Is a handsome, embattled, cruciform structure, consisting of a chancel,
nave, ailes, and transept, with a square tower, surmounted by a low flat
kind of spire. The present edifice, exclusive of the chancel, appears to
have been rebuilt, in the time of Edward III., and the latter was
repaired in the beginning of the last century. The inside of the
entrance porch, and the external part of the south end of the transept,
are decorated with rude, but curious carvings. On the latter are the
figures of a dragon, a man leading a bear, and other grotesque
representations. On the pediments and embattlements are cherubic heads;
and one or two figures in supplicating posture. The exterior carvings,
in consequence of being executed on soft stone, and exposed to the sea,
are almost mouldered away; under the porch, however, where sheltered from
the weather, they are much more perfect. There is the following
inscription, in Gothic characters, on the north side of the
Church,—“_Sancte Kybi_; _ora pro nobis_.” “During the last century (says
the Rev. John Price, in his account of Holyhead) the natives showed the
print of Kybi’s foot in a rock by the east end of the chancel, till it
was destroyed by the Rev. Mr. Ellis, Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford,
then Curate of this place.”
Long be our Father’s temple ours;
Woe to the hand by which it falls;
A thousand spirits watch its towers;
A cloud of angels guard its walls.
And be their shield by us possessed;
Lord, rear around thy blest abode
The buttress of a holy breast,
The rampart of a present God.