s containing the buried but well preserved skeletons of several men with formidable physical proportions. At least one of these was found in the seated position and another buried beneath a massive stone "shield" who had apparently been killed by a head wound. The bones appear to have been sent to various museums and have all since been woefully lost. One of the tumuli was known locally as Banc Benisel and was reputedly the grave of a Sawyl Penuchel

Sawyl Penuchel

Sawyl Penuchel or Ben Uchel , also known as Samuil Penisel , was a British king of the sub-Roman period, who appears in old Welsh genealogies and the Welsh Triads....

, a legendary King of the Britons presumably from late Iron Age Britain. His epithet

Epithet

An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...

 Penuchel or Ben Uchel means "high head" perhaps on account of his height. http://www.kidwellyhistory.co.uk/Articles/AlltCunedda/AlltCunedda.htm#2 According to the Welsh Life of Saint Cadoc

Cadoc

Saint Cadoc , Abbot of Llancarfan, was one of the 6th century British Christian saints. His vita twice mentions King Arthur. The Abbey of Llancarfan, near Cowbridge in Glamorganshire, which he founded circa 518, became famous as a centre of learning...

, a king named Sawyl Penuchel held court at Allt Cunedda. Confusingly, Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...

, in his Historia Regum Britanniae

Historia Regum Britanniae

The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...

 (1136), uses the name Samuil Penessil for a legendary pre-Roman king of Britain, preceded by Redechius

Redechius

Redechius was a legendary king of the Britons according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain . He was preceded by Redon and succeeded by Samuil Penissel....

 and succeeded by Pir

Pir of the Britons

Pir was a legendary king of the Britons according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. He was preceded by Samuil Penissel, and succeeded by Capoir....

. Whether this is the same king and Cadoc's tale is just revisiting an old folk memory, this a different man of the same name, or simply an error by the composer of the Life, is unclear.

Much of the archaeological evidence was inadvertently destroyed by J. Fenton's expedition in 1851 and it is not known if all the great men buried at this site were contemporaries or if there were successive burials on a site with long term cultural significance. The name connection with Cunedda makes it tempting to speculate that the great Cunedda himself may have been buried at this site; a site whose Iron Age notoriety may well have maintained a cultural importance well after the end of the Roman

Roman Britain

Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

 period and into the Dark Ages. The folk memories of people living near Allt Cunedda that were recorded by the Victorian antiquarians suggests an enduring respect for this site of deep historic importance.

Immediate ancestors

• Eternus (Edeyrn) father
• Paternus (Padarn Beisrudd, of the red robe) grandfather
• Tacitus (Tegid) great grandfather

Issue

• Osmail
• Rumanus
• Dunautus
• Eternus
• Ceretic
• Abloyc
• Enniaun Girt (Einion Yrth)
• Docmail
• Typiaun

Footnotes