The town was probably intended to become the primary settlement of the lordship and cantref of Maelienydd, but was unsuccessful and declined during the 14th century as a result of bubonic plague outbreaks, economic isolation and military insecurity.

It may have been established concurrently with the first stone castle at Cefnllys in the 1240s,[1] but a later date is more likely,[2] particularly after the creation of royally-sponsored English towns at Flint, Aberystwyth, and Rhuddlan in the aftermath of Edward I's conquest of Wales.

In the place of rent, small amounts of tribute were taken from the Welsh community,[11] as evidenced by accounts from 1356-7 which show that out of the cantref's gross income of £215, only £15 was extracted from the Welshry outside the shire of Dinieithon.

[14] The town's isolated position in the hilly, sparsely populated region of Mid Wales weakened its economic appeal, and Robert Rees Davies comments that the militarily advantageous location of the borough undermined its feasibility as a settlement: "the artificiality of [its] commercial setting was too obvious once the military opportunities ... had been removed".

[20] The more frequent explanation is that the settlement was concentrated around St Michael's Church, on low land next to the river, where there would have been easy access to the mill and a nearby spring.

A series of earthworks surrounding the church represent raised causeways above boggy land, sunken roads in the direction of the toll bridge and probable medieval house platforms,[17] as well as ridge and furrow patterns from open-field system agriculture.