Llangernyw
Llangernyw is a village in Conwy County and sits in the beautiful Elwy Valley close to where the River Cledwen joins the River Elwy. The village is approximately 10 miles from the glorious beaches of North Wales and 10 miles from Snowdonia national park.
Llangernyw boasts an antique shop, a village shop with a post office and two pubs.
As well as beautiful scenery and walks around the village and surrounding areas there are also few local attractions which would be of interest.
Sir Henry Jones museum
The Henry Jones Museum in the village tells the story of Sir Henry Jones, one of the forefathers of Welsh education system. The museum is more of a preserved cottage than a museum as it is the childhood home of Mr Henry Jones.
Click below to visit the museum
The musuem also offers another connection to The Old Stag. During the spring and summer months the Llangernyw gardening club look after the gardens at the museum and grow only vegetables which were only around at the time of when Sir henry lived at the house. These wonderfull vegetables with names such as Scerrig blue potatoes and purple potted peas are grown organically and sold to The Old Stag. These are then used in specials and a donation from the pub is given to the museum for every special sold using the vegetables and salad .
This is highlighted below on a recent BBC news article
Our famous yew tree
But Llangernyw is most renowned for the 4500 -5000 year old yew tree in the grounds of St Digain's Church that sits in the centre of the village. It must be worth a visit to the Vale of the Elwy if for nothing more than to touch one of the three of the oldest living things on the planet..
The Yew tree took root sometime in the prehistoric bronze age and is still a thriving and healthy tree today
To place your hands on the bark of a living tree that was probably here a thousand years before Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids is a strange feeling. The majority of Yew trees are found growing in churchyards: the interesting thing about this one is that it predates the arrival of Christianity here by about three millenia, so the builders must have chosen to site the church by the tree.
But since the earlier Druids and Pagans worshipped the yew, maybe the early Christians simply located their church on an existing and already very ancient religious site.
The yew is designated one of the fifty Great British trees in recognition of its place in national heritage. The churchyard gate displays a certificate from the Yew Tree Campaign certifying that the tree is dated as between 4,500 and 5,000 years old.
St Digains Church
St Digians church dates back to the 13th Century alhough as previously mentioned it was certainly a pagen worship site before the church was built. To the left of the church stand two stone monuments which are 1.4metres high and have crosses inscribed on them. They have been dated back to the dark ages and experts have suggested that these take the form of an ancient alter
Restoration was carried out in the early 19th century and the wonderful stained glass windows which are now present were fitted then. The name St digains comes from Saint Digain (also known as Dygain) who was a 5th century saint and prince of Dumnonia (now known as the English west country). Infact the name of Llangernyw derives from the meaning "church of the cornishmen". There are numerous links between the area and cornwall and there are many examples of the similarity of words spoken in Welsh and the tradittional language spoken in some parts of Cornwall
The church of St Digains is also famous for another mysterious act, that of "Angelystor" or the "recording angel". Here is a writing from the Rev Elias Owen written in 1896
"This then may be what attracted the presence of the mysterious "Angelystor". Angelystor - the Recording Angel - manifested itself in the church every Hallowe'en. Here, at dead of night, it would intone in a deep and solemn voice the names of all those in the parish who were to die in the following year.
One fateful Hallowe-en night, after a few too many pints, the village tailor, a know-all named Shôn ap Robert, laughingly derided the existence of the Recording Angel. Spurred on by his drinking pals, he barged out of the Stag hotel into the night and made his wobbly way to the church, to prove Angelystor a myth.
But when he arrived at the door he heard to his horror a deep voice booming from within. It was reciting names. And the first name he heard was - "Shôn ap Robert"!
"Hold, hold!" he cried. "I am not ready yet!" But, ready or not, he found his grave in Llangernyw churchyard that coming year."
Click here for a more recent account of The Angelystor in Llangernyw
