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The name of the grange (the church of St Mary at the cell in the woods), suggests that it may have originated in a pre-Norman hermitage. The field ahead and to your right has been terraced, probably for vineyards in the period in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries when the weather was better than it is now. Between the terraces are the faint outlines of cascades of fishponds.
The church at the top of the slope is a nineteenth-century replacement for the medieval grange chapel. This was endowed by the de Burgh family to provide a priest to pray for their souls. After the Dissolution the new owners of the land were required to pay the stipend of a priest to say regular services there for the benefit of the local people who would otherwise have had to travel to Llandeilo Gresynni to church. The priest in 1570 was a former monk of Dore, John Didbroke.
The remains of the original grange chapel are at the bottom of the slope, overgrown by trees. You can also see the foundations of some of the other buildings where the lay brothers would have lived. South of the chapel was the grange court. The road originally ran across the court, but in 1268 the monks of Dore were given permission to re-route the road and construct a precinct wall.
