"The Welsh Dragon or Y Ddraig Goch is the emblem on the Welsh National Flag.
In the Mabinogion (a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts), the story of Lludd and Llefelys, tell s of how the Red Dragon fought with an invading White Dragon. His awful pained shrieks brought about mayhem and disaster; women miscarried, animals perished and plants become barren. Lludd, the then king of Britain, sought help from his wise brother Llefelys in France. Llefelys told him to dig a pit in the centre of Britain, fill it with mead, and cover it with cloth. Lludd did this, and the dragons drank the mead and fell asleep. Lludd imprisoned them, still wrapped in their cloth, in Dinas Emrys in Snowdonia.
The tale is taken up by Nennius in the Historia Brittonum. The dragons remained at Dinas Emrys for centuries until King Vortigern tried to build a castle there. Every night the castle walls and foundations were demolished by unseen forces. Vortigern consulted his advisers, who told him to find a boy with no natural father, and sacrifice him. Vortigern found such a boy, who was supposed to be the wisest wizard to ever live. Some versions of the tale even going on to name the boy as Merlin. On hearing that he was to be put to death to solve the demolishing of the castle walls, the boy dismissed the knowledge of the advisors and suggested an alternative approach. The boy told the king of the two dragons and recommended that Vortigern excavated the hill to free them. They continued their fight once more and the red dragon finally defeated the white drag on. The boy told Vortigern that the white dragon symbolised the Saxons and that the red dragon symbolised the people of Vortigern. If Vortigern is accepted to have lived in the fifth century, then these people were the British whom the Saxons failed to subdue and who became the Welsh.
The same story is repeated in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, where the red dragon is also a prophecy of the coming of King Arthur. It is notable that Arthur’s father was Uther Pendragon (“Chief Dragon”, erroneously translated by Geoffrey as “dragon’s head”) .
The South Wales section of the A40/A449 opened in October 1970 and the services (then known as Raglan Services) opened in 1986. They were never a commercial success and underwent several changes of ownership. It is difficult to pinpoint why they were never a success when you consider that they were at the time, the only place motorists could stop along a 32-mile stretch of dual-carriageway which connected the M4 in Newport with the start of the M50 at Ross-on-Wye. In the mid-nineties a lodge was added to the northbound side, however trade still did not improve and in September 2012 the services and filling stations on both carriageways closed down leaving only the lodge operating - until that too closed down in July 2013. The site has stood derelict since then, until being completely re-built recently. The A40/A449 is not subject to Motorway Regulations at this point, so you may legally enter and leave the services via the access road from Groesenon Road not just from the dual carriageway. There is ample parking including parking for caravans etc., but beware the 2-hour time limit which is monitored by ANPR cameras. DON'T FORGET TO COLLECT THE BONUS INFORMATION.