Site: Capel Anelog

Name:Capel Anelog [Also: Capel y Verach ; Capel Yverack] CISP No:ADARN
Place:Gors Farm Grid Ref:SH 1560 2743 (GB)   Map
Parish:Aberdaron Stones:2
County:Caernarvonshire (Caernarfon) , Wales Saint(s):none
Site Type:ecclesiastical

Site Notes

The site of these stones is mentioned in the handwritten notes of Lewis Morris, an 18th-century antiquary BM Add. MSS 14907, fol. 184) published by Owen (Owen/1896). Morris states: `In the ruins of Capel Angelog, in the parish of Aberdaron, in Lleyn... Some call it Capel-y-Verach neu [or] [CISP sic] Aberāch---Capel Berach... ' (Owen/1896, 138).

The chapel is possibly the same site as mentioned in Gough's Camden cited by Huebner/1876, 50: `In Capel Yverack in Aberdaron, Caernarvonshire, cippum inscriptum extare, cuius tamen titulum non adscripsit, affirmat. Gough's Camden 3, p. 186' (Huebner/1876, 50).

Westwood/1859, 53, `Mr Wynne states that they were brought from a small farm on his estate, called Gors, between Cefn Amwlch and Aberdaron, and that they stood in what is supposed to have been the burial-ground of an old church, the site of which is still discernible. About fifteen years ago the tenant was going to bring the spot into cultivation, and the stones were then removed, for safety, to their present resting-place. Mr. Wynne conjectures that this church may not improbably have been one of a chain of similar buildings which were erected along the ancient route to Bardsey from Bangor, through Caernarvon, Clynnog, Llanaelhaiarn, &c. This supposition appears well founded, for either the stones may have been primarily erected and inscribed there, or may have been brought thither from Bardsey itself after the dissolution of the monastery. The line of the road for pilgrims to the Isle of Saints went most probably through Nevin and Tudweiliog; but whether it thence proceeded through Meyllteyrn, Bryncroes, and Aberdaron, to the eastward of Mynydd Cefn Amwlch and Rhos Hirwaen, or else to the westward of those hills, by the sea-coast, through Llangwnadl and Bodferin to Eglwys Fair, at the extreme point of the promontory, is not quite certain. The farm of Gors (query, Glan-y-Gors?) lies near Bodwrdda and Ffynnon Ddurdan, described in Arch. Camb., First series, iv, p. 208, and is near the former of these two lines of road.'

This discussion is largely repeated verbatim in Westwood/1876, 177.

Anon/1926, 444: `They had come from the site of the old chapel of Anelog, near Aberdaron, which Lewis called Capel y Verach; he would hesitate greatly to connect this last name with the Veracius of the stone, which in modern Welsh would yield something quite different. On the other hand, he had the authority of Sir John Morris Jones for associating Senacus and Bryn Hynog, a name found in the locality [about 1 mile N.W.W. of Pwllheli].

`Mr Hemp quoted a note made by the late Col. Wynne Finch and dated April 2, 1899, in which he said...`some ten years ago I went over [the farm called ``Gors''] and looked carefully for any stones like these, and inquired from the tenant but he knew of none nor could I see any likely stones. When these stones were first brought here, I remember them well, and also remember hearing that there were other stones then on the spot with inscriptions on them, but that the others were all either broken or so defaced that these two were the only stones worth bringing away.''

`Mr Edward Owen, F.S.A., said that in one of the British Museum MSS. are a number of sketches and rough drawings made by or for Edward Lhuyd (d. 1709)...The really important information given in Lhuyd's sketch consists of the remark that the stones were then `At Kappell Yverach in Aberdaron parish in Llin.' This is no doubt intended for Capel y Verach, and the chapel is one of those that are known to have stood near Aberdaron (as the jumping-off place for Bardsey), and was probably the foundation of the Veracius who is commemorated on the first of the inscribed stones.'

Macalister/1928, 306--307: `...it is noteworthy that Lewis Morris has left a note to the effect that in his time the stone lay in a place called Capel Berach...The other stone commemorates another presbyter, Senacus, who has apparently given his name to a local hill, Bryn Hynog; he is said in his epitaph to lie there `with a multitude of his brethren.' We can hardly fail to see in this, the record of an otherwise unrecorded massacre'.

RCAHMW/1964, 3, no. 1460: `Capel Anelog. The site locally identified as that of the chapel from which the inscribed stones (No. 1479) were taken to Cefnamwlch lies just E. of the modern road near Gors at about 200 ft. above O.D. All that remains is the robber-trench from which the foundations have been removed, outlining the E. end of a rectangular building about 12 ft. wide. Traces of other buildings occur about 50 yds. to the N.'

References

Stones