Four miles from Machynlleth
Pennal sits about four miles west of Machynlleth, on the north side of the Dyfi on the road that runs towards Aberdyfi and the coast. It is a compact, easily missed village — a church, a cluster of houses, green hills behind — and yet it holds one of the biggest stories in Welsh history, which makes it the perfect short half-day trip from town. Getting there without a car is straightforward: the G21 bus, run by Machynlleth-based Lloyds Coaches, serves Machynlleth–Pennal–Aberdyfi–Tywyn–Fairbourne–Dolgellau, so Pennal pairs naturally with a trip onward to Aberdyfi and its beach. Drivers will do the run in a few minutes; see getting around for the wider bus picture.
St Peter ad Vincula and the Pennal Letter
Pennal's church of St Peter ad Vincula is the reason historians make pilgrimages here. It was at Pennal that Owain Glyndŵr held his final parliament, and from here, in Lent 1406, that he signed the famous Pennal Letter to King Charles VI of France — a document proposing nothing less than an independent Welsh church and universities for Wales. It is one of the most remarkable statements of national ambition to survive from medieval Britain. The original letter is held far away, in the Archives Nationales in Paris, but the church displays a facsimile, and another can be seen at the Parliament House in Machynlleth, where the wider Glyndŵr story is told. Visiting both on the same day — the town where he was crowned in 1404 and the village where his last parliament met — makes for a genuinely moving history trail.
What the Pennal Letter actually asked for
The letter is short, in Latin and startling in its ambition. Glyndŵr's opening move was diplomatic rather than devout: Christendom was split by the Great Schism, and he offered to switch Welsh allegiance from Rome's Innocent VII, backed by Henry IV, to Benedict XIII at Avignon, France's pope. In exchange he set out what Wales should have — a Welsh church independent of Canterbury, clergy who actually spoke Welsh to their congregations, and two universities of its own, at a time when Wales had none. He asked Benedict to punish Henry IV as a heretic for destroying churches and killing Welsh clergy, and called the English “the barbarous Saxons, who usurped to themselves the land of Wales”. The original is in the Archives Nationales in Paris (J516 B.40 and J516.29); it came home only briefly, for an exhibition at the National Library of Wales in 2000, and in 2009 the Library produced six facsimiles on aged parchment with reproduced seals for Welsh institutions. The church's memorial garden holds a bronze statue of Glyndŵr, unveiled in 2004; more on our history page.
Roman Pennal: two forts above the crossing
Cefn Caer is not one fort but two, built one after another on a low spur above the Dyfi floodplain. The geography explains it: the spot commands the highest tidal point of the river and its first good crossing. The earlier fort, of around AD 80, was substantial — roughly 163 by 161 metres, some 2.6 hectares, with two or perhaps three ditches and ramparts of turf and timber. A smaller fort of about 140 by 129 metres replaced it, with a single ditch and a south-western annexe that may have held a bath-house and a mansio, the Roman equivalent of an official posting inn, with underfloor heating in one building. Outside the walls a civilian settlement grew up, its metalled streets lined by strip buildings and aisled halls used for homes, trade and light industry — busiest between roughly AD 130 and 160, with traces of occupation into the third century. It is a scheduled monument, but be realistic: the land is private farmland, and only faint ramparts and ditches can be made out in what is now the heart of Wales's UNESCO Biosphere. What you really see at Pennal is the fort's afterlife, in the walls of the church.
Cefn Caer: the Roman fort
Glyndŵr was not the first power to find Pennal strategically useful. Near the village lies Cefn Caer, the site of a first-century Roman fort commanding this stretch of the Dyfi Valley — and the connection is built into the village quite literally, because the church of St Peter ad Vincula was rebuilt using stones taken from the fort site. Standing by the church, you are looking at recycled Roman masonry in the walls of the building where Glyndŵr's chaplains once worshipped: two thousand years of Welsh history layered into one small churchyard. It is a reminder of how long this quiet valley has mattered to whoever wished to hold Mid Wales.
Stay the night: Gwerniago campsite
On the edge of Pennal village, Gwerniago is a campsite on a family-run working farm, run by a Welsh-speaking family, with elevated views across the unspoilt Dyfi Valley, woodland and riverside walks nearby. It is popular with walkers, cyclists and families — the site was voted in the top five by the children in the book Cool Camping Kids — and it keeps a proper old-fashioned farm-holiday feel: campfires are allowed, you park next to your tent, young children can enjoy a pony ride by the farmhouse in the evenings, and in lambing season they may help feed the young lambs. Gwerniago Campsite, Pennal, Machynlleth SY20 9JX; tel 01654 791227; gwerniago.co.uk (details supplied by the site — contact them to confirm current arrangements). More pitches and sites around the valley are on our camping page.
Practical Information
Pennal is roughly 4 miles from Machynlleth; the G21 bus links the two and continues to Aberdyfi and Tywyn, and from Gwerniago the old listing reckons Aberdyfi about a 15-minute drive. The church and village can be seen in an unhurried hour, so most visitors combine Pennal with the coast, with Tal-y-llyn under Cadair Idris, or with a Glyndŵr-themed day starting at Machynlleth's Parliament House — open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10.30am–3.30pm, admission free. Our day trips page has more ideas within easy reach of town.
Day trips