Twr y Felin Hotel, St. Davids, was the recent home for the Johnian Society during their pilgrimage to West Wales which celebrated the historic links between Pembrokeshire and St. John’s College, Cambridge.

The purpose of the pilgrimage was to reflect on the time that Lady Margaret Beaufort - through whose will the college was founded - had spent in Wales.

The pilgrimage visited Pembroke Castle where Lady Margaret gave birth to Henry VII in 1457; the Pilgrimage Centre at St. Davids Cathedral, where the tomb of Lady Margaret’s husband and father of Henry VII, Edmund Tudor, is the centre piece of the choir; and also to St. Mary’s Church in Tenby where there is a memorial to Robert Recorde, (1512-1558) who took up residence at St. John’s College as a Tudor mathematics educator and is regarded as a Welsh scholar of great influence, holding a permanent place in the history of mathematics.

During their stay, the society’s members stayed at Twr y Felin Hotel in St. Davids, which has been meticulously restored and extended by the Griffiths-Roch Foundation. The foundation was set-up by Keith Griffiths was brought up and educated at Ysgol Dewi Sant, St. Davids. and then read architecture at St. John’s College in 1976.

Professor Christopher Dobson, Master of St. John’s College, said: “Although the pilgrimage was about celebrating the past, I do hope that the visit will inspire future generations to consider applying to St. Johns to continue our historic links with Wales.”

Originally built in 1806 as a working windmill, today Twr y Felin is a luxury art hotel, located in Britain’s smallest city, St. Davids, where guests can expect a traditional ‘Croeso Cynnes’ - ‘warm Welsh welcome’.