St Rhychwyn, Llanrhychwyn

St Rhychwyn is a Grade I Church in Wales church on an upland plateau about 1.2 km south of Trefriw, in the Ministry Area of Bro Gwydyr and the Diocese of St Asaph.

Overview

Cadw lists an early religious site whose churchyard is encircled by ancient yews. Tradition holds that Llywelyn ap Iorwerth worshipped here before founding a more convenient church at Trefriw about 1230. The present building began as a single-cell chapel, probably of the twelfth century (the western part of the south aisle). It was lengthened and re-roofed, probably in the fourteenth century, and a northern aisle was added in the early sixteenth century, probably under Meredith ap Ieuan ap Robert of Gwydir (d.1525).

The twin-aisled church has a rubble bellcote on the north-aisle west gable, a deeply recessed round-arched south doorway with a seventeenth-century post-and-panel door, and fifteenth- and sixteenth-century east windows. Inside are slate-flagged floors, a four-bay arcade, mid-to-late fifteenth-century stained glass including a Trinity, an early sixteenth-century Crucifixion in the north-aisle east window, 1636 altar rails, and a plain early medieval font. Cadw lists it Grade I as an important and well-preserved medieval church.

Further Information

• Cadw listed building 3211
• British Listed Buildings
• Bro Gwydyr