Chapel of St Non - Ruin - St Davids, Wales, Great Britain.
N 51° 52.336 W 005° 16.129
30U E 343811 N 5749264
The Chapel of St Non is located on the coast near St David's in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. Held by tradition to mark the birthplace of St David.
Waymark Code: WMHR4J
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/07/2013
Views: 1
This must be one of the most idyllically situated monuments in Pembrokeshire, overlooking, as it does, the rocky coastline above St. Non's Bay. A visit to the chapel ruins can be extended to a longer walk on to and along the coastal footpath west as far as the Merryvale road, which leads back to St. Davids.
"The Chapel of St Non ruins, lack any distinguishing features to help date the building, and the earliest reference to a chapel here is in a document of 1335. However, an early excavation reports the uncovering of 'stone coffins' which might in fact have been slab-lined graves of the early Christian period. Also the presence here of the pillar-stone with its incised Latin cross, roughly dateable to the 7th to 9th century, is suggestive of an early medieval foundation for the chapel, although unfortunately, there is no firm evidence that the stone originally came from the site.
The chapel is a simple rectangular building, with an entrance of the west. The north-south orientation of the building is unusual, and is probably best explained by the foundations having been laid out to suit the severe slope. The massive masonry on the southern, downhill end was presumably put down as part of a foundation platform, to help level the site. The position of the alter is marked by a step at the north end. The chapel is traditionally held to mark the place where St Non gave birth to St David." Text source: (
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Since 1950 St Nons has been under the protection of CADW (
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Cadw is a Welsh word meaning ‘to keep’ or ‘to protect’.
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