Ruthin Town Square

Ruthin's town square — St Peter's Square, historically the town's Market Place — is one of the finest medieval market squares in Wales. Flanked by buildings spanning six centuries, with the Myddelton Arms' "eyes of Ruthin" gazing down from one side and the old courthouse gazing back from another, it is the kind of urban space that rewards slow walking and close looking. It was the site of Ruthin's market for centuries; today's regular trading has moved to Ruthin Market Hall on Market Street.

The Square Itself

The market place was laid out as part of Edward I's plantation borough in the late 13th century, occupying the high ground of the red sandstone ridge between the castle and the church. The medieval plan — market place, burgess plots running off the main street, church at one end — survives almost intact. What you see when you stand in the square today is essentially the spatial arrangement of a 13th-century English plantation town in Wales, built over and enriched by 700 years of subsequent development.

The Myddelton Arms — Eyes of Ruthin

The Myddelton Arms on the west side of the square is the building that defines Ruthin's visual identity. Built in the mid-16th century and associated with the Myddleton family (one of whom, Sir Hugh Myddleton, was responsible for bringing fresh water to London via the New River in 1613), it presents a Dutch-influenced facade with a remarkable arrangement of dormer windows in the roof — seven windows in the form of eyes peering out over the square. These "eyes of Ruthin" have become the symbol of the town.

The Myddelton Arms is now a hotel and public house. Its ground-floor bar is one of the best places in Ruthin to have a drink while absorbing the medieval surroundings.

The Old Courthouse

The old manor courthouse on the square was the site of the principal court of the Lordship of Dyffryn Clwyd, built in the early 14th century. Cells for prisoners occupied the basement, and the remains of the scaffold projecting from the eaves were still visible as late as the 19th century. The last execution to take place here was probably that of Father Charles Mahoney, a Franciscan friar, on 12 August 1679 — a detail that makes the building one of the few places in Wales where the memory of the recusant martyrs has a physical location.

Maen Huail

On the west side of the square stands a large stone known as Maen Huail — the Stone of Huail. According to Welsh legend, Huail, son of Caw and brother of the historian Gildas, was beheaded here on the orders of King Arthur, who had taken against him in a dispute over a woman. The legend associates Ruthin with the Arthurian cycle in a way that is highly unusual for a North Wales market town, though historians regard the connection as entirely mythological. The stone itself is undated but genuinely ancient.

The Square's Market History

St Peter's Square was Ruthin's marketplace under the borough's original 13th-century charter, and it's one of the oldest market traditions in Wales. But the square's role as an active weekly market has not survived unbroken to the present day — a produce market ran here in the 2000s and had lapsed by the early 2010s, according to a Denbighshire County Council report, and later relaunch attempts have had little staying power beyond the annual Christmas market. Today's regular market trading is centred on Ruthin Market Hall on Market Street; see our full market page for the honest history.