OS grid reference SN730666 Country Wales Postcode district SY25 Local time Thursday 10:55 PM Ceremonial county Dyfed UK parliament constituency Ceredigion | Principal area Ceredigion Sovereign state United Kingdom Police Dyfed-Powys Dialling code 01974 Post town Ystrad Meurig | |
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Weather 6°C, Wind E at 40 km/h, 65% Humidity | ||
Pontrhydfendigaid is a village in Ceredigion, Wales. It lies on the western flank of the Cambrian Mountains, and is located between Devil's Bridge and Tregaron. The village lies on the River Teifi, the source of which is just 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to east at Llyn Teifi.
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Map of Pontrhydfendigaid, Ystrad Meurig, UK
It is known for the ruins of the Cistercian Strata Florida Abbey, founded 1164, where Dafydd ap Gwilym is said to be buried and Llywelyn the Great held a council.
The station at Strata Florida was positioned to serve the village.
The village is home to an annual eisteddfod and a Celtic Music Society is based at the village's Black Lion Hotel.
The village was the birthplace and home of Caradog Jones, the first Welshman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
It is in the Community of Ystrad Fflur.
Pontrhydfendigaid in Fiction
In the novel The Discovery of Heaven by Dutch author Harry Mulisch, the village is the place where the characters Mr and Mrs Spiers spend their holidays.
The Beast of Bont
The Beast of Bont is the name given to a big cat said to roam the area, Pontrhydfendigaid being at its centre (Bont being the local abbreviation/colloquial name for Pontrhydfendigaid). It was blamed for the death of 12 sheep in June 1981. After a number of livestock attacks in the mid-1990s, Ministry of Agriculture veterinarians inspected a sheep carcass "and declared that the killer was a great deal more powerful than a fox or dog". The Dyfed-Powys police then searched the area, but failed to find the animal.
In the spring of 2012, Mark Davey and his partner Annette came across a "sickening" scene: two large groups of slaughtered sheep, about two miles apart, in the hills near Devil's Bridge. In a statement to local newspapers, he reported "that something had quite clearly attacked them because they looked like they had been ripped apart" and that "to kill so many sheep in such a small area it had to be quite a strong animal".