Just to stand here, in what remains, is to stand where Llywelyn the Great (Llywelyn Fawr) once stood, where (perhaps) he rallied soldiers, collected taxes, settled disputes, hosted fetes, danced with his wife, or hatched a plan to conquer Ceredigion or assault Shrewsbury.

Llywelyn ruled most of Wales for 40 years -- but just 40 years after he died, it was all over. Under the Norman/English crown, the mighty, 800-year-long dynasty of the Kingdom of Gwynedd was crushed. And its court buildings were abandoned.

So complete was the conquest and the subsequent centuries of subjugation, that the court sites (and local memory of their exact locations) were lost to history.