Tucked away near the village of Llanelltyd beside the banks of the Afon Mawddach in Eryri National Park lies Cymer Abbey, a ruined 12th century Cistercian abbey.
I’d spied signs for the abbey on my way up to north Wales and on my return journey, I turned off the A470 (the main north-south road in Wales) to take a look around and stretch my legs.
I parked my car in the small car park next to the river and set off in search of the abbey, stopping to admire the splendid views of Eryri National Park along the way (above).
Cymer Abbey lies in a field behind a caravan park and can be accessed via a small gate opposite a farmhouse.
The abbey was founded in 1198 by two brothers, Gruffudd and Maredudd ap Cynan, and has the distinction of being the only monastery in the Meirionydd region.
The abbey is thought to have been quite poor as its remains are fairly plain and devoid of the flashy architectural touches you see in wealthy Cistercian abbies, such as Tintern in the Wye Valley.
Like so many ecclesiastical buildings in England and Wales, the abbey closed its doors in 1537 during Henry VIII’s ruthless dissolution of the monasteries and later fell to ruin.
Not much of the abbey remains, but there’s enough still standing to give you an idea of its layout and to imagine how it may have looked during the Middle Ages.
Next to the ruined abbey, you can also see the foundations of another part of the monastery complex, which I presume was the cloisters given its shape (below).
It doesn’t take long to look around Cymer Abbey as there’s so little of it left, but it was a nice, scenic place to stop and break up the long journey back to Cardiff.