The Making of a Medieval Road: The Monk's Trod Routeway, Mid Wales

Abstract

The Monks' Trod is a well-preserved, constructed medieval road across the Cambrian mountains of mid Wales, linking the late 12th-century Cistercian houses of Strata Florida and Abbey Cwmhir, with a branch to Strata Marcella near Welshpool. Much of the road was constructed by the cut-and-fill technique, producing long stretches which run around or along hillsides or breast steep slopes at 45° to the contour. Some sections at least were evidently paved or metalled. In sectors where the going for horses was easy, the road was not constructed. In the Trod's central zone, extra width suggests that provision was made for droving. Names, field relationships and evidence of subsequent bog growth (perhaps in the Little Ice Age) help to confirm the age of this road. The construction of good roads would have been in the interest not only of the monastic authorities, but they would also have been essential components of the organisational network required by Rhys ap Gruffydd, the intelligent and capable contemporary ruler of Deheubarth. The number of comparable constructed medieval roads in Britain, and their importance as instruments of elite control, may have been underestimated.