Village of Nevern: A Pilgrim’s Journey to Southwest Wales

In a county filled with delightful surprises, Nevern is a real find.

Some who visit the rugged headlands of Dyfed County in southwest Wales do so on religious or literary pilgrimage. Many come to Britain’s smallest cathedral city, St. David’s, its medieval Bishop’s Palace an impressive ruin and its cathedral, mainly 12th Century. The literati seek out ancient Laugharne, where Dylan Thomas lived for 16 years.

Both are well worth a visit. So is Fishguard, a picturesque port backed by steep cliffs which, like Laugharne, may or may not be the town on which Dylan Thomas based his “Under Milk Wood.” (Fishguard is where it was filmed.)

A dozen tiny villages and settlements dot the sea cliffs and sandy bays from St. Bride’s Bay up to Cardigan. It is more than 30 miles, but to hurry the trip is to cheat oneself of relics from prehistory, spectacular beauty, outgoing people and hidden places of rich religious significance.

Nevern is a combination of all of these. Dyfed County is also known as Pembrokeshire.

An Obscure Saint

We heard the name St. Brynach one late afternoon. St. Brynach was an obscure saint and friend of Wales’ patron saint, St. David and, like David, an Irishman who settled in the wild west of Wales more than 1,200 years ago.

Just north of Fishguard, at Dinas Head, is a place known in Welsh as Cwm yr Eglwys, just off the main A487 road. The gray darkness of the late Welsh afternoon was caused by a rain shower that lifted just long enough for us to peek through the churchyard to the ruins of the 11th-Century St. Brynach Church.

All that stands is its front wall, which faces its tiny cemetery. Behind the shadowy stone facade the open sea crashes against rugged rocks into which, during an 1859 storm, the remainder of the building was driven.

Pondering the Fate

The rains returned and we were left to ponder the fate of this remote, awesome scene. Thoughts of it recurred even over a delightful tea at Cnapan Guest House and Restaurant in mid-village Newport.

We were still thinking about the magnificence of St. Brynach’s on arrival at the handsome guest house where we had reservations for the night. Thoughts of the church stayed with us through a dinner prepared by Cordon Bleu chef Susan Jones who, with her husband, retired BBC-TV producer Huw Jones, operates the small but sumptuous guest house Rhyd-Garn-Wen not far from Cardigan.

Through the night, even over breakfast the following morning, the haunting beauty of the desolate ruin remained with us. As it came time for us to leave for more sophisticated places, Sue Jones asked if we would favor her with a few minutes--she would like to show us something.

The something was Nevern and today’s St. Brynach Church, so named long before the ruined church of the afternoon before.

A Memorable Visit

It was a memorable visit to a tiny village, a handful of cottages, really, in a picture-book setting straddling a small stream seven miles southeast of Cardigan and just off highway B4582.

Dominating the village is its Norman church, restored in the 19th Century and spectacularly beautiful by itself, the more so because it peeks out from behind its ancient churchyard and an avenue of centuries-old yews.

The so-called “Bleeding Yew” drips a blood-colored sap that has, through the generations, inspired many legends and controversies best described by villagers in this traditionally superstitious countryside. You’ll hear more than one version if you ask more than one parishioner.

Ancient Monument

The Churchyard Cross is the most striking of many early Christian monuments in the area, dating from the late 10th or early 11th Centuries. Known to historians as a “free-standing composite pillar cross,” its intricate design may be a mystery to the layman but has meaning to the student . . . a decorative treatment of the crosshead with four faces embellished with carved patterns, the inscriptions front and back remain a puzzle. To students of religious art, the skill and application in the work are just short of astounding.

Services are still held each Sunday in this beautiful old church where our host and hostess, Huw and Susan Jones, are active parishioners. We were shown a wayside cross cut into a rock face nearby, and its kneeling place, both further relics of the 6th Century when this was a pausing-place for pilgrims on their way to St. David’s.

Behind the Nevern church, crossing the stream, is a Roman footbridge.

Founded in the 6th Century, the Church of St. Brynach is described in detail and with authenticity in an 18-page booklet available in the sanctuary for 30 pence. It has plans of the building, a list of vicars since 1514 and chronological and scholarly research by archeological and theological experts. The book is a must for anyone with more than a modicum of curiosity about such things.

Ancient Celtic Alphabet

Considerable space is devoted to the Maclocunus Stone, a windowsill slab inscribed in Ogham, which may date from the 5th Century. Ogham (sometimes spelled ogam and ogum) is the ancient Celtic alphabet of an Irish runic language used by the Druids and abandoned after the first few centuries of the Christian era.

Sue described Ogham, and the times, with gentle perfection: “It was a time when people lost their ability to write and the peace to do it in.”

Ogham runes remain only in gravestone inscriptions in scattered corners of western Ireland, Wales, England, Scotland and the Shetland Islands. Its origins uncertain, Ogham contained 25 letters formed of straight lines and may well have been adapted from a sign language. The 15th-Century “Book of Ballymote” confirms it as a secret, ritualistic language.

Found in the Walls

The two windowsills in St. Brynach, once grave markers, were found by the Cambrian Archeological Assn. in 1906 in the walls of a passage leading to the Priest’s Chamber, above the chapel.

The stone vaulting of the roof is the only one of its kind in Pembrokeshire (Dyfed). The Cross Stone is particularly noteworthy, a slab 62 inches long by 12 inches wide. The Priests’ Chamber, reached by a turret staircase, is a low-ceilinged area where small meetings were held.

The Vitalianus Stone may also date from the 5th Century. The Great Cross in the churchyard is one of the world’s best specimens, its date unknown but almost certainly of the 10th or 11th centuries. The churchyard is fascinating.

An epitaph on a wall tombstone to Anna Letitia and George, infant children of the Rev. D. Griffiths, Vicar 1783-1834, reads:

They tasted of life’s bitter cup,

Refused to drink the potion up,

But turned their little heads aside,

Disgusted with the taste, they died.

There are other stories on stone. An imperfectly lettered stone is believed to be a remnant of a vertical Latin inscription. A Consecration Cross in Glasdir Chapel is more than a thousand years old.

The excellent church booklet, first written in 1950 and updated, amended and reprinted 15 times, traces the history of the general area since 3000-2000 BC, when North Pembrokeshire played a significant role. It is believed that the bluestones that form the two inner circles of Stonehenge came from the nearby Presley Mountains.

Community Founder

St. Brynach came to Pembrokeshire with a Breconshire chieftain whose daughter, Cymorth, was his wife. He founded religious communities, Nevern (then called Nanhyfer) being the principal one. He died (whether at Nevern or elsewhere is uncertain) in 570, 33 years before the death of his friend and colleague St. David (whose far larger Bishop’s Palace, 45 minutes’ drive southeast, is a far showier place).

Nevern is a rare kind of serenely beautiful place filled with the mysteries and superstitions of its past. The church is always open during daylight hours and you’re invited. But take your time. Life is leisurely here in the southwest of Wales, where memories live long and die hard.

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Do yourself a favor and contact Susan and Huw Jones and plan to stay with them at Rhyd-Garn-Wen (“Ford of the White Stone”) on Cilgerran Road a few yards off the A487 road. The address: Cardiganshire, Wales SA43 3NW, U.K.

Their warm hospitality is topped by superb and imaginative meals from Susan’s kitchen, Huw’s skills at the bar (he’s a wine expert), a fine library with many guidebooks of the area, afternoon teas. All that for 31.50 a night per person.

For information about southwestern Wales, write to Wales Tourist Board, Brunel House, 2 Fitzalan Road, Cardiff CF2 1UY, Wales, U.K.