Sacred & Spiritual

This beautifully plain 1822 drovers' chapel is remarkable for both its isolation and its influence on artists and writers from Wales. To travel to it, follow single tracks, passing miles of ruined buildings, waterfalls, open land and forest. Reputedly the most remote chapel in Wales, in the 1960s - like many of its kind – Capel Soar y Mynydd was threatened with closure due to a dwindling congregation. However, over the past 40 years it has become iconic in Welsh culture, representing the lost age of sheep herders, and still operates a limited service. It is the subject of poetry by both Harri Webb and Iwan Llwyd, and travel prose by Jim Perrin. A circular walk leaves the chapel, heading south-west to Pen y Gurnos, before continuing up the remote Doethie Valley, following the river, and returning east along a track.