St Winifred’s Church, Gwytherin

Gwytherin, near Llanwrst LL22 8UU

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St Winifred’s Church, Gwytherin

This secluded church is on the North Wales Pilgrims Way

Highlights

  • Site of St Winefride’s nunnery
  • Early Christian stones
  • Celtic cross slab

St Winefride is famous for being resurrected at Holywell by the touch of her uncle, St Beuno. Her second and final death took place 22 years later here in a remote nunnery.

Gwytherin is tucked away in a mountainous valley, the perfect retreat from a murderous world. St Winefride lived in the 7th century, but the original settlement here is much older. Four stumps of stone stand in a line on the north side of the church, between two ancient yew trees. They are said to date from the earliest Christian settlement or even before. One of them has an inscription in Latin, then the language of Christianity, dating from the 5th or 6th century.

When St Winefride died, her body was placed in a wooden shrine in the simple church and later moved to its own chapel. Her holy body was eventually translated to Shrewsbury in 1138 and became the focus of an important pilgrimage. She is remembered on 3 November, the date of her natural death, and on 22 June, the date of her first death and the later translation of her relics.

The stone stumps and a Celtic cross slab survive from her time. The cross slab is set into the chancel step inside the church. The church once held an oak reliquary known as the Arch Gwenfrewi, which survived the Reformation sufficiently intact to be sketched in 1668, only to be sold off in pieces by an enterprising priest in the 19th century.

The church was closed in 2005 and has been turned into a history centre and wedding venue, called The Gwenfrewi Project.

Directions

St Winifred’s Church, Gwytherin, near Llanwrst LL22 8UU

www.thegwenfrewiproject.co.uk

W3W: flies.inhales.matchbox

GPS: 53.1384N 3.6808W

The village is on the B5384, 5 miles east of Llanrwst. The church is on the south side of Gwytherin.

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Britain’s Pilgrim Places

This listing is an extract from Britain’s Pilgrim Places, written by Nick Mayhew-Smith and Guy Hayward and featuring hundreds of similar spiritually charged sites and landscapes from across Britain.

Proceeds from sale of the book directly support the British Pilgrimage Trust, a non-profit UK charity. Thank you.

Location

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St Winifred’s Church, Gwytherin

Gwytherin, near Llanwrst LL22 8UU

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