page_title: Aelhaiarn
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Aelhaiarn / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Guilsfield Church
context_page_description: Saint Aelhaiarn or Aelhaearn was a Welsh confessor and saint of the British Church. He was a disciple of Saint Beuno. His feast day was usually observed on 2 November, although it is sometimes recorded as the 1st and is no longer observed by either the Anglican or Catholic church in Wales.
context_section_description: Saint Aelhaiarn was separately venerated at Guilsfield (Welsh: Cegidfa, lit. "Hemlock-field") near Welshpool in Powys and at Llanaelhaearn on the Llŷn peninsula in Gwynedd. (The latter, however, was long known as "Llanhaiarn" through a corruption of his name; the nearby estate known as Elernion ("St Elern's") is thought to have a similar origin.)
  The church at Guilsfield has been variously credited to Saint Giles (from the parish's name), to All Saints (from Aelhaiarn's nearby feast day), and to Saint Tysilio (from the local fair which was held on 8 November). Most of the present church dates to the 14th & 15th-century expansion of a 12th- or 13th-century core; it was refurbished between 1877 and 1879 and a small clock inset into the middle of its medieval tower. It is now a Grade I listed building. Its garden is also noted as an example of ancient yew trees set in a designed scheme.
  The church at Llanaelhaearn bears walls from around the 12th century and was last refurbished in 1892. It is listed as Grade II*. During expansion of the churchyard in 1865, workers discovered the Latin-inscribed gravestone of an Aliortus of Elmet, possibly indicating the existence of a religious settlement at the site before the arrival of Beuno and Aelhaearn.
  Both locations included a holy well. The well at Guilsfield (Ffynnon Aelhaiarn) was formerly visited by parishioners for a drink on Trinity Sunday. St Aelhaiarn's Well (Ffynnon Aelhaearn) at Llanaelhaearn was a major station on the northern pilgrimage route to Bardsey Island and much frequented for the miraculous cures associated with the "laughing" or "troubling of the water", an irregular appearance of upwelling bubbles throughout the well. By the 19th century, the Llanaelhaearn well was surrounded with an oblong basin and stone benches; devotees would rest on them while waiting for the water to "laugh". A diphtheria outbreak in 1900, however, caused the local council to, first, enclose and roof the well and, then, to lock it away from the public. The well's ownership is disputed and it remains inaccessible; the present enclosure dates from 1975.
  During the Middle Ages, the inland reach of Meirionydd also bore a parish named Llanaelhaiarn near modern Gwyddelwern in Denbighshire. It was united with Gwyddelwern in 1550 and the site of its chapel is now only marked with a yew tree. In the early 20th century, its local village was still named Aelhaiarn but it is now known as Pandy'r Capel ("Chapel Fulling Mill").
caption: The 14th-century church of St Aelhaiarn at Guilsfield
exif: {}