Maenan Abbey

Maenan Abbey stands in the quiet village of Maenan, near Llanrwst in Conwy County Borough. Once a Cistercian monastery founded in 1186, it moved to its present site in 1283 after Edward I ordered the monks to leave Aberconwy. The abbey was built as a royal foundation, with King Edward himself present at its start and funding its early construction. By 1535 its income was recorded at £162, making it one of the smaller monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII. The last abbot, Richard ap Robert, kept the house running until 1537, when its revenue reached £179 10s. 10d. After the Dissolution, the estate passed to Elizeus Wynne in 1563. Wynne pulled down most of the abbey and used its stones for a new mansion and repairs at Gwydir Castle and Caernarfon’s justice hall. Only a single arch survives from the original buildings, praised in the 19th century for its fine architecture and pleasant setting. Later owners traced their claim through the Wynne family, linking the estate to Lord Newborough in modern times. Today the site forms part of Maenan Abbey Hotel. In 1963 archaeologists excavated the grounds, and in 2011 builders uncovered three medieval walls believed to be the abbey’s cloister walls, about two metres thick and dating to 1282. Cadw inspected the finds, confirming their significance. Visitors can walk where monks once lived and see traces of the once-great abbey in the hotel’s grounds.