Maen Huail

{{Short description|Stone block in Ruthin, Wales}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox ancient site

|name = Maen Huail

|alternate_name =

|image = Maen Huail.jpg

|caption = The stone stands against the wall of Exmewe Hall, facing the roundabout.

|alt =

| map_type = Wales Denbighshire

| map_alt = Denbighshire

| map_caption =

| map_size = 280

| relief =

| area =

|location = Centre of Ruthin. (OS Grid ref SJ123582)

|region = North Wales

|coordinates = {{coord|53.1144|-3.3108|display=inline,title}}

|type = historic stone

|epochs = post-medieval or older

|cultures =

|excavations =

|archaeologists =

|public_access = Yes

|condition = Good

|website =

|designation1 = Scheduled monument

|designation1_number = DE030

|designation1_date =

}}

Maen Huail is a stone block at St Peter's Square, in the centre of Ruthin, Denbighshire, North Wales. A circular plaque next to it states "Maen Huail on which tradition states, King Arthur beheaded Huail, brother of Gildas the historian". The stone was recorded in 1699 as being in the middle of the road,{{Watprn|coflein|306840|title=Maen Huail, St. Peter's Square, Ruthin}} and now stands on a concrete plinth against the half-timbered wall of the Barclays Bank building, a 20th-century copy of the now mainly destroyed Exmewe Hall.{{Watprn|CPAT|100868|title=Maen Huail stone}}. Cadw SAM: DE030: Maen Huail Historic Stone

The legend probably originated as an oral tradition, and is first recorded in the Chronicle of Six Ages of the World by Elis Gruffydd, dating to around 1550.[http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/huail.html 'The Quarrel of Arthur and Huail, and the Death of Huail ap Caw'], in The Chronicle of Elis Gruffudd. Celtic Literature Collective. Accessed 14 April 2016{{cite book |last1=Lloyd |first1=Scott |year=2017 |title=Arthurian Place Names of Wales |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YeyVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA96 |location=Cardiff |publisher=University of Wales Press |publication-date=2017 |pages=94–96 |isbn=9781786830258 |access-date=12 April 2020 }} The stone itself is thought more likely to be a market or civic stone, or a preaching stone. It is a craggy and heavily weathered limestone boulder, measuring {{convert|1.2|m|ft}} long, and some {{convert|0.6|m|ft}} high and wide.

File:Exmewe Hall, on St. Peter's Square, Ruthin in Denbighshire, North Wales.JPG

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