Dr Alan Lane of Cardiff University on ‘The Llangorse crannog: a short-lived Welsh royal site of the Viking Age’. (CAA Research Fund project)
The Llangorse crannog was first discovered in the mid 19th century and was published and recognised in the Insular and European crannog literature of the time. But the absence of datable artefacts and the failure to find similar sites in Wales or England led to scepticism and it dropped out of archaeological view. New work and dendrochronological dating in the late 1980s led to a campaign of excavation and underwater survey which has now reached final publication. Llangorse is a unique short-lived royal crannog of the kings of Brycheiniog which was destroyed by a Mercian army in a reprisal raid. Artefacts and ecofacts combined with summer-felled oak timbers allow us an unprecedented view of a named early medieval settlement with clear Irish origins.
Further reading:
Lane, A. and Redknap, M. 2019. Llangorse Crannog: The Excavation of an Early Medieval Royal Site in the Kingdom of Brycheiniog. Oxford, Oxbow.