In December 1282 Llywelyn ap Gruffudd came south into the Builth country with a small force, apparently expecting support. Tradition says that on the night before he died he was at Aberedw, and that he learned he was in danger. He hid in a tiny cave in the crags above the River Edw, a cell cut into the rock hardly big enough for a man to lie down in, which is still called Llywelyn's Cave.
There was snow on the ground. To keep his enemies from tracking him, he had the local smith reverse the shoes on his horse, so that the tracks would seem to lead the other way. But the smith, in the version remembered in Builth, went and told the English what he had done. Llywelyn rode to Cilmeri, was cut down near the bridge over the Irfon by a soldier who did not know who he was, and his head was sent to London.
The people of Builth had a further charge laid against them: that they shut their castle gates against the prince when he came to them. Between the gates and the smith, the town earned the name bradwyr Buallt, the traitors of Builth, which it has never quite shaken off. At Cilmeri a memorial stone marks the place of his death. None of this can be checked against the few contemporary records, which is exactly why it has lasted.
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