Whitland Abbey

Whitland Abbey (Welsh: Abaty Hendy-gwyn ar Daf or simply Y Tŷ Gwyn ar Daf; Latin, Albalanda) was a country house and Cistercian abbey in the parish of Llangan, in what was the hundred of Narbeth, Carmarthenshire, Wales. The town which grew up nearby is now named Whitland after it. It was widely known as Ty Gwyn ar Daf, meaning White House on the Taf, in reference to the country house originally built here before it became a monastic settlement which was known under that name. It is most associated with being the place where Hywel Dda drew up his laws around 940. It functioned as a Cistercian monastery between the 12th and 16th centuries.

Ty Gwyn ar Daf was once the occasional residence of Hywel Dda in the 10th century and a grand national council was held here around the year 940. The council had the purpose of compiling and enacting the code of laws, which are still known as "the Laws of Hywel Dda." Hywel's laws were deposited at Dinefwr Castle later in the tenth century after being drawn up at Ty Gwyn. In order to give greater solemnity to this convocation, and to implore the divine wisdom to assist their counsels, the king remained here with his whole court during Lent, in the constant exercise of prayer and other acts of devotion.

Soon after the destruction of the monastery of Bangor-Iscoed, in North Wales, and the slaughter and dispersion of the brethren of that extensive establishment by the Northumbrian Saxons, a religious society was settled at this place under the auspices of Paulinas, son of Urien Reged, a disciple of St. Germanus, in which originated the abbey of Albalanda, or Whitland, afterwards erected near the site, and called by the Welsh, after the name of the former establishment, Ty Gwyn ar Taf. However, this Abbey is now known not to have been founded in Whitland at all. Whitland was founded on 16 September 1140 by monks from the mother house of Clairvaux. In 1144 it was located at Little Trefgarn near Haverfordwest. It moved to Whitland in about 1155, a site having been granted by John of Torrington. The abbey founded a number of daughter houses in Wales, starting with an abortive foundation at Abbeycwmhir in 1143. In 1164 a group of monks from Whitland founded Strata Florida Abbey. Strata Marcella Abbey was founded from Whitland in 1170, and in 1176 Cwmhir Abbey was re-founded.

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