SPECIAL events will be held in Cilmeri and Builth Wells to mark 737 years since the death of independent Wales’ last prince.

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, or ‘Llywelyn the Last’, died at the Battle of Irfon Bridge, in Cilmeri, on December 11, 1282.

His defeat by the English, and the end of an independent Wales, is remembered annually at the large standing stone near the spot where he was killed.

This weekend commemorative events will take place in the Builth Wells area in the lead up to Prince Llywelyn Memorial Day.

A memorial service in Welsh, English and Latin at Llanynys Church at 11.15am on Saturday, December 7, will be followed by a procession at Cilmeri.

A band, banners, patriotic music and speeches, and the laying of wreaths will be part of the parade to the Llywelyn Monument at Cilmeri, at 2pm.

The day finishes with a ‘Noson Lawen’ at the Neuadd Arms Hotel, in Llanwrtyd Wells, starting at 7pm.

Prince Llywelyn’s army will be remembered in Builth Wells on Sunday, December 8, at 10am, followed by a visit to his castle in Aberedw.

A commemorative service will then be held at the remains of Cwmhir Abbey, near Llandrindod Wells - Llywelyn’s final resting place - at 1pm. The annual lecture - ‘The Seal of the Abbey and Sign of the Inn’ - starts at 2.15pm in the Phillips Hall, followed by a meeting at 3.30pm to discuss the annual event.

In 2003, a mural was painted on Builth Wells’ Broad Street of scenes relating to Wales’ celebrated 13th Century hero. Considered an iconic Mid Wales landmark, it shows the final days before Llywelyn’s death. It took 15 days to paint and shows Llywelyn and his men being turned away from Builth Castle while trying to flee from the English; his farrier Red Madoc who reversed the shoes on Llywelyn’s horse to confuse his enemies; and a battle.

The spot where Llywelyn fell in Cilmeri was marked in 1902 by a stone obelisk, however it was replaced in 1956 by a block of granite, sourced from Trefor Quarry in Llywelyn’s native Gwynedd. It is embedded in a plinth set on a low grassy mound near the A483.