Llandygai - Llandygai Church

Llandygai Church

A church was founded by Saint Tegai (or Tygái or simply Cai) in the fifth century. Relics of the Saint include a stone coffin and a cross bearing his name are kept at the church.

The present church dates to around 1330 and was much restored and extended by the diocesan architect, Henry Kennedy, in 1853. The church is of cruciform structure with a central tower. It is a Grade II* listed building.

The church has six bells. The bells naturally sound very loud inside the ringing chamber (from where the bells are rung); to combat this the bells are permanently fitted with leather muffles on both sides of the clapper. When ringing the bells they have a strange sound because of this; almost as if they are ringing inside a large tank of water.

In the church is a marble monument to Archbishop John Williams, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal during the reign of James I. There is also monument by Richard Westmacott to the first Lord Penrhyn, in which the sarcophagus is flanked by a quarryman and peasant woman, described by Eric Hobsbawm as “the earliest sculpted proletarians”.

The ecclesiastical parish of Llandygai follows the Ogwen valley southwards, giving its name also the village of Mynydd Llandygai.

Christopher Bethell, Bishop of Bangor, is buried in the churchyard.