Roman Aberffraw

There is good archaeological evidence that Aberffraw village was the site of an old Roman fort. Nothing remains above ground to indicate where it once stood. However, In 1973, excavations west of Bodorgan Square uncovered a sequence of substantial banks and ditches. Further excavations in 1978, on the site of a former smithy on Chapel Street revealed comparable evidence and it has been argued that both discoveries relate to the same sequence of banks and ditches. The earliest ditch was V-profiled, up to 6 m. wide and 2.5 m. deep. The evidence for accompanying banks is less obvious, due to later truncation. Nevertheless, an interpretation has been proposed which suggests that the V-profiled ditch was flanked by a clay rampart  around 5 m. wide with a berm 1.5 m. wide between the bank and the ditch. These together would represent a barrier of defensible proportions. On the evidence of the scale and profile of the ditch it has been suggested that the bank and ditch might represent the presence of a Roman auxiliary fort. During the excavations finds consisted of two pieces of coarse grey-ware (course grey pottery) and a single piece of samian ware (a kind of bright red pottery).

It is possible that Cornelius Tacitus mentioned the fort in contemporary accounts.  A passage describes the aftermath of the attack on Anglesey by the Roman general Suetonius Paulinus. He had spent two years, subduing tribes and strengthening his garrison on the mainland. He then attacked the island of Anglesey, a rallying-point for rebellious tribes, in A.D.60/61.

In 1640 an ingot of copper was found at Aberffraw. It was stamped: ‘SOCIO ROMAE-NATSOL’. It had probably been mined at Parys Mountain, smelted nearby, and then transported to Aberffraw for export to mainland Britain or Ireland.

A third ditch probably belonged to the early-Medieval period. Evidence for occupation during the Medieval period comes from carved fragments dated from the 13th century, when a court complex, for which there is documentary evidence, occupied the site.