LLANLLYR NUNNERY, TALSARN

Site Details

NPRN
400436
Map Reference
SN55NW
Grid Reference
SN5421056020
Unitary (Local) Authority
Ceredigion
Old County
Cardiganshire
Community
Llanfihangel Ystrad
Type of Site
NUNNERY
Broad Class
Religious, Ritual and Funerary
Period
Medieval

Site Description

A Priory of Cistercian nuns was founded around 1180 by Rees ap Gruffydd (the Lord Rees). There are said to have been 16 nuns. The priory was nationalised in 1536.

Elements of the medieval establishment may have been incorporated in a Tudor house (at given NGR). This is known only from depictions of about 1684 and 1768. The earlier sketch appears to show the main north-north-east to south-south-west wing as comprising a central hall, with projecting porch and oriel window, flanked by a solar on the north and service block to the south. Traces of this house, demolished in about 1830, were noted around 1970.
The presence of an early medieval memorial stone (NPRN 303887), found when the Tudor house was demolished, hints at the existence of an earlier ecclesiastical site.
The site has been subsumed in later park/gardens (Nprn86798).

Sources: Lewes in Ceredigion 6 (1971), 341-349
Williams 'Atlas of Cistercian Lands in Wales' (1990), 46
Palmer et al. 'Historic Parks & Gardens in Ceredigion' (2004), 60-2

J.Wiles 12.10.04