Llanfihangel-nant-Melan Yews

A stone about four feet long lies half buried at the foot of one of the yews here, too heavy for one person to move, and the Ancient Yew Group thinks it may carry pre-Norman carving. Local tradition goes further. It says St Michael's was set inside a stone circle, with one of the stones caught in a yew's trunk. Nobody has proved that, and the Group admits little is known of the site's origins. What it can point to is a churchyard that was once roughly round, and a close-set arc of old yews on the south side of the church. The Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust counted five mature yews there in 1995, with a sixth already cut down, and Reg Wheeler had recorded the loss of several others in 1982. The biggest stands to the south-west, on a mound. Wheeler measured it at 30 feet 2 inches when it still had three stems. One has since gone to a stump, and the Group's figure of 8.11 metres at the ground includes it; the two living stems together make about 21 feet. A recorder in 2015 found the foliage green and the tree growing well. The church is younger than its trees. It was rebuilt in 1846, and a gazetteer of the early 1870s described it on its hill-slope, surrounded by old yew trees. No source gives any of them an age, so we leave that open. The church may be locked, but the churchyard is not.