Thousands sign petition to preserve Owain Glyndwr's Powys birthplace

Sycharth, near Llansilin in the north of the county, was the birthplace and home of Owain Glyndwr in 1354. 

It was the site of an impressive motte and bailey castle that was lauded by contemporary sources and later turned into a manor house for the Welsh leader.

Last year, Elfed Wyn ap Elwyn, a councillor for Plaid Cymru in Gwynedd, started the petition to have the Welsh government purchase the site as an area of historical interest.

So far that petition has gained more than 6,000 signatures.

“I want people to get involved in Welsh history and celebrate these events in Welsh history and to get young people, students and children to know more about their area,” said Cllr Ap Elwyn.

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“I had a think then about these sites of significant interest in Wales which are either neglected or not talked about or discussed enough – Sycharth was part of that.

“I thought compared with Conwy Castle or Caernarfon Castle it was not celebrated or discussed or promoted in the same way.”

Cllr Wyn ap Elwyn said the idea came from listening to a radio show about a theatre company doing a piece about Owain Glyndwr and that access to the site was muddy and difficult to get to.

He continued: “The object of the petition is to ask the Welsh government to buy the land and invest in it.

"My main aim is to get the Welsh Government to start a discussion with the landowner to see if the site can be acquired; I think there are proposals to tarmac the parking area, I’d like it signposted more and even make some of the roads better towards the site.”

Sycharth was considered very impressive in its time.

Poet Iolo Goch described Sycharth as containing “nine plated buildings on the scale of eighteen mansions, fair wooden buildings on top of a green hill” and “a tiled roof on every house with frowning forehead, and a chimney from which the smoke would grow; nine symmetrical, identical halls, and nine wardrobes by each one”.

The site was destroyed by Henry V in 1403 in the midst of the battle between Glyndwr and English forces.

Cllr Wyn ap Elwyn has said he would love to see some educational resources at the site and even some excavations to follow work that was done in the early 1960s which revealed the presence of two timber halls – one being 43 metres long – and provided evidence of the site being burned.

He hopes that the if the petition is successful it can lead on to further preservation.

“Sycharth is one of the sites that can open the gates of other sites in Welsh history,” he continued. “Sycharth is more than just a site it represents all the other sites and hidden history in Wales that needs to be brought to life and discussed.”