St Non's Well and Chapel - a beautiful little piece of history in the South West corner of Wales

While on holiday in South West Wales back in April, we visited St Non's Well and Chapel. St Non was born in the 5th century and is the mother of St David of Wales.

The site consists of a tiny chapel (built in 1934) in the grounds of a religious retreat, alongside the well and the remains of Capel Non (St Nons Chapel, in Welsh), which is the birthplace of St David.

I found it a beautiful wee site. The well is quite cool, and is actually a natural spring, which has had a sort of grotto structure built around it. It is said to have healing powers !

It was quite a remote site that looks down over the coast. It was quite peaceful and very quiet, with very few others visiting at the time.

A little up from the well was this lovely little statue of St Non. Based on the setup, it looks like it might be a site for pilgrim's to visit, noting that there is also a religious retreat next to it all.

This little plaque at the site gives some additional insight to the well.

Above is a pic of Capel Non, St David's birthplace, taken from the well. It was a short walk over.

There is very little left, but it has been protected and preserved because of the historic importance of the site.

This interesting stone with cross inscription lies in one corner of the capel. It clearly must have had an iron cross insert at some time in the past as you can see the rust marks which have leached into the stone.

Thats the capel on the immediate left, with the new chapel in the background on the right, next to the retreat. The retreat is private, and not freely open to ad-hoc visitors, but the new chapel is under the protection of CADW, a welsh government office, and hence it is open to public visit.

I can honestly say that the new chapel is one of the prettiest and quaint little chapels I've ever seen. It was quite stunning.

I just love the alter, made with what looks like the remnants from stone window frames from an older church or chapel.

The stained glass in the chapel was quite impressive, with the window above showing St Non.

Thats St David above.

And thats St Non, and St David as an infant in the corner.

I found the site and setting quite impressive actually. The views over the sea were quite spectacular. We had only found the site by chance really, as the chapel is listed as a visitor attraction within the CADW site, although it certainly does not attract droves of tourists. I guess we were quite lucky to visit it on such a beautiful day, with the sunshine certainly showing everything off in a beautiful light !

Well I'm glad we made the trip to see it all - it was more impressive than I could have guessed from the description alone ! Well worth the visit.