In Pembrokeshire's West Wales, you'll discover St Non's Chapel, a traditional claimant to fame as St David's birthplace - the Welsh patron saint. The ruin is thought to be on the site of St Non's house and is considered one of the oldest Christian buildings in Wales. While the ruin cannot be accurately dated, the site is unusual in that it is aligned north–south rather than the usual east–west. In medieval times, the chapel was one of the main sites visited by Christian pilgrims, though pilgrimages stopped following the Protestant Reformation.
Cecil Morgan-Griffiths, a solicitor from Carmarthen, built a small chapel near the ruins in 1934 using stone from ruined local chapels. The nearest Catholic church was over sixteen miles away, prompting him to build a new place of worship on the historic site. The new chapel is the most westerly in Wales and is also one of the smallest, measuring only 25 feet long by 12 feet wide. It features stained glass windows representing St Non, St David, St Bride, St Brynach, and St Winifred.
The altar of this modern chapel uses a white stone from the altar of St Patrick's Chapel. Nearby, St Non's Cross - a large stone inscribed with a cross within a circle - is dateable to the 7th to 9th century. It was found in the same field as the chapel and is believed to be either a grave or an altar stone, though there is no firm evidence it originally came from the site.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nicolo Ciampini
Discuss this with the author and others
No comments yet. Be the first to start the conversation.