Capel-y-ffin, Mystery

BBC2 Wales has a wonderful Secret Wales programme, one episode of which has a 10 minute segment about Capel-y-ffin. Recommended viewing if you ever get a chance to watch it!

Part 1 described the route up from lovely Hay-on-Wye. introduced the valley, and part 2 told the story of some of the characters of Capel-y-ffin. Here’s the third and final part of the feature…

Presenter, Sara Edwards:

“Little has changed in Capel-y-ffin since Eric Gil and his commune left in 1928.

Father Richard Williams is the parish priest here.

Capel-y-ffin in Welsh obviously means Chapel on the Border or the Boundary. We are very close to Offa’s Dyke here, so geographically it could suggest the fact that we’re on the border between Wales and England. But what do you think it means?”

Father Richard:

“Well there are all kinds of boundaries which subsist here. It’s a border place between England and Wales and many other types of border. But the most significant border is the one between this world and the next.

It’s a place of possibility. It’s a place where you can breathe more deeply. It’s a place where understanding happens. There is mystery here. Capel-y-ffin is as some people call it a thin place, a place where the diaphanous membrane between this world and the next meet.

There is something very significant about this place and hence the very significant people who have been attracted here.”

Sarah Edwards:

“Capel-y-ffin, what does it really mean? Is it the border between Wales and England or could it possibly allude to the border between this world and the next? Perhaps it’s whatever you want it to be. But if you haven’t yet been here, it’s worth the pilgrimage.”

Transcribed from BBC 2 Wales, Secret Wales.

Visit www.more-to.org for details of holidays in this beautiful valley and enjoy a bit of tranquil timelessness for yourself.

There’s more to life than increasing its speed.