The Ghosts of the Mad Monks of Machynys

Location: Machynys

TRADITION SUGGESTS that mad monks haunt the Machynys area, a fact that is hotly disputed by the people who resided there. Members of some of the local families had lived there for hundreds of years and the descendants of these families say that the only apparitions are the ghosts of the lost villagers haunting the development site.

The former residents recall that they had ancestors dating back to the time when there was a monastery where the Mansion House was later built“ who had never lived in any other part of town. One former resident was proud to confirm that she was one of 11 children in the fourth generation of family living at Bwlch-y-Gwynt and remembered playing in the fields that separated the two villages of Bwlch-y-Gwynt and Machynys and never saw any ghosts.

Before the contractors moved in the Llandeilo-based archaeology team were called upon to present a report to the Carmarthenshire County Council to try to determine what level of preservation would be necessary to avoid the further loss of one of Llanelli’s oldest habited sites, originally thought to have been a priory. The archaeologists did confirm that there was evident to suggest the site dated back to the 13th century.

One of the archaeologists who investigated the site of the former Vaughan and Stepney Machynys Mansion House, commented on that fact that there appeared to be much myth and legend about the site and whatever had existed there had a very colourful past.

It is known that the old Mansion House, which was probably turned into a farm during the time of Sir John Stepney 8th Baronet, had vaulted cellars. It was most likely this that gave rise to the legend that the monks who had built a monastery on the site of the farm house, had also built a secret passage which led to a tunnel linking the old monastery with Llanrhidian Church across the estuary.

This story is courtesy of Llanelli, Birth of a Town, By William & Benita Rees. http://llanelli-history.co.uk/index.htm