Peter de Aquablanca, bishop of Hereford 1 240-68. Leland, translating from a French chronicle, gives it as ‘Keventles’. In 1679 it is recorded as 'Kevenlleece'.11 In the nineteenth century 'Kevenlleece' is