Mathrafal is a banked and ditched rectilinear enclosure, c.100m square, resting on the river Banwy on the south-east, with a rather rectangular mound, 35m by 24m and 4.7m high at its north-east angle.
It was previously suggested to have been an early medieval royal site. A program of investigation, culminating in an excavation in 1989 (Arnold & Huggett 1995) demonstrated that the mound could be associated with an oval ditched enclosure, disused and filled by c. 1310-1430, superceded by the rectilinear enclosure, itself not constructed until after about 1200.
The origins of the 'Royal court' tradition have been traced to the mid. 13th century.
A sequence of buildings, ending as a 19th century farm, occupied the north-west angle of the enclosure.
