Soar Y Mynydd Chapel

Soar y Mynydd is a Calvinistic Methodist chapel in the Cambrian Mountains of Ceredigion, near the eastern edge of the parish of Llanddewi Brefi. It stands in the valley of the river Camddwr, about eight miles south-east of Tregaron on the road to Llyn Brianne. The chapel’s name means ‘Zoar of the mountain’, recalling the biblical refuge of Lot. Built in 1822, it is a simple whitewashed building of local rubble stone with a slate roof. The chapel is entered through two pairs of doors on its east side, and a small derelict house once used as a school adjoins it. The chapel is notable as the remotest in Wales and has survived periods of decline. Its congregation once fell to two in 1968, but since 1973 it has been preserved and now hosts well-attended summer services. Artists and poets have been drawn to the place, including Ogwyn Davies who painted it in 1993. It also features in works by Harri Webb and Iwan Llwyd. The chapel closed briefly during the COVID-19 pandemic and reopened in May 2022. Inside, the pulpit sits between the doorways and bears a painted scroll reading ‘Duw cariad yw’—‘God is love’. The enclosure is walled in stone and lined with mature trees, with a graveyard on the east side. The oldest gravestone dates from 1856, and a more recent one commemorates Professor John Griffiths, a London cancer surgeon who died in 2001. The building remains a quiet witness to Welsh Methodist tradition in a remote upland setting.