St Tudwen’s is a delightful old church with only a farm to keep it company and with views of across to Cardigan Bay and the peaks of Boduan and the Rivals. It is a quiet and peaceful place with the only sounds being bird song and the cows in the farm. Although it only has two services a month, the church is lovingly cared for and always open.
Standing in a rectangular churchyard, the church is unusual as it is a T shaped church with nave and transepts. It was originally cruciform but the chancel has been demolished. Above the west door is a small bell cote.
St Tudwen was a C5th saint and sister to the grandmother of St David. The church was built over her grave. The nave is the oldest part of the church dating from about 1598 and was built over an earlier church. The two transepts were added early in the C17th.
Entry is through a simple round topped doorway on the west wall which may have survived from the earlier church. The nave floor has been lowered at some time and there are two steeps steps down into the church.
Inside, it is a lovely church with whitewashed walls and dark beamed roof. There are simple wooden pews with candlesticks on the end walls. There is no electricity and oil lamps hang from the ceiling. There is a simple wooden pulpit and wooden eagle lectern.
At the back of the nave by the door is an old stone font on a later base. On the wall above is a framed lace with the Lords Prayer.
Steps lead up to the altar which has a small icon in front of it. The modern glass in the windows has roundels with alpha, omega, Chi-Rho and small shields with the crosses of St George, St Andrew and St Patrick. On the wall above the window is a simple wooden cross.
The church is at the end of a side lane and signed off the unclassified road between Dinas and Madryn Castle. There is parking space for church visitors. On modern OS maps, the farm is marked as Tan Llan. On older maps it is LLandudwen. The nearest post code is LL53 8UA which is the farm to the north
of Llandudwen. The grid reference is SH274369. It is well worth finding.
There are more pictures “here.”:http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/churches/wales/llyn/llandudwen/index.html
