BRONLLYS, or BRINLLYS (BRWYNLLYS), a parish, in the hundred of TALGARTH, county of BRECKNOCK, SOUTH WALES, 7 miles (S.
W.) from Hay, on the road to Brecknock, containing 286 inhabitants. The village occupies a pleasant situation at no great
distance from the river Llyvni, or Llynvi, and, though poor and inconsiderable, derives some historical importance from
its ancient castle, which, occupying the summit of an artificial mount on the banks of the Llyvni, appears to have been
designed to protect the pass of that river, and to communicate with the strong post at Dines, about three miles to the
south. Its origin is involved in impenetrable obscurity: Mr. King, in his " Munimenta Antique," is of opinion that it was
built in the period between the landing of Julius Caesar and the reign of the Emperor Claudius, from a Syrian model
introduced by the Phoenicians who traded to Cornwall, in which county a similar tower is still standing at Launceston.
But, although its remains bear evidence of great antiquity, so remote an origin as this may reasonably be doubted: from
its close resemblance to some of the early eastern towers, it is not improbable that it was built by the Normans from
models which they had seen abroad when engaged in the crusades. The first historical notice of it is in the reign of Henry
I., by whom it was granted, together with the castle of Llandovery, to Richard Fitz-Pons: it afterwards passed into the
noble families of de Clifford, Giffard, de Bohun, and Stafford, and, on the attainder of Stafford, the last Duke of
Buckingham, in the reign of Henry VIII., escheated to the crown. Towards the latter part of the twelfth century it was
greatly damaged by an accidental fire; and Mahel, the grand-nephew of Bernard Newmarch, and lord of Brecknock, who was
noted only for his inhumanity, being at the time on a visit to Walter de Clifford, met his death by the falling of a stone
upon his head, whilst the fire was raging. The venerable remains of the castle consist principally of one lofty circular
tower, about twentyfive feet in diameter, of great solidity, and built with small hewn stones. Although a breach, level
with the ground outside, appears to have been made in the wall of the tower, the original entrance was at some distance
from the ground, and was pro-hip approached by a flight of wooden steps: the arches of this doorway, and of most of the
windows, are each rudely formed of two inclined stones. At the eastern extremity of the parish a substantial bridge,
called Pontithel, has been erected over the Llyvni, which river after flowing through the parish, falls into the Wye near
Glisbury. The handsome mansion of Pontywal, the property of Mrs. Clarke, formerly belonged to the Howards, a Roman
Catholic family of some note in this county: in the old portion of the house are the remains of what appears to have been
a chapel, and under the more modern parts were all the appearances of a place of burial: this estate was purchased, about
the year 1750, by the late Evan Hughes, Esq., who was high sheriff of the county in 1754, from whom it passed to his
niece, and is now entailed upon her granddaughters after the decease of Mrs. Clarke. In this parish is an old family
mansion, called Trevithel, from Ithel, King of Gwent, as it is said, who was slain by the men of Brycheiniog, about the
year 846: it is now occupied as a farm-house. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Brecknock, and
diocese of St. David's, rated in the king's books at £4. 16.0., and in the patronage of Walter Devereux Wilkins, Esq.
The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a small edifice, adjoining the village, with a detached tower standing at its north-
eastern angle, in which are five bells. There is a table of benefactions in the church, from which it appears that the sum
of £10 was given by an unknown benefactor, to be vested for the benefit of the poor; and Al. 4. per annum, by will of
Mrs. Sybil Williams, of Trevithel, in 1761; and that the rectorial tithes of Llandevalle, and Crickadarn, were charged by
the Rev. D. Williams, of Stapleford, in the county of Hertford, with the payment of forty shillings per annum for the poor
of BronllYs. In a field called Croeslechau, on the farm of Bryn y groes, in this parish, is a small cromlech, under part
of which grows a white thorn, which, it is said, has gradually raised the covering, or horizontal, stone several inches
out of its original position. The average annual expenditure for the support of the poor is £222. 3.