This badly ruined church lies on a plot of about 0.5ha on land surrounded by the National Trust property. The plot is marked by a low bank (about 0.5m high). The building itself has been almost entirely destroyed and the stone footings removed. Today the feature shows up as overgrown bright green banks, contrasting in season with the dead bracken. The building footprint measures 13m x 7m with a semi-circular addition at the SW end, and the remains indicate a building of 40ft (c.12m) by 22ft (6.7m), NE-SW, surrounded by field banks. Traces of a stone building, c.12.2m NE-SW by 6.7m, whose foundations have been robbed, are set within a rectangular, banked enclosure, c.40m NE-SW by 34m, there is a poorly defined annex on the NE, c.26m NE-SW, and it may have traces of a building at its NE end. The remains are enclosed by a ruined stone wall forming a large rectangle, with the suggestion of a west porch or possibly a tower. The age of the church is unknown. The earliest reference to the remains as those of a church dates to 1748 (L Morris, Plans of Harbours, NLW plate 11). An engraving probably dating to between 1775 and 1785 shows a building which the RCAHMW suggest is the ruins of a typical C17th house (Griffiths, reprod. in Trans, Caer. Hist. Soc., 1951, pl 1). However, a ruined church is described by several C19th topographers including Lewis (1833), Hyde Hall (1809-1811) and williams (1814 in Fenton 1804-1813).
Source: E Plunkett Dillon, NT survey of Braich y Pwll, 1986; Douglas Hague notes 1957; Os495card; SH12NW1

Associated with:
St Mary's well (Nprn32226).

RCAHMW