St Cybi’s Church, Holyhead / Caergybi

The church and chapel at Caergybi, the ‘fort of St Cybi,’ marks the end of the Anglesey Way pilgrimage route, which starts at Caernarfon

Highlights

• Site of St Cybi’s church and possible former grave
• Roman fort setting
  

The industrial docklands of Holyhead are an incongruous setting for St Cybi’s Church, but it is well defended against the outside world. The massive grey walls of a 4th-century Roman fort surround the site. A medieval church now stands where St Cybi built his missionary centre.

A 13th-century Life, the earliest text about the saint, says St Cybi came here from Cornwall to spread the Gospel in the 6th century. The Roman fort was a logical place to build his church, and the walls still stand tall. Holyhead is called Caergybi in Welsh, ‘the fort of Cybi’.

A small chapel outside the church is called ‘Eglwys y Bedd’, Church of the Grave. It might have been built to house St Cybi’s shrine, but historians and the church itself seem unsure. The church’s friendly team of welcomers dismissed the popular story that he was buried here, and the church guide describes it as the grave of King Serigi, who died in the 5th century. Others, however, claim that St Cybi was indeed buried in this little chapel, but his body and shrine were taken to Ireland in 1405. Still, other traditions say St Cybi was buried on Bardsey Island.

The church is on the western tip of Anglesey, the opposite side of the island from Penmon Point, where St Cybi’s friend St Seiriol lived. The two would regularly walk across the island to meet. St Cybi walked east in the morning and west in the evening – in other words, facing directly into the sun all day. St Seiriol came from the opposite direction and always had the sun on his back. They earned themselves the nicknames ‘Cybi the tanned’ and ‘Seiriol the fair’, a story that inspires an icon in the Orthodox church at Blaenau Ffestiniog. A modern pilgrimage route, the Anglesey Saints Way, follows this path. The Anglesey Druids Way ends at Holyhead, and a third route, the Anglesey Way, is described opposite.

Behind St Cybi’s suntanned features lay a famously erudite mind. He was consulted on the differences between the Celtic and Roman systems for calculating the date of Easter, long before the subject was discussed at the Synod of Whitby in 664. St Cybi died in 554 and is remembered on 8 November.‍

Near Holyhead‍

An atmospheric holy well lies on the coast 5 miles to the south of Holyhead, an immersion chamber dedicated to St Gwenfaen. The sunken structure has a small antechamber with seats, presumably for dressing and drying in times gone by, and a stone tank for healing immersion. The chamber is now open to the elements, and a storm prevented me from reaching it.

‍‍

Directions

St Cybi’s Church, Market Square, Caergybi LL65 1UF

www.holyheadparishchurches.co.uk

www.stcybi.co.uk

W3W: tilt.pocket.firepower

GPS: 53.3114N 4.6327W

Holyhead railway station 400m

The Roman fort can be reached either up steps from Victoria Road, which runs beside the dockyard, or by walking in from Market Square in the town centre. The church is usually open in summer, with welcomers in attendance.

To find St Gwenfaen’s Well (Ffynnon Wenfaen), park outside the church in Rhoscolyn village, walk back to the main road and turn right, then immediately right again down a track towards some houses, one of which has a small tower. Keep going for 850m to the lifeguard station by the sea, turn right, and the well is another 430m away. Its GPS coordinates are: 53.2473N 4.6100W.