Talley Abbey

Talley Abbey (Welsh: Abaty Talyllychau) is a ruined former monastery of the Premonstratensians ("White Canons") in the village of Talley in Carmarthenshire, Wales, six miles (10 km) north of the market town of Llandeilo.

In 1126, when it received papal approbation by Pope Honorius II, there were nine houses; others were established in quick succession throughout western Europe, so that at the middle of the fourteenth century there were some 1,300 monasteries for men and 400 for women.

In common with Strata Florida Abbey, it was once claimed to be the site of the grave of the medieval Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, but this is one of the discredited theories of Iolo Morganwg.

[1] The ruinous tower is surrounded by steep wooded hills, and it can be reached by a circuitous lane from the main road.

As with many village communities, it was well populated in the Victorian period, as described by Lewis: TALLEY, otherwise TÀL-Y-LLYCHAU, a parish, in the union of LLANDILO-VAWR, lower division of the hundred of CAYO, county of CARMARTHEN, SOUTH WALES, 71⁄2 miles (N.) from Llandilo-Vawr: containing 1068 inhabitants, of whom 418 are in the Lower, and 650 in the Upper, division.

This place, of which the name, signifying "the head of the lakes," is derived from two large pools, near the church, of about fifty acres in extent, was originally of much greater importance than at present, and the seat of one of the most extensive and venerable ecclesiastical establishments in this part of the principality.

The surface displays a continued succession of hill and dale, sideland and mountain top, and is rather woody .

The seat, Edwinsford, stands in the north-west on the confines of the parish, of about half of which the owner of the house is the landed proprietor .