Capel-y-ffin hamlet is 8 miles SSE of Hay on Wye. The name means 'chapel of the boundary' - between Breconshire and Monmouthshire. It's only facilities are a telephone box, a church and two chapels.
St. Mary's church, encircled by ancient yews, is a chapel of ease to Llanigon. It is one of the smallest in the country, only 8 metres by 4 metres inside. It was built in 1762 replacing an earlier chapel, and the south porch was added in 1817. The small oblong interior has a gallery along the west and south walls. Furnishings include an octagonal pulpit of 1780, five settles - one dated 1783 and a medieval font. The lop-sided belfry has two bells, one medieval but recast in the 19th century. The church registers go back to 1821 exact details are at the Genuki site.
The Baptist chapel, reached via a stone stile at the east side of the churchyard, was also used as a school in Victorian times. The "Ministry of the Gospel" was started by David and William Prosser in the 18th century.
About 50 yards south of the churchyard a right turn leads to Llanthony Monastery, founded by 'Father Ignatiuus', (Rev. Joseph Lyne, 1837 - 1908) in 1869 here at 1,150 ft high in the Honddu valley. He is buried in the ruined church. After his death it became dependant on the Caldey Island priory and then in 1924 it became the home of Eric Gill the sculptor. The, now privately owned, monastery has the second chapel of Capel-y-ffin, a Roman Catholic one.