Examples of Welsh Knots

Many of the following knots are double stranded, which is easier for carving designs. Click here for a discussion of this.

Llantwit is a village about 15 miles west of Cardiff, near the coast. It has a very old Christian history, since the name is drevived from St Illtud, who set up a monastery here around 500AD. There are some splendid Celtic crosses and tombs originally outside the church, but now inside to protect them from weathering.

The cross on the left is the Houelt Cross. It has an inscription in Latin, translated as "In the name of God the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Houelt prepared this cross for the soul of Res his father". It is around ninth century.

There are a couple of small Celtic knots on the front.

There is a splendid pair of Celtic knots on the back.

There is also a very interesting pattern on the stem of the cross. This is a triangular Greek key pattern. Click here for more on this.

Another carved stone, probably originally a cross but missing the top, is the St. Illtud cross, as known as the Samson cross. The Latin inscriptions are translated as "Samson placed his cross for his soul. For the soul of Illtud, Samson the king, Samuel, Ebisar." I haven't a photo of this, so I'm taking the designs from a booklet sold in the church.


A small knot.	A smallish knot. Colouring shows its structure.	This is a more complicated knot.	Colouring it in shows several distinct strands.	This knot is nearly regular, but the top left hand corner has a flourish. This isn't as obvious in the original, and it looks suspiciously like a mistake! It's single stranded, which is harder to do.

Also in Llantwit church, there are two effigy tombs. One is thirteenth century. A pattern on top looks similar to a Manx pattern.

Llantwit pattern

Manx pattern

The other effigy tomb is Tudor. The woman lying on top has Elizabethan costume. On the front of her dress, there is a Celtic knot. I've given the main design. The top and bottom drifts away into ribbons.

This splendid Celtic cross is in the churchyard at Nevern Church in Pembrokeshire. It is 9th or 10th century. There are several panels of celtic knots.

Several of the panels are regular - see left. These designs were made using my simple Interactive Celtic knot designer.

This is the top panel on the right side of the cross. It's not very visible in this phot, but I used another photo that I found on the web. This design were made using my more complex Interactive Celtic knot designer. You cannot make this pattern with the simple online designer, which tends to glue together sections which are next door to each other. This pattern loops the sections apart from each other, which is why it's interesting.

This is the bottom panel on the right side of the cross. Again, I used another photo that I found on the web. You can design this using my tilted Interactive Celtic knot designer (see right). I suspect that the original designer of the pattern got into rather a muddle in one corner.

These are panels on the left side of the cross, which you can't see from this photo, but you can here

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