St Asaph from Ruthin

St Asaph (Llanelwy in Welsh) is 14 miles north of Ruthin — about 25 minutes by car — and is the smallest city in Britain by population, with approximately 3,500 inhabitants. Its claim to city status rests entirely on its cathedral, which has stood on the site since the 6th century. The cathedral itself is compact but exceptional, and St Asaph is worth half a day from a Ruthin base.

St Asaph Cathedral

The Cathedral Church of St Asaph and St Kentigern occupies a hilltop above the River Elwy and dates in its current form largely from the 13th and 14th centuries. It is the smallest ancient cathedral in England and Wales by floor area. Inside: a fine set of medieval misericords, the Bible used at the coronation of King Charles III (the so-called "Welsh Bible", in fact the 1588 William Morgan translation), and the gravestone of Richard Robert Jones (Dic Aberdaron), the self-taught Welsh polymath who is said to have learned 15 languages.

The William Morgan Connection

William Morgan, Bishop of St Asaph from 1601–1604, completed the first translation of the complete Bible into Welsh in 1588 — an act widely considered the most significant event in the history of the Welsh language, because it established a literary standard that unified the dialects and gave Welsh a written basis for survival. A statue of Morgan stands outside the cathedral. The connection between a small cathedral in the Vale of Clwyd and the survival of one of Europe's oldest living languages is as significant as Welsh history gets.