Gwytherin

Gwytherin
Denbighshire
Gwytherin cottages
Location
Grid reference:	SH876614
Location:	53°8’20"N, 3°40’52"W
Data
Post town:	Abergele
Postcode:	LL22
Dialling code:	01745
Local Government
Council:	Conwy
Parliamentary constituency:	Clwyd West

Gwytherin is a village and ancient parish in the Isaled Hundred of Denbighshire. It lies in a small valley through which the River Cledwen flows and has been winner of 'Best Kept Village' on four occasions. Its church is dedicated to Saint Winifred.

In the centre of the village opposite the Lion Inn is the Church of St Winifred which was built and dedicated to her in 1869. The church is believed to have originated in the mid-600s up by Prince Eleri who then went on to set up a double monastery in the village. He was the Abbot to the monks, and his cousin’s daughter, St Gwenffrewi, was the Abbess to the nuns.

In the churchyard are three ancient yew trees and a row of four ancient standing stones approximately three feet high and aligned roughly east to west. The first stone carries a carving and what appears to be a 'W'.

The church is one of the major places visited on the North Wales Pilgrims Way.

In Literature

Gwytherin is the setting for much of the action in the novel A Morbid Taste for Bones, first published in 1977 by Ellis Peters. It was the first book in a series of twenty to introduce the fictional Brother Cadfael, the real Prior Robert Pennant, and the rest of the monks at Shrewsbury Abbey in the 12th century.

Gallery

• 
  Moonrise over Aled valley.
• 
  Ruin near Pant-y-fotty

References

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Gwytherin)