Soar y Mynydd chapel reopens after Covid pandemic

Soar y Mynydd chapel marks its 200th anniversary this year

Visitors must weave their way along a long and winding mountain road to find remote 200-year-old Soar y Mynydd chapel.

The surrounding hills are dotted with sheep and red kites hang in the skies above the whitewashed building, nine miles (14.5km) from the nearest town.

The chapel in Ceredigion is regarded as the most remote in Wales.

And services resume on Sunday after the Covid pandemic forced its closure two years ago.

Soar y Mynydd was built in 1822 between Tregaron and Llyn Brianne to service the neighbouring farms in the Cambrian Mountains.

It was also used by the drovers as they moved sheep from Tregaron toward the markets of London.

Soar y Mynydd chapel is nine miles from the nearest town

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"Some people may think we're in the middle on nowhere but, when you look at it, this place has been in existence for thousands of years as a spiritual centre for the whole of Wales," said Cyril Evans, chairman of Tregaron and District Historical Society.

"If you look at the peaks of some of the mountains and the hills in the area you'll find cairns which denote burial grounds.

"You also have standing stones in the area and, of course, we're just a stone's throw away from the site of Strata Florida Abbey which is a spiritual as you can get in mid Wales."

Lyn Ebenezer said it was a "great honour" to lead Sunday's service

He said before the chapel was built, preachers visited the area "going back centuries", giving services in farm houses.

Getting to the chapel is a rollercoaster ride along a single track that weaves and winds through the Welsh hinterland.

But once you arrive, Soar y Mynydd is a peaceful place.

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It's a whitewashed stone building in a sea of green and brown with the trees, shrubs and grass.

There are no distractions, no electricity, no mobile phone signal. There's no heating here either. You are cut off from the outside world.

Numbers have dwindled at the chapel over the years with 10-12 regulars attending services.

The chapel is closed over the winter as harsh weather conditions make it difficult to reach.

Chapel secretary Lynwen Hughes: "We're very, very happy to reopen"

It's a different story during the summer months, with visitors arriving from all over the world.

Former US president, Jimmy Carter, arrived at the chapel in 1986 while visiting the area on holiday.

For two years it had to close its doors due to Covid - but services resume from Sunday.

Lyn Ebenezer, who will lead the service, said: "I've been here before in the pulpit two or three times, but this will be the first time for me to open the season.

"I keep thinking of the people who've been here before me; the people who 200 years ago built this chapel, and the fact that it's still going.

"It's the most out of the way chapel in Wales apparently.

"You wouldn't think so if you were here on a Sunday when it's open. It's an amazing place."

Soar y Mynydd chapel was built in 1822

Chapel secretary Lynwen Hughes has followed in the footsteps of ancestors who looked after it.

"I believe my family have been involved with the chapel for years and years, since the beginning, as my family have always lived in this area," she said.

"My great-grandfather was the chapel's deacon and he was a deacon for 50 years.

"In the 1970s, my uncle restarted the chapel with the help of others.

"This is when the chapel became quite famous."

For a chapel celebrating 200 years of existence there's surprisingly little maintenance work to be done, although it's repainted annually.

"One of my duties is to arrange preachers for the Sundays, and also keep the place clean and tidy," she said.

"The family come up before the start of the services in May. We come up for an afternoon and clean the chapel."

Ms Hughes said she was happy to see the doors reopen for services, with 2022 marking its bicentenary.

"We're very, very happy to reopen and to get back to some kind of normality," she said.

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