Llanfair-ar-y-bryn
Llanfair-ar-y-bryn is the name of a rural parish in the Perfedd hundred of Carmarthenshire. Covering an area of some 36½ square miles, it lies along and to the north-west and south-east of the A483 Swansea to Chester road immediately north of the town of Llandovery.[1] The name means "St Mary's on the hill".
Two peculiarities of Llanfair-ar-y-bryn are that:
- the parish contains no settlement of that name: in 1801 it comprised the hamlets of Rhandir Abbot, Rhandir Canol, Rhandir Isaf, and Rhandir Uchaf;[2] today the principal settlements are Cynghordy and Rhandir-mwyn
- the parish church was, until 1883, located one mile outside the parish itself, in Llandingad (Llandovery); in 1883 a new church (also called St Mary's) was opened at a more central location in Cynghordy.
The area is served by trains operated between Swansea and Shrewsbury via Llandrindod Wells. Cynghordy railway station is a request stop on the line from Llanelli to Craven Arms.
The old parish church
The original St Mary's church stands a mile outside the parish on the north-eastern edge of Llandovery, on the site of the Roman auxiliary fort of Alabum.[3] William Williams Pantycelyn (1717-1791), generally acknowledged as one of Wales's greatest hymn writers, is buried in the churchyard there, having been a resident of the parish for much of his life.