Pontrhydfendigaid () is a village in

Ceredigion Ceredigion (), historically Cardiganshire (, ), is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the West Wales, west of Wales. It borders Gwynedd across the River Dyfi, Dyfi estuary to the north, Powys to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire t ...

, Wales. It lies on the western flank of the

Cambrian Mountains The Cambrian Mountains (, in a narrower sense: ''Elenydd'') are a series of mountain ranges in Wales. The term ''Cambrian Mountains'' used to apply to most of the upland of Wales, and comes from the country's Latin name . Since the 1950s, it ...

, between

Devil's Bridge Devil's Bridge is a term applied to dozens of ancient bridges, found primarily in Europe. Most of these bridges are stone or masonry arch bridges and represent a significant technological achievement in ancient architecture. Due to their unusu ...

and

Tregaron Tregaron ( "town of St Caron") is an ancient market town in Ceredigion, Wales. It is sited astride the River Brenig, a tributary of the River Teifi, and is north-east of Lampeter. According to the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census, the po ...

. The village lies on the

River Teifi The River Teifi ( ; , ), formerly anglicised as Tivy, forms the boundary for most of its length between the Welsh counties of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, and for the final of its total length of , the boundary between Ceredigion and Pembr ...

, whose source is just 3 miles (5 km) to the east at Llyn Teifi. The community of Ystrad Fflur, which Pontrhydfendigaid makes most of the population of, had a population of 712 as of 2011 census. The ruins of the

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

Strata Florida Abbey Strata Florida Abbey (; ) is a former Cistercian abbey situated just outside Pontrhydfendigaid, near Tregaron in the county of Ceredigion, Wales. The abbey was founded in 1164. After the region around St Davids was firmly occupied by the Normans ...

are 1 mile south-east of the village. The abbey was founded 1164; the poet

Dafydd ap Gwilym Dafydd ap Gwilym ( 1315/1320 – 1350/1370) is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and among the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages. Dafydd’s poetry also offers a unique window into the transcultural movement of cultural pract ...

is traditionally said to be buried there and

Llywelyn the Great Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (, – 11 April 1240), also known as Llywelyn the Great (, ; ), was a medieval Welsh ruler. He succeeded his uncle, Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd, as King of Gwynedd in 1195. By a combination of war and diplomacy, he dominate ...

held a council there. The station at Strata Florida was positioned to serve the village. The hillfort of Pen y Bannau is 1 km east of the village. The village is home to an annual

eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, a ...

, the

Eisteddfod Pantyfedwen In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, a ...

, or colloquially the "Steddfod Bont". Concerts and other events are also held in the modern multi-purpose Pavilion here. A Celtic Music Society is based at the village's Black Lion Hotel. The village was the birthplace and home of

Caradog Jones John Caradoc Jones or "Crag" Jones (born 1962) is a Welsh mountaineer. On 23 May 1995, Jones became the first Welshman to reach the summit of Mount Everest (and the 724th overall). Jones was part of a larger expedition led by British climber H ...

, the first Welshman to reach the summit of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

. It is in the

Community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

of Ystrad Fflur. The village takes its name from an old ford () across the Teifi and a bridge () that was later built there. It is on the B4343 road between

to the south and Pontarfynach to the north, around 13 miles (21 km) to the south-east of

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth (; ) is a University town, university and seaside town and a community (Wales), community in Ceredigion, Wales. It is the largest town in Ceredigion and from Aberaeron, the county's other administrative centre. In 2021, the popula ...

. The abbey was an important centre of learning, and it is believed that one of the earliest versions of the ''

Brut y Tywysogion ''Brut y Tywysogion'' () is one of the most important primary sources for Welsh history. It is an annalistic chronicle that serves as a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. ''Brut y Tywysogion'' has survived ...

'' was made there. It is believed that the TV programme '' C'mon Midffild!'' is based on the village football club.

Pontrhydfendigaid in fiction

In the novel The Discovery of Heaven by Dutch author

Harry Mulisch Harry Kurt Victor Mulisch (; 29 July 192730 October 2010) was a Dutch writer. He wrote more than 80 novels, plays, essays, poems, and philosophical reflections. Mulisch's works have been translated into 38 languages so far. Along with Willem Fre ...

, the village is the place where the characters Mr and Mrs Spiers spend their holidays.

The Beast of Bont

The Beast of Bont is the name given to a big cat said to roam the area centred on Pontrhydfendigaid. (Y Bont is the local abbreviation and colloquial name for Pontrhydfendigaid.) It was blamed for the death of 12 sheep in June 1981. After a number of livestock attacks in the mid-1990s, Ministry of Agriculture veterinarians inspected a sheep carcass "and declared that the killer was a great deal more powerful than a fox or dog". The Dyfed-Powys police then searched the area, but failed to find the animal. In the spring of 2012, Mark Davey and his partner Annette came across a "sickening" scene: two large groups of slaughtered sheep, about two miles apart, in the hills near Devil's Bridge. In a statement to local newspapers, he reported that "something had quite clearly attacked them because they looked like they had been ripped apart" and that "to kill so many sheep in such a small area it had to be quite a strong animal".

References

External links

Pontrhydfendigaid Community websiteStrata Florida AbbeyBBC article about the Celtic Music Societywww.geograph.co.uk : photos of Pontrhydfendigaid and surrounding area
* {{authority control Villages in Ceredigion