The village of Llangennith clusters round a central village green and the church of St Cenydd (also Kyned/Cynydd) - the largest in Gower - which was founded in the 6th century, in the days of the undivided Church. According to legend the church was established as a hermitage by St Cenydd; but in 986 the early buildings were destroyed by Vikings. The present structure dates from the 12th century - it was consecrated in 1102 - when Norman war-lords were building castles and churches all over Gower, as elsewhere in Britain. The large fortified square tower is unusually placed north of the nave in which is a filled in, low, eastern arch, likely associated with a small priory which was attached through the Middle Ages. The church is the reputed burial place of Iestyn ap Gwrgant, the last ruler of the Welsh kingdom of Morgannwg, who is said to have become a religious at Llangennith after being deposed by the Norman Robert Fitzhamon in 1090. The church contains the mutilated effigy of a 13th-century knight known locally as 'the Dolly Mare' and believed to represent a member of the de la Mere family who held lands nearby, and a significant Norman font. The church interior was restored and remodelled in the 1880s, and the interior floor raised by several feet to counteract damp. The remodelling was relatively restrained and the church retains many original features.