⚔ Battlefields of Britain

Battle of Arfderydd 573

Marker: recorded battle location (no official boundary).

Key facts

Date (year)573Wikidata P585 point in time
Century6th centuryderived
PeriodEarly medieval, Anglo-Saxon & Vikingderived
CountryEnglandderived

About the battle

The Battle of Arfderydd (also known as Arderydd) was fought in medieval Britain in AD 573, according to the Annales Cambriae. The opposing armies are identified in a number of Old Welsh sources but vary between them, perhaps suggesting several allied armies were involved. The main adversaries appear to have been Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio and either the princely brothers Peredur and Gwrgi or King Rhydderch Hael of Strathclyde. Gwenddoleu was defeated and killed in the battle. His bard, Myrddin Wyllt, reportedly went mad and ran into the forest. He is one of several proposed origins for the Arthurian character Merlin. The Welsh Triads refer to this battle as one of the "Three Futile Battles of the Island of Britain", along with the Battle of Camlann and the Battle of the Trees.

The 14th-century chronicler John of Fordun's Chronica Gentis Scotorum places the battle on the plain between Liddel and Carwannok. This was identified by W. F. Skene as being at Arthuret, near Longtown, Cumberland (now Cumbria), in North West England.

Visiting the battlefield

Location

  • Recorded location (Wikidata; may be approximate): 55.0167, -2.9167

Battlefields are often on private farmland: please keep to public rights of way and respect landowners.

Directions (Google Maps) OpenStreetMap

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Arfderydd (revision 1378907345), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations removed. No text added.

Battle location from Wikidata (CC0).

Nearby battlefields

Browse more: battles in England · Early medieval, Anglo-Saxon & Viking · 6th century battles

Further reading