DescriptionAlltyblaca is aligned roughly south west to north east, and has developed in a linear fashion about half a mile along the B4337, which runs from the Edwinsford estate in the south (NPRN 249) to the village of Llanrhystud in the north. It is located approximately four miles south west of Lampeter. Although Alltyblaca looks like a very small village, the first and second editions of the 25inch OS maps (published in 1889 and 1905 respectively) show that at the turn of the twentieth century there were two public houses there- Allt-y-Blaca Arms to the south and Ffinnant Arms to the north. Opposite Finnant Arms was the Unitarian chapel (NPRN 7368), which is still open today. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Alltyblaca was one of thirteen Unitarian chapels in the area that were 'resistant to successive waves of evangelical revival emanating from the epicentre of Welsh Calvinistic Methodism, Llangeitho, not far to the north. As such these communities became collectively known to a hostile Methodist historiography as the `Black Spot? (Y Smotyn Du).
Sources: modern and historic OS maps; http://www.ukunitarians.org.uk and http://www.welshchapels.org
M. Ryder, RCAHMW, 1st November 2018.