Wales's Forgotten Past

This journey across Wales takes the road less travelled, uncovering obscure stories and misunderstood characters in tales as varied and vast as Wales's terrain.

Wales is famed for its dragons and castles, bards and songs, but through its valleys runs a deeper, much richer past. This fascinating history of Wales uncovers figures and events hitherto overlooked and provides a new perspective on paths previously trodden. Through these compelling stories, Wales’s Forgotten Past paints a picture of a culturally vast country, brimming with regional diversity and pride. Delyth Badder introduces us to the myriad, colourful elements of Welsh history which have been accidentally forgotten – or deliberately obfuscated.

On this tour from ancient settlements to present-day football pitches, we meet some of the country’s most misremembered and misunderstood characters, coming face to face with modern giantesses, fire-wielding druids, vengeful medieval monsters and maniacal inventors. We’ll read of ancient battles with unlikely kinships, curious cults, the world’s first-ever railway journey and Ceredigion’s secret cure for cancer, magnified by Joe McLaren’s striking illustrations. Avid historians and readers new to Wales’s past alike will find this book surprising and refreshing, and gain a new understanding of the multifarious communities and individuals which continue to make Welsh history.