The Bible collection from Tŷ Mawr Wybrnant

Tucked away in a valley on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park sits the modest, but historic farmhouse of Tŷ Mawr Wybrnant (near Penmachno). It's the birthplace of Bishop William Morgan, the man who translated the whole Bible into Welsh.

The first edition of the Welsh Bible appeared in 1588, before the King James Bible, with a revised version published in 1620. It's this later version which continues to be used in Wales today.

The translation marked a very important moment in the history of the Welsh language and in the history of Christianity. William Morgan gave the Welsh people easy access to biblical teachings and created a standard version of written Welsh for the first time.

Today, we continue to celebrate William Morgan’s major achievements at his birthplace. An original copy of the Bishop’s translation, first published in 1588 was until recently on display at Tŷ Mawr, but can now be seen at Chirk Castle alongside a small, but significant, collection of family Bibles and religious works in Welsh.

See a selection of bibles in many languages
Bible at Ty Mawr Wybrnant, Penmachno
See a selection of bibles in many languages

Languages from every corner of the world

But this is not all. Visitors from across the world have come to see Morgan’s birthplace and over the years have donated copies of the Bible written in their own language to Tŷ Mawr. In some cases, this was the first time that the language of an area was actually written down. We currently have Bibles in about 100 different languages.