St James' Church

Nantglyn harbours some surprising secrets. On the leaderboard is the "preacher's pulpit" at St James' Church in the village centre, where a staircase has been built into the hollowed trunk of the principal yew in the churchyard. John Wesley is believed to have delivered a sermon here. The staircase did not involve destructive techniques for its installation. Yews are unusual in facilitating growth from the outer edges of the tree, losing its heartwood as it ages. In this way, yews can achieve incredible lifespans. As a consequence, what might look like three or four individual trees are really components of the same rootball making up a circumference of "detached" trees. Yews live to be thousands of years old in this way. Nantglyn's yew tree is an example of this ageing process, into which a staircase has been built. Other trees, like the yew at Llangernyw, about half an hour from Nantglyn, is somewhere in the region of 5,000 years old and in the circumference of the "centre" of the tree is probably 20' - 30' in places.
Oct 13th, 2022

Beautiful church, so unusual with the slate tiles covering all the walls as well as the roof. The slate steps and pulpit built into the tree adjacent to the church is spectacular and something to behold. Well worth a visit.
Dec 28th, 2021

Jul 2nd, 2019