CARNO, a parish, in the lower division of the hundred of LLANIDLOES, county of MONTGOMERY, NORTH WALES, 11 miles (W. N.
W.) from Newtown, containing 1010 inhabitants. In 948, a battle was fought here for the sovereignty of North Wales,
between Ievav and Ingo, the sons of Edwal Voel, and those of Hywel Dda, late king of all Wales, which terminated in favour
of the former. And in 1077, or, according to some, in 1082, an eminence called Mynydd Cam, from a large carnedd upon it,
commemorative of some distinguished warrior of a still more remote period, was the scene of one of the most sanguinary
battles ever fought in the principality, between Grufydd ab Cynan, rightful sovereign of North Wales, aided by Rhts ab
Tewdwr, Prince of South Wales, and Trahaern ab Caradoc, who then usurped the throne, in which the latter was defeated and
slain, after a sharp and obstinate conflict, with the flower of his army, and Grufydd succeeded to the throne, which he
filled for fifty-seven years, and died in 1137: his biography is preserved in the Welsh Archaeology, from which be appears
to have been distinguished by strong and decisive powers of mind. The scene of this battle is by some fixed at Carno in
Brecknockshire, but the event may possibly be confounded with an engagement that took place there, in 728, between Rhodri
Molwynog, and Ethelbald King of Mercia. The village is situated on the road from Newtown to Machynlleth: there is a
turbary in the parish, where peat is obtained for the consumption of the adjoining district. The hills command fine views
of the vale of Carno and the surrounding eminences. The living is a perpetual curacy, endowed with £800 royal bounty, and
£200 parliamentary grant, and in the peculiar jurisdiction and patronage of the Bishop of Bangor. The church, dedicated to
St. John the Baptist, is an unadorned stone edifice, rebuilt in 1807: it formerly belonged to the knights of St. John of
Jerusalem, who are said to have had a house near it. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and
Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. The poor are maintained by an average annual expenditure amounting to £725. 11.