A few weeks ago we were travelling back across the mountains from Builth Wells.
As the weather was good and we were not pressed for time we decided to take a slight detour to visit a place we had heard of but not visited before - Soar Y Mynydd Chapel.
This chapel is reported to be the remotest chapel in Wales, and is quite literally in the middle of nowhere.
It is located in the Cambrian Mountains about half way between Abergwesyn and Tregaron in Ceredigion.
The only other property in the area is Nantllwyd Farm about a mile away.
Soar Y Mynydd is a Calvinist Methodist chapel built in 1822, immediately following the independence of the Calvinistic Methodists.
The chapel was built to serve the local sheep farming families at the instigation of Rev Ebenezer Richard, minister at Tregaron and father of peace campaigner Henry Richard. The land was donated by John Jones of Nantlwyd.
With the decline of hill farming the congregation of the chapel had fallen to just two by 1968 and the chapel was threatened with closure.
However the local community rallied to save the chapel and it was formally reopened in 1973.
Services during the summer months are now well-attended, and it has become something of a tourist attraction.
It is also becoming popular as an unusual location for wedding services.
Soar y mynydd is a grade II* listing building with Cadw.
The chapel is a simple whitewashed building made from local stone. It is rectangular, single storied and ungalleried
The building adjoins a two-storey now abandoned chapel house and a schoolroom.
The local school was located in the chapel house until the 1940s.
Painted above the pulpit is 'Duw Cariad Yw' - God is love.
The graves in the adjacent graveyard date back to 1856. One of the more recent, from 2001, is the grave of Professor John Griffiths, a prominent London cancer surgeon.
Further information...
https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/7229/details/soar-y-mynydd-welsh-calvinistic-methodist-chapel
http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/33418/3/Soar%20y%20Mynydd%20final%20%281%29.pdf
