Chapel of St Non

On the open coast a few miles from the city of St Davids, the Chapel of St Non sits as a low ruin within a field that runs to the cliff edge above the sea. It is, by tradition, the birthplace of St David, the patron saint of Wales, and is thought to be one of the oldest Christian buildings in the country.

A ruin that resists dating

The chapel cannot be accurately dated, and its plan refuses the expected logic. Where Christian churches are conventionally aligned east to west, this ruin lies north to south — an orientation that has invited the suggestion that the building was raised within a pre-existing pagan circle of standing stones. The chapel field still holds a number of these stones, possibly the remains of an Iron Age settlement, so the Christian structure reads as a layer set into a far older sacred ground.

In the corner stands St Non’s Cross, a stone inscribed with a cross within a circle and dateable to the 7th to 9th century. Found in the same field, it may be a grave or an altar stone, though there is no firm evidence it originated on the site.

From shrine to garden

The ruin is held to stand on the site of St Non’s own house. In medieval times it was among the principal destinations for Christian pilgrims; after the Protestant Reformation the pilgrimages ceased, and the building was converted first into a house and then put to use as a garden. The Grade II listed site passed to the Welsh heritage body Cadw in the 1950s.

The holy well and its water

Close by lies a holy well long believed to hold healing properties, thought especially effective for eye complaints. A 1717 survey records it roofed in stone, walled, and ringed with benches; an 1811 account calls its fame “incredible.” The well was restored in 1951 by the Catholic Church, which raised a shrine using stones from nearby ruins, the 18th-century vaulting having replaced medieval stonework.

The devotion endures. Offerings of pins and pebbles were once made on St Non’s Day, March 2nd, and to this day visitors throw coins into the well for luck. Water drawn from it was used by Pope Benedict during his visit to Britain.