County Dossier
Montgomeryshire
A mid-Wales county of hills, markets and castles.
Montgomeryshire is a mountainous county in mid-Wales, largely lying in the heart of the Cambrian Mountains. Its rugged slopes provide high sheep pastures, sparsely populated except for scattered farmsteads and hamlets.
At a glance
Montgomeryshire at a glance
A mid-Wales county of hills, markets and castles.
- Formed 1535 from the cantrefs of Powys Wenwynwyn and Arwystli
- Named after Roger de Montgomerie, William the Conqueror's counsellor
- Borders roughly correspond to mediæval kingdom of Powys Wenwynwyn
- Area: 796 sq mi
- Population: 61,956
- County Top: Moel Sych
County Geography
Montgomeryshire meets Merionethshire to the north-west, Denbighshire to the north-east, Shropshire to the east, Radnorshire to the south, and Cardiganshire to the south-west. The county is shaped by the Cambrian Mountains, the upper Severn, the Dyfi-side west, and the eastern border ridge and marchland.
Montgomeryshire is easy to recognise through the upper Severn, Cambrian uplands, and eastern march.
Map Reference
View Montgomeryshire on the map
Montgomeryshire is the county. The map also shows lieutenancies and council areas that use the county name.
The county.
The lieutenancy.
Council areas.
Places and routes
Welshpool, Newtown, Montgomery, Machynlleth, and Llanidloes show the county from its eastern march and central Severn line to its western and southern upland sides.
Connections
The county’s routes have long followed the Severn through Llanidloes, Newtown, and Welshpool and crossed west toward Machynlleth and south toward Montgomery. Movement follows the same upper-Severn, upland, and march pattern.
Names
- Montgomeryshire
- County of Montgomery
- Sir Drefaldwyn
Sir Drefaldwyn is the Welsh form of Montgomeryshire. County of Montgomery is the formal historical style, Montgomeryshire preserves the later English county name, and the county’s naming reaches back to Montgomery and to the older upland territories through which the Severn rises.
Montgomeryshire became a county in 1284, but the county’s upper-Severn and marchland geography had long given it a clear territorial frame. That river-and-upland setting is still legible within the historic county.