For millennia, pilgrims have sought love on Llanddwyn Island. The legend of Saint Dwynwen, Wales’ patron saint of lovers, is gaining popularity.
The dunes rolled out from Newborough Forest towards Anglesey’s tidal Llanddwyn Island, with a view of Caernarfon Bay and Snowdonia National Park on the Welsh mainland. It was lightly raining, the kind that seemed to hang in the sky, and a curtain of smoke-grey clouds curled over the islet’s mediaeval ruins, casting them in an almost ethereal glow.
“You could say this is the ‘Welshest’ part of Wales
Locals still honour Saint Dwynwen, Wales’ patron saint of love, and at low tide, a path from Anglesey leads onto uninhabited Llanddwyn, where her religious cult was founded.
A group of walkers ahead consulted the tides, just as druids (Celtic priests) would have done when they first settled on Anglesey between 100BC and 60 AD. None of the hikers seemed to be aware of the beautiful coves to explore or the nesting cormorants, shags, and gulls in the cliffs; they appeared to be here for something entirely different.
While Llanddwyn has a beautiful coastline, the tragic story of Saint Dwynwen also draws visitors. This treeless isle, lost for millennia, according to legend, is the location where the daughter of 5th-century Brychan Brycheiniog (son of an Irish King) brought thousands of love stories to life. And nowadays, those in need of salvation come in the hope of finding romance as well, especially on January 25, the Welsh equivalent of Valentine’s Day.
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Anglesey provides an all-around introduction to Welshness in a country where national identity is heavily weighted. It is located off the coast of the mainland, where the country’s northernmost tip embraces the Irish Sea, and is teeming with Welsh language speakers and culture. It’s almost as if the further you get away from Cardiff, the purer the sense of tradition. So much so that the island is known as Môn Mam Cymru, the “Mother of Wales,” so named because it was once the northern breadbasket.
Anglesey, like much of the rest of the country, has some of Europe’s most beautiful beaches, and it is a highlight of the 1,400-kilometer Wales Coast Path, the world’s first uninterrupted route along a national coastline.
Certainly, It is littered with lyrical folk tales, and each of its high cliffs, offshore skerries, and rocky bays has an enthralling story to tell of one or more Welsh legends. There are numerous stories about dragons, wizards, Arthurian legends, and Celtic mythologies. However, if you tell an Anglesey resident that you’re on your way to Llanddwyn, their first thought will be that you’re unlucky in love.
I wasn’t loveless or looking for love when I arrived in October, but I was curious. This is a poetic island with a story that would tug at anyone’s heartstrings, but it also appeals because it is in a part of the world that most people are unaware of. Oral histories in Wales tell of Dwynwen once providing a road map to love, and my deeper motivation for going was to see if this story was true. I was fascinated by the idea that pilgrims, both religious and philosophical, once crossed the sea from all over to come here, and that the island is now being rediscovered by a new generation eager to preserve the saint’s legend. I was taken with the storybook romance of “The increase in visitors is a testament to the fact that there is a story worth telling,” my guide Charlotte Hawksworth, senior reserve manager at Natural Resources Wales, said as we followed a path to the ruins of Saint Dwynwen’s original chapel, where she is said to be buried. “You could say this is the ‘Welshest’ part of Wales and people are very proud of that. Dwynwen’s story has been embellished over time, but it remains an important part of our community’s identity. Anyone who visits Llanddwyn can sense its power.”
The star-crossed romance between Dwynwen and her suitor Maelon Dafodrill is legend in Wales, sharing many similarities with Romeo and Juliet’s tragedy. Various versions exist today, but according to Hawksworth, Dafodrill was an unsuitable partner for Dwynwen, with the princess rebuffing his premarital sexual advances in order to remain chaste. According to a second account, Dwynwen was heartbroken after her father, Brychan Brycheiniog, arranged her marriage to another prince.
What is generally agreed upon, however, is that Dwynwen met an angel in her dreams and was granted a series of wishes. With these, she begged God to fulfil the hopes of true lovers everywhere, and she promised never to marry. She fled Brycheiniog soon after (Brecon), She moved from where she lived to Llanddwyn, where she spent the rest of her life as a nun devoted to God. If we could learn Dwynwen’s entire story, it might have the same cumulative effect as the fables of Orpheus and Eurydice, Odysseus and Penelope, or Lancelot and Guinevere, all of which continue to inspire romantics today.
To some Welsh people, Dwynwen’s myth is nothing more than a way to cash in on the growing trend for Welshness. The revival itself arose from a series of events in the 1960s, when a Bangor University student marketed St Dwynwen’s cards as an alternative to Valentine’s Day love letters. Every January 25th, shops set aside novelty items and restaurants offer carefully packaged St Dwynwen’s Day menus. This has also resulted in a revival of love spoons, elaborately crafted folkcrafts first exchanged by Welsh lovers in the 17th century.
Others, on the other hand, see the annual day as the very expression of modern Welsh identity, with the celebration increasingly taking precedence over Valentine’s Day among the Welsh. After all, it’s understandable to root for one of the country’s lesser-known heroines. It’s also not uncommon for couples to make a special trip to Llanddwyn on January 25 to propose or renew their vows. It would take a daring visitor to question the sentiment.