Site Record

St Davids 16 is a rough, unshaped boulder of gabro, with rounded top and pointed lower end. It is now located in The Lapidarium at Porth y T'r, St Davids Cathedral (NPRN 306). The stone was first mentioned in 1856 when it was built into the base of the wall of the east side of the road, some 90m north of Penarthur Farmhouse. By 1884 it had fallen out of the wall and was used to prop open the gate adjacent to St Davids 17. It was removed to St Davids Cathedral around 1885, moved to the basement in 1994, and to its current location in 2000. The stone is one of four (see NPRNs 423520, 423521, 423523) in the vicinity of Penarthur Farm, the location of a possible chapel and cemetery site (NPRN 423519). The stones are generally accepted to have been originally placed upright around a holy well to the east of the small parcel of land belonging to the Bishop and known as Maenarthur, where the stones were first recorded. It is unclear whether this was Ffynon Penarthur or Ffynnon Parc-y-Berth.

Dimensions are given as 75cm height x 43cm width x 23cm diameter. The stone is carved in low relief on one of its broad faces. The carving is severely weathered. The boulder is carved in low relief with a roundel with a complex cross-motif composed of frets, surrounded by a fret-pattern border. There is a drilled hole in the centre of the roundel, which would have been used to construct the pattern with a ruler and compasses. The Viking-age border fret-pattern is similar in style to St Davids 14 and 15 (NPRNS 423520 & 423521). The carving is thought to be 10th-century in date.

Sources include:
Edwards, N. 2007, Corpus of Early Medieval Inscribed Stones and Stone Sculpture in Wales

N Vousden, 30 October 2018