Cloister / Cloestr - St Dogmaels Abbey, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
N 52° 04.855 W 004° 40.781
30U E 384900 N 5771369
Cloister/Cloestr - Daily life in the Abbey tended to revolve around the cloister. St Dogmaels Abbey is located in the Heart of St Dogmaels or Llandudoch, the Village with two names, Pembrokeshire, South Wales.
Waymark Code: WMTKYD
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/07/2016
Views: 1
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, the Welsh Government’s historic environment service working for an accessible and well-protected historic environment for Wales.
The sign in English & Welsh is placed by Cadw & generally in line with their text below.
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: (
visit link)
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: (
visit link)
Hours of Operation:
1 April 2016 - 31 March 2017
Daily 10.00am - 4.00pm
Admission Prices:
Free - Abbey Ruins, Coach House & Church.