St Twrog's Church

Saint Twrog's Church is in the village of Maentwrog in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, lying in the Vale of Ffestiniog, within the Snowdonia National Park. It is in the Deanery of Ardudwy. It is designated by Cadw as a Grade II listed building. A church was founded on the current site in the 6th century by Saint Twrog. It is believed that he was the son of Ithel Hael o Lydaw of Brittany. He was also the brother of Saint Tanwg of Llandanwg, Saint Tegai of Llandygai and Saint Baglan of Llanfaglan and Baglan. There are two other dedications to Saint Twrog: at Bodwrog in Anglesey and at Llandwrog. When Twrog first arrived in the village, the valley would have been very marshy, which provided him with the wattle that he would have needed to build his cell. Out the church near to the belfry door is a large stone known as Maen Twrog (maen being the Welsh for stone). Twrog is reputed to have thrown the stone from the top of Moelwyn crushing a pagan altar in the valley below; it is said that his handprints can still be seen in the stone. The parish of Maentwrog gets its name from this stone The yew trees in the churchyard are said to be over 1300 years old. They were a feature of the ancient pagan burial places, their evergreen leaves being a symbol of immortality; however, 1300 years ago the site would have been Christian not pagan. Another use of the yew trees was for military purposes as the yew timber was excellent for making bows, but because of the poisonous nature of the yew trees they were not popular among the people and were therefore grown in relative safety in places such as churchyards. The church that was on the site before 1896 was dedicated to Saint Mary, which has a connection to the Cistercian monks who were very numerous in the Maentwrog valley at one time. In the village there is also Saint Mary's well and across the valley is Llyn Mair (Saint Mary's Lake). In 1504, the church was described as a chapelry attached to the extensive parish of Ffestiniog.…