St Cybi’s Church, Holyhead, Anglesey

The dial is of wooden board, mounted high on the south transept with 11 small bolts to the rough stone wall, facing approximately 6° west of south. It was recently restored (as at Dec 2008). It has Roman numerals V - XII - IIII - VII, with long hour lines to a large semicircle around the gnomon root, and half-hour ticks. These hours are clearly incorrect (such a dial cannot show more than 12 hours), but an old photograph shows that the original was correctly delineated. The motto across the top is ’Yr Hoedl er hyd ei haros A dderfydd yn nydd ac yn nos’ from a poem on December by Aneurin Cawdrydd, who lived about AD 510, translated from the Welsh by Mrs Gatty as ’Man’s life though be prolonged it may, draws to its close by night and day’. The square-section bar gnomon is a replacement. The original carried inscriptions on both sides - on one: ’This dial was given by Captain Skinner of the Union Packet of the Parish of Holyhead 1814’ and on the other: ’The roof was repaired in 1813-1814. W. Lloyd, Minister; H. Evans and R. Roberts, Wardens’.