Llanrhystud – Extract from “A Topographical Dictionary of Wales”
by Samuel Lewis 1833

“LLANRHYSTID ( LLAN-RHYSTYD), a parish in the lower division of the hundred of ILAR, county of CARDIGAN, SOUTH WALES, 9 miles (S. by W.) from Aberystwith, on the road to Cardigan, containing 1525 inhabitants. This place, though at present of little importance, has been distinguished in history from a remote period of antiquity. In 987, its church was demolished by the Danes, in one of their descents upon South Wales. The castle of Llanrhystid called also Dinerth castle, was, in 1080, at which period it belonged to lestyn ab Gwrgan, Prince of Glamorgan, sacked by Rhys, Prince of South Wales : it was destroyed in 1135 by Owain Gwynedd and his brother, aided by Hywel ab Meredydd and Rhys ab Madog ab Ednerth . Having been re-erected, it was besieged and taken, in 1150 with several other fortresses, by Cadell, Meredydd, and Rhys the sons of Grufydd ab Rhys, Prince of South Wales, who, enraged at the spirited resistance of its defenders, whereby they lost some of their bravest troops, put the garrison to the sword. It was fortified by Roger Earl of Clare, in 1158, and, about the close of the same century, was besieged and taken by Maelgwyn ab Rhys who slew the garrison left to defend it by his brother Grufydd, and in 1204 rased it, with several others, to prevent their falling into the hands of Llewelyn ab lorwerth. The present village, which is situated near the influx of the small river Gwyre into the bay of Cardigan, consists only of a few cottages, indifferently built. Fairs are held here on the Thursday before Easter and the Thursday before Christmas; and at Lluest Newydd others are held on September 23rd, October 8th, and the second Friday after the l0th of the same month. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Cardigan, and diocese of St.David’s, rated in the king’s books at £ 6.13.4., and in the patronage of the Bishop of St. David’s. The church, dedicated to St. Rhystyd, occupies an elevated situation above the village, and is of considerable antiquity. There are places of worship for Baptists and Calvinistic Dissenters. Leland mentions the remains of a large edifice here, which some supposed to have been a nunnery ; but there are now no vestiges of it, nor any authentic account of such an establishment having existed here : there is, however, within the limits of the parish, a farm-house called Mynachty, signifying ” monastery,” which probably occupies the site of a religious house. The average annual expenditure for the maintenance of the poor amounts to £368. 8.”