Whitland Abbey

Ty Gwyn ar Daf was once the occasional residence of Hywel Dda in the 10th century and a grand national council was held here around the year 940.

[3] In order to give greater solemnity to this convocation, and to implore the divine wisdom to assist their counsels, the king remained here with his whole court during Lent, in the constant exercise of prayer and other acts of devotion.

[1] After the destruction of the monastery of Bangor-on-Dee (Welsh: Bangor-is-y-Coed or Bangor Is-Coed) in North Wales, following the 613 Battle of Chester, a religious society was settled at this place under the auspices of Paulinas, son of Urien Rheged, a disciple of St Germanus, in which originated the abbey of Albalanda, or Whitland, afterwards erected near the site, and called by the Welsh, after the name of the former establishment, Ty Gwyn ar Taf.

It is related in the Welsh annals that Cadwaladr, brother of Owain Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, during the disputes which arose between him and his nephews, the sons of Owain, entrusted the custody of his newly erected Cynvael Castle to the abbot of Ty Gwyn ar Taf, who defended it with obstinate valour against the assaults of the young princes by whom it was besieged.

[1] After a determined resistance, protracted till the walls of the castle were beaten down, and the whole of the garrison either slain or wounded, the abbot effected his escape from the ruins, through the assistance of some friends in the camp of the enemy, and retired into his monastery.

Of the royal palace of Ty Gwyn, which was comparatively a small building, designed chiefly for a hunting seat, no vestiges are discernible, only the grass-covered foundations of the walls.