Dinas Emrys

Dinas Emrys, Myrddin's (Merlin's) Fort, Craflwyn. Steeped in legend. A magnificent and truly outstandingly beautiful place to spend my final morning in this stunning country. The information plaque warned to tread carefully as the Red Dragon of Wales sleeps beneath the earth mountain. And so I did. The legend tells of a 5th century Vortigern (ruler) who set about building a castle at the top the mountain. Every day the Royal masons would complete their work and retire to wake the following morning to find that all of their tools were missing and their efforts had been destroyed. The vortigern sought the advice of his sorcerers and mystics who recommended that he find a child born of a human mother and an otherworldly father. Vortigern found such a child. However the child turned out to be Merlin who instructed the Vortigern that his efforts were lost due to the meddling of the two dragons that lived deep inside the mountain by the side of an lake. In order to complete his Fort, the Vortigern and his men had to dig into the mountain side, find the two dragons and resolve the meddling. Both were found snoozing by cave pool. Once awake, the two dragons, one white and one red, started to fight. The white dragon fled and the red dragon returned to his lair by the Cave pool deep inside the mountain. The red dragon's image was recorded by the scribes. It remains on the Welsh flag to this day. In 1945, the site was excavated and archaeologists discovered a lake within the mountain along with the ruins of a fortress dating back to the 5th century. The walls showed signs of having been rebuilt several times.