Dafydd ap Gwilym Yew, Strata Florida

In the 1530s the antiquary John Leland counted 39 great yews in this churchyard. Two are left, and nobody can say which, if either, stands over the grave that made them famous. Dafydd ap Gwilym, the fourteenth-century Welsh poet, is said to be buried at Strata Florida beside a yew. The tradition comes from a poem by his near-contemporary Gruffudd Gryg, addressed to the yew above the grave. Scholars are divided over whether the poet lies here at all or at Talley, and both the Ancient Yew Group and Wikipedia say there is no evidence that either surviving tree is the one in the poem. The honour has moved anyway. In 1854 George Borrow knelt at the other yew, the broken male by the road north-east of the church, and early postcards labelled that tree as Dafydd's. Later the plaque went to the female yew beside the church path, and that is the tree visitors are sent to now. It has had a hard two centuries. Meyrick found few yews left here in 1810, Lees three battered ones in 1874. Allen Meredith put this one at over 22 feet round in 1986, about 6.7 metres. It was cut back hard after storm damage in 2002, and the Ancient Yew Group reports many green branches since. The abbey ruins stand next door. No source we found gives either yew an age. If you know of one, tell us.