Strata Florida Abbey

We visited this Cistercian abbey this morning just outside Pontrhydfendigaid. It was originally founded in 1164 and this is a photo of the Great West Door to the abbey church.
Many graves of the monks are still to be found on the site and there are some beautiful sculpted headstones. Attached to the abbey is an additional graveyard that is still in use today. Here, eleven princes of the House of Dinefwr were buried during the 12th and 13th centuries, along with the famous Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, who is buried under a famous oak tree in the graveyard. The tree has withstood many storms and has even been hit by lightning a few times but Dafydd ap Gwilym sleeps on, regardless.

His poetry was quite raunchy if the one below is anything to go by:

I bend before this passion:
a plague on the parish girls!
Since, o force of my longing,
I have never had one of them!
Not one sweet and hoped-for maiden,
Not one young girl, or hag, nor wife,
What recoil, what malicious thoughts,
What omission makes them not want me?
What harm is it to a thick-browed girl
to have me in the dark, dense wood?
It would not be shameful for her
To see me in a den of leaves.

The Girls of Llanbadarn

On the hill behind the abbey is a 14 feet high sculpture by Glenn Morris called 'Pilgrim'.
It is made from recycled oak and old railway sleepers and makes a most impressive landmark overlooking the site.
Pilgrim