St Dogmaels Abbey - Located in the Heart of St Dogmaels or Llandudoch are the ruins of a Tironensian Order Abbey. The Abbey ruins are grade 1 listed buildings in the care of Cadw. Located in the Village with two names, Pembrokeshire, South Wales.
If ecclesiastical buildings & ruins are of interest, then the village of St Dogmaels / Llandudoch is well worth a visit. Near the sprawling ruins of the Priory / Abbey, you have the Abbey Museum where you can find many artefacts discovered in the ruins of the Abbey. Next door to the Abbey is the church of St Thomas and just across the road from the entrance is Y Felin (the Mill) - one of the last working water mills in Wales and still produces traditional stoneground flour today. The Abbey Ruins are in the care of Cadw.
In March 2013 BBC TV News reported on the following Story:
"Villagers in St Dogmaels in Pembrokeshire are celebrating the moment 900 years ago, when their corner of west Wales was thrust into the limelight of Anglo-Norman politics and religion." Text Source: (
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From the Cadw website:
"A spiritual and cultural powerhouse on the banks of the River Teifi, once famed for its impressive library. One of St Dogmaels’ literary gems, the 13th-century Eusebius’s Historia Ecclesiastica, survives to this day in St John’s College, Cambridge.
St Dogmaels Abbey was formally founded by Robert fitz Martin and his wife, Maud Peverel, on 10 September 1120, and built on, or very near to, the site of the ancient pre-Norman-conquest church of Llandudoch. The church, which stands alongside the abbey today, is of much later Victorian origins. Links with the medieval past remain amongst the ruins of the old abbey church where original 15th-century floor tiles can still be seen in large areas along the length of the nave.
The site takes its name from Dogmael, a 6th-century Christian saint, reputedly the cousin of St David, Wales’s very own patron saint.
Construction of the abbey continued from the 12th through to the 16th century when, following the dissolution, it was converted into a private mansion. High profile individuals such as Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) and the archbishop of Canterbury enjoyed the overnight hospitality of the abbey." Text Source: (
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From the Castles of Wales Website:
"Founded about 1115 for a prior and 12 monks of the order of Tiron, St Dogmaels occupied the site of a pre-Norman monastery. It was raised to the status of abbey in 1120, and the monks followed an austere life based on the rule of St Benedict. The surviving ruins span four centuries of monastic life and show much alteration. Parts of the church and cloister are 12th century. However, the west and north walls of the nave, which stand almost to their full height, are of the 13th century, and a fine north doorway has 14th-century ballflower ornament. The north transept is Tudor, retaining elaborate corbels which supported the stone vaulting. Notice here the carved figures with an angel representing St Matthew, a lion for St Mark and the Archangel Michael. The footings of the chapter house can be seen to the west of the cloister, with the adjacent monk's infirmary standing almost to roof level. At the Dissolution, the church continued to be used for a time by the parish, and a rectory was built into the southwest corner of the cloister." Text Source: (
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Full report from BBC TV News
"Villagers in St Dogmaels in Pembrokeshire are celebrating the moment 900 years ago, when their corner of west Wales was thrust into the limelight of Anglo-Norman politics and religion.
In 1113 monks from the Tironensian Order was granted land and money by Norman Baron Robert Fitzmartin, to establish what would become St Dogmaels Abbey.
It was formed in 1106, and by 1113 the order's focus on silence, prayer and manual labour had made them so popular that it had already opened 117 monasteries in France, Wales and England.
It was destined to become one of the most significant abbeys of its time.
Although it started out as a small priory originally housing just 13 monks, the cachet and wealth which it rapidly developed brought great prosperity and relative calm to the area
Nia Siggins, St Dogmaels' Coach House community and visitor centre
To mark the anniversary a number of events are being held over the year. These include a pilgrimage and a procession - and a showing of The Name of The Rose, the 1986 film about a medieval mystery starring Sean Connery, which was partly shot in the abbey's ruins.
According to Nia Siggins, who runs St Dogmaels's Coach House community and visitor centre, the significance of the abbey was heightened even by its symbolic location.
'Great prosperity'
"Robert Fitzmartin tried to curry favour with the local Welsh population by establishing the abbey on the site of a clas (early Celtic church), which dated back to at least 600 AD," she said.
"Which actually makes our anniversary celebrations a little bit arbitrary, as there's been a place of worship in one form or another in the location for almost 1,500 years," she said.
"You have to remember that in 1113, when Baron Robert Fitzmartin gifted the land to the Tironensians, the Normans were still in the extremely early stages of their invasion of Wales.
"There wasn't yet the military power or even the political will to take Wales by force, and so the barons had to find means of ingratiating themselves with the local population.
"Although it started out as a small priory originally housing just 13 monks, the cachet and wealth which it rapidly developed brought great prosperity and relative calm to the area." Text Source: (
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