After my posts in the summer from Switzerland and now recently a few posts from Herefordshire and Shropshire, I now turn to Wales again.
St Cynog is a parish church at Defynnog in South Wales, west of Brecon and just south of Sennybridge. The church dates from the 15th C but the first church building was erected in the 11th C. It is dedicated to Saint Cynog, one of 24 children of Brychan, a legendary 5th C king from a small kingdom in south Wales, originally formed by Irish raiders.
The churchyard has no less than four ancient yew trees, one of which has been dated as around 3,000 years old. There are some claims that it could even be 5,000 years old, but this is contested. The oldest and largest tree appears to have been planted on the slope of an ancient burial mound existing long before any church was erected at the place.
The largest tree is around 20 metres across and is split in two distinct halves. The second, smaller half is genetically identical but may herald from a branch of the original tree. Yew trees can sprout a new trunk from a branch that touches the ground. . In that sense the yew tree symbolises both death and resurrection. The death because the whole tree is poisonous. And the resurrection because a new, but genetically identical tree can sprout from a branch that becomes rooted to the ground.
