Llanfihangel Tal-y-llyn

April 1998 – Tim Hills: ESE of the church. This is probably the 17′ or the 16′ 6” tree recorded in the 1970 Brecon Yew survey. Its clipped crown rises above a bole that has been larger than its present 13′ 10”. A portion of the south side has decayed exposing a large internal stem.
2016 Paul Wood: The yew was measured as in 1998 at 1′ above the present ground level on the north side of the tree. A girth of 14′ 5” (439cm) was recorded. But there is more to this tree than first meets the eye. It grows on a very large mound, which is either a barrow or an indication that the yew is but a fragment of a more formidable tree that once occupied most of the mound. The mound itself is truncated by other churchyard features but is traceable except on the south side where the pub has taken a chunk out of it. The Clwyd/Powys Archaeological Trust (CPAT) survey notes that the churchyard has shrunk. I was able to observe that two former boundaries were still clearly visible within the churchyard of today. I observed that the tree’s thickness at the top of the bole was three times that at the ground, and that the amount of soil dumped around the tree means that the original ground level might be many feet below where it is today.