Llantwit Major

We believe that the ancient and sacred site we now call Llanilltud was the cradle of 'Celtic' Christianity and that Llanilltud's story is one of the greatest untold stories in Welsh History.

Historically, Saint Illtud's is really two churches. The part you enter through the porch is the west church, thought to be built where the original Celtic Church stood. When you pass through the the glass doors you enter the east church, an altogether more ornate structure which reveals the maintenance of faith through a wealth of memorials, monuments, murals and carvings.

The Celtic Stones that are now exhibited in the church date from the 9th to the 11th centuries. They are nationally important as they are virtually all that remains of the early Celtic church that grew out of the monastic community founded by Illtud around the year 500. Largely commissioned by and for the region’s kings, noblemen and abbots, the Stones were effectively ‘expensive and conspicuous gifts to the monastery’.