Eglwys y Bedd

Eglwys y Bedd stands in the churchyard of St Cybi’s in Holyhead, a port town on Anglesey in north Wales. It is a small medieval church built in the 14th century, now reduced to its nave. The site may once have been the cell of St Cybi, a 6th-century Celtic saint who settled in Holyhead. Roman walls from Caer Gybi, a fort built on the same spot, still surround the churchyard. Archaeologists found traces of an earlier medieval building during excavations in 1992. The church is best known for the grave reputed to hold Seregri, an Irish warrior buried there in the 5th century. Seregri led a group of Irish settlers who were driven out by the Welsh ruler Cadwallon Lawhir ap Einion. In 1833 the antiquarian Angharad Llwyd recorded the discovery of a stone coffin containing unusually large human bones near Seregri’s grave. The building later served as Holyhead’s first school in the 18th century. Visitors enter a simple rectangular room with grey stone walls and a slate roof. The west end has a 14th-century window above a blocked 15th- or 16th-century doorway. The east end shows a 14th-century decorated chancel arch. Two square windows light the north wall. The church is now used as a room by St Cybi’s and remains protected as a Grade II listed building.