Qualla: St Deiniol's Church, Llanddaniel Fab

St Deiniol's Church, Llanddaniel Fab: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In January 2011, the village church of Llanddaniel Fab in southern Anglesey came on the market for 50,000 pounds. The estate agents suggested it could be used as a studio or for storage, subject to consents. It is a strange thing to list. The church had not been used for worship in years; ivy had begun to grow across the building. But the foundation it sits on is said to go back to AD 616, when the son of Saint Deiniol - the first Bishop of Bangor - is supposed to have planted the first Christian place of worship here. Almost nothing in the British real estate market comes with that kind of provenance.

St Deiniol's Church, Llanddaniel Fab: The Two Deiniols

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Welsh saints often come in family clusters, and the Deiniols are one of them. Saint Deiniol the elder - sometimes called Deiniol Wyn, 'Deiniol the Blessed' - founded the monastery of Bangor on the mainland in the 6th century and became the first Bishop of Bangor. His son Deiniol ...

St Deiniol's Church, Llanddaniel Fab: What Survived From the Older Church

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

When the Victorians knocked down the old church to build a new one, they kept some of the older fabric. The vestry's north door has medieval doorjambs, and the keystone of its pointed arch - also medieval - is a carved human face, weathered but recognisable, looking out at whoeve...

St Deiniol's Church, Llanddaniel Fab: Two Clergymen Worth Remembering

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The parish has been served by two clergymen whose names crop up in Welsh cultural history. Henry Rowlands, priest at Llanddaniel Fab and nearby parishes from 1696 onward, wrote Mona Antiqua Restaurata - 'Mona Restored', a history of Anglesey - published in 1723. It was one of the...

St Deiniol's Church, Llanddaniel Fab: A Simple 19th-Century Church

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The current building is in Early English style - Gothic Revival, built from rubble masonry dressed with limestone, slate-roofed. The plan is simple: nave with no aisle, chancel at the east end, porch on the south side, vestry on the north. The west end terminates in a bellcote wi...