The walk, the sky and St Ceidio…

We could see the chapel etched against the sky as we climbed the hill. I’d seen it from the road below five thousand times or more but never once thought to go there - after all it was just another chapel, one of so many chapels in Wales.

Reaching the summit we opened the chapel gate and walked into the graveyard. What a view, the sun shone on the blue sea in the distance, cloud shadows chased across the distant mountains, and all around the green of pasture, wood, and hill.

Entering the chapel through the storm battered door we moved into another world. This wasn’t just another Welsh chapel - this was a place of history, a piece of the ancient past. Not built in the 1800’s by some Welsh temperance minister as I’d expected, but built in 1264 and dedicated to Saint Ceidio. St Ceidio was once Prince Ceidio of Gwent. He settled across the way in the distance at Llangeidio, just north of his mother's hillfort on Carn Fadrun and built a church. Sainthood seems to have been easy path to tread back then, anyone that built a church seems to have been canonised.

The vaulted ceiling was high, the pews old and scratched. On one a single flake of confetti, a heart - remains of a recent marriage? 'Still in use then.' I guessed. The simple windows needed no coloured glass to decorate them, they were full of the sky and the fields and the sea. This was a quiet place, a place to retreat to on a stormy night, a place to pray if praying is your business.

Amazing to think this had been here all along, minutes from the cottage, in full view whenever I passed. And what a pleasure to discover it at last, almost a thrill in a world where thrills are few. Perhaps I need to get a life.

We looked around and left, shutting the door carefully behind us so as not to let the birds in as the note on the door requested, then retraced our steps through the ancient gate and back down the lane. Downhill was so much better, easier to tread, and as I walked back down the lane I felt pleased that I’d climbed close to the sky to visited Saint Ceidio’s. I’ll be walking there again I’m sure.