THE RUINS OF the Valle Crucis Abbey, formerly a Cistercian establishment, stand a few miles away from the Welsh town of Llangollen. Not far away from these picturesque remains, there is a grassy  mound on the top of which there is a stone column. This is the Pillar of Eliseg.

The Pillar was erected in the ninth century by Cyngen ap Cadell (died 855), king of Powys, to commemorate his great-grandfather Elisedd ap Gwylog (died c. 755), also a king of Powys.

The pillar has a lengthy Latin inscription that is now impossible to read, but it was deciphered by the antiquarian Edward Lluyd in 1696. According to the website of CADW, a Welsh governmental organisation that looks after ancient sites, the gist of the inscription is as follows:

“One phrase includes the names of successive rulers of the kingdom of Powys during the 8th and 9th centuries. Another reveals that the cross was erected by Cyngen in memory of his great-grandfather Eliseg, who was said to have expelled the Anglo-Saxon English from this part of Wales.”

As to its purpose, this source stated:

“It’s thought that the carefully composed inscription, which includes legal terminology, was intended to be read aloud, to be proclaimed to an audience. Could this be where the ancient rulers of Powys were appointed? Is it a victory monument, declaring political ownership of land won back from the English, or vital propaganda at a time when the kingdom was under threat? Or all of these things?”

During the English Civil War, the Parliamentarian soldiers pulled down the pillar, damaging part of it. The remaining upper part of it was re-erected in 1779. And it can be seen easily from the road that runs between the remains of the abbey and the Horseshoe Pass. Eliseg and his descendants would most probably be disappointed to find that to a large extent Wales is now within the control of England.