St Gwynno's church, Llanwonno
St Gwynno's church, Llanwonno. A medieval church, built as a monument to the 6th century Saint Gwynno,
Affixed to the south wall of the nave near the south door, there is the upper portion of a rough pillar
stone. On it there is a crudely incised ring-cross with four incised dots in the interspaces and four smaller dots (one of
which is fractured away) in the upper and lower spandrels. It dates from the period between the seventh and ninth centuries and is ranked among the early Christian monuments of Wales.
It was rebuilt in it's current gothic style in 1894.
It is the resting place of Welsh legend Gruffydd Morgan, 1700-1737, known as Guto Nyth Brân. A statue of Guto Nyth Brân stands in the centre of Mountain Ash.
To celebrate the legend that is Guto Nyth Bran, the Nos Galan (translated; New years-eve) is an annual 5 kilometre (3.1 mi) race, run on New Year's Eve in Mountain Ash, in the Cynon Valley, Wales. It attracts runners from all over Great Britain. The 59th anniversary 2017 race will attract 1600 runners, and 10,000 people into Mountain Ash for the associated entertainment.
The race was created by local Mountain Ash resident Mr. Bernard Baldwin, a PE teacher at Mill Street Secondary school in Pontypridd and a President of the Amateur Athletic Association, in 1958.
It is run over the course of Guto's first competitive race. Each year a mystery runner competes: these have included Lillian Board, Iwan Thomas, Linford Christie, Colin Jackson, Adam Jones, Shane Williams, Neil Jenkins, Chris Coleman, amongst others.
The main race starts with a church service at Llanwonno, and then a wreath is laid on Guto's grave in Llanwonno graveyard. After lighting a torch, it is carried to the nearby town of Mountain Ash, where the main race takes place. The current route consists of three circuits of the town centre, starting in Henry Street and ending in Oxford Street, by the commemorative statue of Guto.
Traditionally, the race was timed to end at midnight, but in recent times it was rescheduled for the convenience of family entertainment, now concluding at around 21:00. This has resulted in a regrowth in size and scale, and now starts with an afternoon of street entertainment, and fun run races for children, concluding with the church service, elite runners' race and presentations.
Roman Marching Camp, Rhondda
This large temporary marching camp lies in the St Gwynno Forest some 9½ miles west of the fort at Gelli-gaer in Mid-Glamorgan. The encampment encloses the summit of Twyn-y-Briddallt (alt. 1,488 ft; 453.5 m) to the north-west of Carn-y-Pigwn (1,542 ft; 470 m) where the Roman engineers utilized the Craig-y-Gilwern ridge, which towers above the town of Ferndale in the Rhondda Fach, to form the south-western defences of their encampment, with the north-eastern defences aligned parallel to this ridge some distance beyond the summit of Twyn-y-Briddallt. The camp has been attributed to the campaigns of Sextus Julius Frontinus sometime during the period A.D.73 to 78, along with other large camps at Blaen-cwm-Bach and Pen-y-Coedcae.
Text taken from
Guto Nyth Bran
The story of Welsh Legend Guto Nyth Bran, as depicted by Courtney Ellis Owen, Age 11, for a school History Project.