St Gwenfaen's Church is to be found in a
beautiful location on the south of Holy Island, Anglesey.
The original church was established in 630 AD, when it was dedicated
to Saint Gwenfaen, daughter of Pawl Hen of Manaw (Isle of Man), who made
her cloister here.
Legend has it that Gwenfaen was chased away from her cell by druids
and escaped by climbing the rock stack off Rhoscolyn head. The tide came
in and she was carried away by angels, which is how Saints Bay got its
name.
A subsequent church, built on the site around the 15th Century was destroyed
by fire and the present church was rebuilt in
the 1870’s
using the stone from the earlier
15th Century church. The 15th Century doorway was inserted into the
south wall of the new church and a porch was added.
The bell-cote
contains a bell dated 1611 and the font is a three-tier octagonal bowl
from the 15th Century, and, unusually for a small country church, there
is fine stained-glass in all the windows, including those in the porch.
The windows above the altar are particularly beautiful and use for their
representation of the sea 
a depiction of Rhoscolyn bay and the Beacon
Rocks. In the churchyard stands a monument to five crew members of the
local lifeboat who died during a storm in December 1920, trying to rescue
the crew of the “Timbo”.
Some distance from the church, on the west slope of Rhoscolyn headland,
stands St Gwenfaen’s Well, having
two sunken chambers including an enclosed pool whose water is credited
with curing mental problems – traditionally
an offering of two white quartz pebbles had to be made. But I am afraid
you would have to be mad to drink from the Well these days as it is contaminated
with dead sheep and sheep droppings.
