This was a time when many churches on Anglesey in north-west Wales were first built in stone following the end of Viking raids and attempts by the Normans to gain control of the island.

Geraint Jones, author of a 2006 guide to the churches of Anglesey, suggests that it may originally have been a memorial chapel, or connected to a royal court nearby.

[4] Yates and Longley, authors of a 2001 guide to ancient Anglesey monuments, note that it was built in the large parish of Penrhos Lligwy and was perhaps intended to serving the expanding population in medieval times.

[4] It is cared for by Cadw, the Welsh Assembly Government body responsible for the built heritage of Wales, and is open to the public.

[8] Capel Lligwy is built from rubble masonry; at about 5 feet (1.5 m) up the walls, the style changes and smaller stones are inserted into spaces between the larger blocks, showing where the 14th-century rebuilding started.

[1] It was given this status on 2 September 1952 and has been listed because it is "important as a substantially 12th-century structure, with some architectural details surviving from this early period", even though it is now in a "ruinous condition".

"[11] She recounted that a fox had once taken shelter in the ruins, and when it was dug out, the vault was discovered, "containing several human skeletons, which crumbled into dust, when exposed to the air".

[11] A 1990 book about abandoned churches in Wales refers to the ancient monuments in this part of Anglesey, and calls Capel Lligwy a "medieval gesture of Christian power in a land so obviously imbued with the spirit of a pagan past".