Church of St David, Llanfaes

The Grade II listed Church of St David in Llanfaes dates from 1923-25. This church replaced an earlier one built in 1859. It has been suggested that this Victorian St David’s that was constructed by J Clayton, was built beside the remains of an earlier medieval church. The church at Llanfaes has been recorded as early as 1291 in the ‘Ecclesia de Lanmays’. This earlier medieval church was apparently associated with a stone that had strange properties. The following extract from ‘British Goblins’ (1881) by Wirt Sykes, explains that ‘In the church of St. David’s of Llanfaes, according to Giraldus*, was preserved among the relics a stone which caught a thieving boy in the act of robbing a pigeon’s nest, and held him fast for three days and nights. Only by assiduous and long-continued prayer were the unhappy boy’s parents able to get him loose from the terrible stone, and the marks of his five fingers remained ever after impressed upon it, so that all might see them.’

* Giraldus Cambrensis (Born 1146 – Died 1223) – Also known as Gerald of Wales