St Brynach’s Church, Nevern, Newport

The Celtic Way climbs St Brynach’s sacred mount near Nevern

Highlights

• Miracle yew tree
• Celtic crosses
• Church founded by St Brynach
• Pilgrims’ wayside cross

A miraculously bleeding yew tree and one of the best-carved crosses in Wales are two outstanding features in Nevern’s enclave of Celtic mystery. And that is just the churchyard: the church itself contains yet more ancient carved stones, while a pilgrims’ path nearby has a medieval wayside shrine and cross still visible.

The miraculous yew tree drips with a curious red sap, the flow trickling from a wound left behind when a limb was amputated. It is the second tree on the right as you enter from the churchyard gate, with the wound on the far side of the trunk. The row of yew trees is at least 600 years old and the bleeding phenomenon has been known for decades. The resin used to drip from a branch of the tree and continues to flow from the stump after it was lopped. I could find no explanation for what it is, other than references saying it continues to puzzle experts.

The flow apparently comes and goes, but it was active when I visited, a drip of the rusty-colored liquid falling to the ground as I approached it. Whether or not you believe this a miracle, it is still an arresting sight with obvious Christian symbolism. Or indeed pagan, as others claim.

Also in the churchyard, a couple of meters from the church itself, stands a Celtic cross. It is so large and well-preserved I initially dismissed it as a modern war memorial while I scanned the churchyard for it. This is called simply the Great Cross, one of the three best Celtic survivors in Wales. It was carved sometime around the 10th or 11th century. It is nearly 4m high, with a 60cm diameter.

There is a second, much older monument in the churchyard just outside the entrance to the church. This is the Vitalianus Stone, perhaps dating from the 5th century, with a bilingual inscription in Latin and Ogham script (a precursor to Welsh and Cornish).

The tower is the oldest part of the church, dating from the Norman era, while the rest is 15th and 16th century. There are more ancient carved stones to see inside, including an elegant slab called the Cross Stone, on which a knotwork cross has been carved out in relief. It sits on a windowsill in the south transept chapel. There is another bilingual monument from the 5th century here too.

According to his 12th-century Life, St Brynach founded a wooden church on this site in the 6th century. He would ascend the nearby mountain Carningli and spend the night conversing with angels, something I recreated surprisingly successfully for my 2019 book The Naked Hermit, although the heavenly beings I encountered were dozens of butterflies on the summit.

St Brynach was an Irish missionary who was led to Nevern by a dream in which a white sow indicated where to build his church. He was aided in his labor by wild stags that pulled tree trunks from the wood. His devotion to duty so impressed the local king Clether that he resigned the throne and became a missionary in Cornwall (see St Clether’s Well).

The village is on a major pilgrimage route to St Davids. A cross has been carved onto a small cliff face just outside the village, next to a footpath. This was once a wayside shrine, with perhaps a statue in a small niche cut into the rock below. The cross is just above head height, but hard to discern because the cliff is composed of worn strata of stone. Thankfully, visitors had left copious offerings of coins and trinkets wedged into crevices, which made it easy to identify.

‍Near Nevern‍

The church is 8 miles south-west of Cardigan, home of the National Welsh Shrine of Our Lady of the Taper, based in the town’s Catholic church. This is a modern revival of Cardigan’s medieval shrine, destroyed at the Reformation, which had a statue of the Blessed Virgin holding a candle that once burned miraculously for nine years. For more information, see the shrine’s website at www.ourladyofthetaper.org.uk.

Directions‍

St Brynach’s Church, B4582, Nevern SA42 0NF

W3W: pegs.fuzz.still

GPS: 52.0254N 4.7953W church

W3W: drops.similar.detective

GPS: 52.0253N 4.7987W pilgrim cross‍

The church is kept open in the day. For the pilgrim cross, leave the churchyard gate and walk straight ahead down the road. Take the first right after 50m, which crosses the stream then winds uphill. At the first hairpin bend to the right, there is a stile at the start of the footpaThe church is kept open in the day. For the pilgrim cross, leave the churchyard gate and walk straight ahead down the road. Take the first right after 50m, which crosses the stream then winds uphill. At the first hairpin bend to the right, there is a stile at the start of the footpath. The cliff face and cross are along here on the right, 40m from the stile. Carningli is two miles to the south-west, with numerous footpaths leading to the summit.