Aberdaron Llyn Peninsula
Aberdaron is a small village at the very tip of the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales, a remote community at the end of the long peninsula whose combination of the ancient church, the sheltered bay and the views toward Bardsey Island just two miles offshore creates one of the most evocative and most spiritually resonant destinations in Wales. The village was the last resting point for medieval pilgrims before they crossed the treacherous Bardsey Sound to the island monastery of Bardsey, and the tradition of pilgrimage that made Aberdaron a waystation in the medieval world gives it a depth of spiritual association that persists in the atmosphere of this remote place.
The Church of St Hywyn by the beach dates from the twelfth century and was the principal church of the peninsula in the medieval period, its twin naves reflecting the expansion of the building to accommodate the pilgrim traffic that passed through on its way to Bardsey. The churchyard and the two-storey building above the beach known as Y Gegin Fawr, the Great Kitchen, where pilgrims were fed before their crossing, complete the physical evidence of the medieval pilgrimage tradition.
R S Thomas, the Welsh priest and poet regarded by many as the finest Welsh poet of the twentieth century, served as vicar of Aberdaron from 1967 to 1978 and his poetry is saturated with the landscape and spiritual qualities of this remote peninsula. The combination of the Thomas association, the medieval pilgrimage heritage and the wild beauty of the surrounding coast makes Aberdaron a destination of exceptional cultural depth.