St Nicholas Church Inscribed Stones

Trip No.194  Entry No.1  Date Added: 15th Sep 2026
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 7th Sep 2026. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: St Nicholas's Church, Tremarchog: First stop of the day, and a beautiful, peaceful spot. The houses, largely ancient, are built right up to the eastern end of the churchyard wall, vaguely reminiscent of a much smaller version of Hexham Abbey but with the same peaceful, cloistered feel.

The stones inside the church are easy to find, and to photograph. Andrew and I were both really interested in the Greater Dewisland Local Ministry Area Website for the church describes as a "Squinch"- "an arched covered area where the first hermit or saint might hve lived, in other words, this might have been the founder's cell".

Fynnon Drudion

Trip No.194  Entry No.2  Date Added: 15th Sep 2026
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 9th Sep 2026. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Ffynnon Druidon Standing Stone: This stone can be seen from the small, single track lane which runs just to the east of it. Whilst there were sheep in the adjacent field, the gate into this field had been left open, although the ground was extremely boggy, so we viewed it from a distance. A bonus to see this after having tried to see the Ffynnon Druidion Chambered Tomb just to the north; there was no trace of this, but very large lumps of stone were piled next to the gate into the field where the tomb had been.

St Ishmael's Church (Camrose)

Trip No.194  Entry No.4  Date Added: 8th Sep 2026
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 8th Sep 2026. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: St Ishmael's Church, Camrose: This church was surprising in that the graveyard appeared to be at my head height as we entered in through the gate (although I'm sure this was an illusion and it wasn't really that high!) and the ground level of the church was well below the current level of the graveyard. We wondered how many layers of bodies have been buried here over the years!

The inside of the church is very well kept and welcoming, although we couldn't spot the possible carved stone fragment over the chancel arch; this had been whitewashed, and we later wondered if this had hidden the fragment (either that or we didn't look hard enough).

Looking for Camrose 1 outside on the North wall, we thought we'd made a wasted trip as neither or us could see this stone, then Andrew moved to the west of the door and looked up, and spotted the carved stone in the bright sunlight.

Hopefully the photos we took, both from my level on the path into the north door, and the photos Andrew took from the current graveyard level, have captured some of the intricacy of this carved fragment.

Brawdy Church

Trip No.194  Entry No.5  Date Added: 9th Sep 2026
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 8th Sep 2026. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: St David's Church, Brawdy: For such a small country church, I was very pleasantly surprised by what we found here, and it was well worth the slow drive down the windy country lanes to get here. What a peaceful spot. Opening the doors into the porch, we were 'confronted' by three huge stones - getting enough light into the porch was interesting, as the outer door was falling apart, and had to be very, very gently opened to increase light levels. The fourth stone is inside the church, just to the left of the door. I would recommend a visit.

Llanwnda Cemetery Crossroads stone

Trip No.194  Entry No.5  Date Added: 16th Sep 2026
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 7th Sep 2026. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Llanwnda Cemetery Stone: After visiting St Gwndaff's Church and the Llanwnda Holy Holy Well, we drove back down the road to find this stone. Many thanks to h_fenton for his diagram, which enabled us to find the stone really easily.

It was obviously rubbish/bin collection day, but thankfully, everyone had piled their rubbish on the opposite side of the road to this stone, so I was able to take a close look at it, and to photograph it.

Just to the left (east) of the stone, there is a parking area at SM 93697 39205, probably for people who are visiting the cemetery.

Ffynnon Wnda

Trip No.194  Entry No.5  Date Added: 16th Sep 2026
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 7th Sep 2026. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Ffynnon Wnda Holy Well: Coming from St Gwndaff's church, we followed the directions, but still had difficulty finding this well; we were put off by the proximity of the builder's vans and equipment left at the edge of the small copse, as we thought this was part of the garden of the house they were working on.

The directions said to return to the lane from the road, spot a copse opposite, and there is a wooden gate leading to the well. The copse was easy enough to see, but finding the gate? I eventually spotted an overgrown footpath (more a trail through the grass) leading into the copse and within a few steps had spotted the gate into the well enclosure.

A very charming spot, and would have been very peaceful if not for the noise from the building going on nearby.

Directions to the well can be found in the church if anyone else needs to find the well. Should be much easier when the leaves drop from the trees.

Llanllawer Holy Well

Trip No.194  Entry No.7  Date Added: 17th Sep 2026
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 7th Sep 2026. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Llanllawer Holy Well: We last visited this site in August 2014, so called again on our way up to the church to photograph the cross inscribed stones in the gatepost to the church, which we hadn't been aware of on our last visit. Nothing much has changed about this site. I didn't remember the drive up to the well, or using the very small layby at the junction of minor roads opposite, but as soon as I saw the well, I remembered having been here before.

The well was dry, and offerings had been left inside. I had to pick up several of The Song of Ffraed's cards that had been wedged between two stones in the archway into the well, but which had blown both into the well and across the field, before photographing the well.

I was surprised to read from the Dyfed Archaeological Trust report that "water flows from it throughout the winter or after heavy rain". That would have been nice to see, as I wondered where the outflow from the well went, although there had been a prolonged dry spell before our visit.

Hogtivis Stone

Trip No.194  Entry No.7  Date Added: 18th Sep 2026
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 7th Sep 2026. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: St Dogewell's Church, Well and St Dogwell's 1 Carved Stone: We last visited this site in 2014, when the churchyard was well tended and cared for, and the church, whilst boarded up, was still in good order. I was shocked at the deterioration in both. The churchyard was completely overgrown, and we had to pick our way over brambles and tall weeds to get to the Hogtivis Stone (now called St Dogwell's 1 by Coflein). The trees behind the stone were so tall that the branches came well over the stone, so it was completely in the shade, so the Ogam, whilst visible with the naked eye, was very difficult to photograph, even using the camera flash and a torch.

The church looks as if it on the verge of becoming completely derelict, which was so very sad, as my memories of it were of a charming, welcoming building standing in well-cared for grounds.

We did go and find the spring/well mentioned on the OS map. This is just to the east of the church. There may possibly have been a stone housing to the well, but there was a tumble of stones, heavily covered by ivy and brambles. There was a steady, strong stream of water emerging up into the well pool. This pool now appears to be feeding a large pond in the neighbouring vicarage garden.