DisgrifiadSt. Mary's Church, Llanllugan, formerly attached to the Cistercian nunnery founded by Maredudd ap Robert some time before 1188, may also be located on the site of the sixth century foundation of Llorcan Wyddel. The extant building dates almost entirely to the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and consists of an undivided chancel and nave, south porch, and overhanging wooden bellcote on the west wall. The late medieval roof structure remains, together with much original fifteenth century stained glass in the east window.
The church is built primarily from grey sandstone, with some red sandstone and large pebble elements, and has a slate gabled roof. The porch appears to date from restoration during the nineteenth century, while the wooden bellcote replaces a bell turret removed during renovations during the 1960s. It has been suggested that the blocked-in doorways on the north and south walls may have led to the cloister and claustral buildings of the nunnery, which survived until the Dissolution in 1536, however there are no traces of other buildings, and their exact location is open to debate.
Source: St Mary's Church, Llanllugan; correspondence and published accounts from a number of sources relating to the 1910 RCAHMW inventory account for Llanllugan Church.
K Steele, RCAHMW, 11 November 2008.