Nevern Pembrokeshire
Nevern is a small village in the Preseli Hills area of north Pembrokeshire whose ancient church of St Brynach and its remarkable collection of early medieval carved stones make it one of the most significant early Christian sites in Wales and one of the most atmospheric churchyards in Britain. The combination of the Norman church building, the extraordinary collection of Celtic and Viking-age carved crosses, the ancient yew avenue leading to the church door and the legends attached to the site creates an experience of concentrated historical and spiritual weight quite unlike any other in west Wales. The churchyard at Nevern is approached through an avenue of ancient yew trees of such age, girth and character that the walk between them toward the church door is one of the most dramatically atmospheric approaches to any church in Britain. One of the yews is known as the Bleeding Yew for the red sap that drips perpetually from a wound in its trunk, a phenomenon that has generated numerous legends and that continues to impress and unsettle visitors centuries after it was first noted. The origin of the crimson flow is debated, various plant pathologies and environmental factors having been proposed without conclusive result. The great cross of Nevern, a carved cross of the tenth or eleventh century standing over four metres high in the churchyard, is one of the finest early medieval Celtic crosses in Wales and is carved with interlaced knotwork and other decorative patterns of considerable sophistication. Further carved stones within the church, including the Maglocunus stone with its Latin and Ogham inscriptions of the fifth or sixth century, make the church interior a remarkable museum of the earliest centuries of Welsh Christianity. The Preseli Hills above Nevern, from which the bluestones of Stonehenge were quarried, provide excellent walking and the Iron Age hillfort of Carn Ingli is accessible from the village.