Pontrhydfendigaid () is a village in

Ceredigion Ceredigion ( , , ) is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Cer ...

, Wales. It lies on the western flank of the Cambrian Mountains, between Devil's Bridge and

Tregaron Tregaron ( "town of St Caron") is an ancient market town in Ceredigion, Wales, astride the River Brenig, a tributary of the River Teifi. Tregaron is northeast of Lampeter. According to the 2011 Census, the population of the ward of Tregaron wa ...

. The village lies on the

River Teifi , name_etymology = , image = File:Llyn Teifi - geograph.org.uk - 41773.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = Llyn Teifi, the source of the Teifi , map = , map_size = , map_caption ...

, whose source is just 3 miles (5 km) to the east at Llyn Teifi. The community of Ystrad Fflur, which Pontrhydfendigaid makes most of the population of, had a population of 712 as of 2011 census. The ruins of the Cistercian

Strata Florida Abbey Strata Florida Abbey ( cy, Abaty Ystrad Fflur) () is a former Cistercian abbey situated just outside Pontrhydfendigaid, near Tregaron in the county of Ceredigion, Wales. The abbey was founded in 1164. is a Latinisation of the Welsh ; 'Valley o ...

are 1 mile south-east of the village. The abbey was founded 1164; the poet

Dafydd ap Gwilym Dafydd ap Gwilym ( 1315/1320 – 1350/1370) is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and amongst the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages. Life R. Geraint Gruffydd suggests 1315- 1350 as the poet's dates; others place him a little ...

is traditionally said to be buried there and Llywelyn the Great held a council there. The station at

Strata Florida Strata Florida Abbey ( cy, Abaty Ystrad Fflur) () is a former Cistercian abbey situated just outside Pontrhydfendigaid, near Tregaron in the county of Ceredigion, Wales. The abbey was founded in 1164. is a Latinisation of the Welsh ; 'Valley of ...

was positioned to serve the village. The hillfort of Pen y Bannau is 1 km east of the village. The village is home to an annual

eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, ac ...

, the Eisteddfod Pantyfedwen, or colloquially the "Steddfod Bont". Concerts and other events are also held in the modern multi-purpose Pavilion here. A Celtic Music Society is based at the village's Black Lion Hotel. The village was the birthplace and home of Caradog Jones, the first Welshman to reach the summit of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetic languages, Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is List of highest mountains on Earth, Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border ru ...

. It is in the

Community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...

of Ystrad Fflur. The village takes its name from an old ford (Welsh:''rhyd'') across the Teifi and a bridge (''pont'') that was later built there. It is on the B4343 road between

to the south and Pontarfynach to the north, around 13 miles (21 km) to the south-east of Aberystwyth. The abbey was an important centre of learning, and it is believed that one of the earliest versions of the ''

Brut y Tywysogion ''Brut y Tywysogion'' ( en, Chronicle of the Princes) is one of the most important primary sources for Welsh history. It is an annalistic chronicle that serves as a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. ''Brut ...

'' was made there. It is believed that the TV programme '' C'mon Midffild!'' is based on the village football club.

Pontrhydfendigaid in fiction

In the novel The Discovery of Heaven by Dutch author Harry Mulisch, the village is the place where the characters Mr and Mrs Spiers spend their holidays.

The Beast of Bont

The Beast of Bont is the name given to a big cat said to roam the area centred on Pontrhydfendigaid. (Y Bont is the local abbreviation and

colloquial name Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conversa ...

for Pontrhydfendigaid.) It was blamed for the death of 12 sheep in June 1981. After a number of livestock attacks in the mid-1990s, Ministry of Agriculture veterinarians inspected a sheep carcass "and declared that the killer was a great deal more powerful than a fox or dog". The Dyfed-Powys police then searched the area, but failed to find the animal. In the spring of 2012, Mark Davey and his partner Annette came across a "sickening" scene: two large groups of slaughtered sheep, about two miles apart, in the hills near Devil's Bridge. In a statement to local newspapers, he reported that "something had quite clearly attacked them because they looked like they had been ripped apart" and that "to kill so many sheep in such a small area it had to be quite a strong animal".

References

External links

Pontrhydfendigaid Community websiteStrata Florida AbbeyBBC article about the Celtic Music Societywww.geograph.co.uk : photos of Pontrhydfendigaid and surrounding area
* {{authority control Villages in Ceredigion