Church of St Michael

The Church of St Michael is a medieval parish church, largely of rubble stone construction with a slate roof. It possesses a prominent west porch and a double bellcote, with an off-line chancel. Cement coping defines the gables, and plain iron crosses serve as finials. The bellcote has two triangular-headed openings. The porch features a low arched doorway with a ledged door.

The church’s architecture is characterized by a battered base to the walls, four south windows with cambered heads and stone voussoirs, dating to 1887, each fitted with two-light timber tracery, cusped heads, and leaded glazing. A fragment of a 15th-century mullion window is incorporated into the right-hand wall, and a large, blocked pointed opening with a squared reveal is positioned between the third and fourth windows. A blocked slit window is visible between the first and second windows. On the north side, two small slit windows were exposed during a 1957 renovation, alongside a two-light cusped stone mullion window, likely dating to the 15th century, to the right. The north and west ends of the south wall show evidence of rebuilding, indicating a narrowing of the nave. The chancel contains a north slit window and a single lancet, along with an 1887 Bath stone three-light east window and a south single lancet, the latter probably medieval.

Inside, the church presents an attractive whitewashed interior with slate floors. Nine 15th-century roof trusses, exposed in 1957, span the nave, alongside 1887 pitch-pine pews, painted grey in the same year. A low, plain, pointed chancel arch leads to a chancel featuring an 1887 boarded ceiling. The nave roof is particularly remarkable, closely resembling the structure at Mwnt, characterized by broad arch-braced collar-beam trusses with apex kingposts and trefoil-cusped spandrels. A similar roof at Cenarth was lost around 1970, making this one exceptionally rare in southwest Wales. The windows possess plain square reveals. A tomb recess is located below the north pulpit window, with another on the chancel's south wall. A small piscina is situated at the east end of the south wall of the nave.

Furnishings include a plain square, tooled font with a deeply chamfered underside on a cylindrical shaft and square base, possibly dating to the 13th century. A south slate neo-Grec monument commemorates Ann Reynolds of Blaenhoffnant Uchaf, dated 1830, signed D.D.S.W., and a plaque with an urn commemorates Charlotte Curtis, dated 1848. A neo-classical marble monument in the east of the nave honors Jane Jenkins of Dyffryn Bern, dated 1816. A marble plaque in the north of the nave is dedicated to Abel Walters of Perthgeraint, dated 1841, signed H. Phillips, H’West, with a draped urn. Additional furnishings include an 1887 pitch pine pulpit and reading desk, an oak eagle lectern, a slate plaque in the chancel arch commemorating George Lloyd of Llanborth, dated 1678, an oval plaque commemorating Maurice Evans, dated 1820, and a brass plate commemorating Dame Bridgett Lewis of Abernantbychan, dated 1643, set into the sanctuary floor. The east window contains stained glass installed in 1887. Within the porch is a limestone square 13th-century font with a scalloped base, originally from Cenarth but removed from Sarnau Church.