Llanllugan Abbey

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Llanllugan Abbey was a Cistercian nunnery (one of only two in Wales) at Llanllugan, Powys, Wales. It was founded around 1188 on land donated by Robert ap Maredudd, Lord of Cedewain, and became a daughter house of the abbey of Strata Marcella. Uniquely, its church remains as the parish church of Llanllugan. However, the site of the nunnery buildings remains uncertain: they may have been in the meadow 200 m to the south of the church.

It is famous in Welsh literature from a poem by Dafydd ap Gwilym entitled Cyrchu Lleian (Wooing a nun)^[1]: Dafydd's lover Morfudd may have been consigned there by her husband to keep her out of harm's way. It is suggested that the nunnery was small: only four nuns and an abbess were recorded in 1377, and may have been extinct by the time of the dissolution. Dafydd's poem (written before the Black Death) suggests there were 60 nuns at that time; however the figure should be taken as poetic licence as the Welsh nunneries rarely seem to have had more than a dozen nuns.