Pennant Melangell Yews

Burial pits found at this church site have been carbon-dated to between 1500 and 1000 BC, so the round churchyard at Pennant Melangell was a burial ground long before any yew we can see here. Today it is ringed by them. Six yews grow around the circular wall, four of them ancient, the largest 8.71 metres round at its narrowest point. The church at the centre is the 12th-century shrine of St Melangell, at the head of a dead-end valley in the Berwyn hills. Her legend says she sheltered a hunted hare under her cloak and faced down a prince and his hounds, which is why she is the patron saint of hares, and why pilgrims still come up this valley. The church says its yews are estimated to be 2,000 years old, and the National Churches Trust gives the same figure. Both are estimates rather than measurements. Others are more cautious, noting that certificates have dated some Welsh yews to only 500 to 800 years, so treat 2,000 as the church's figure and the honest range as wide. Come for the ring rather than one trunk. The yews, the circular wall and the small shrine church make one place to stand, and an observer for the Ancient Yew Group, visiting in 2008, called it a memorable site. Four miles up a lane from Llangynog, it is not a place you pass on the way to anywhere.