116 listed buildings, 8 of them Grade I

Cathedral of St DavidsGrade I listedPorth-y-Twr, including Gateway & South TowerGrade I listedThe Bishop's PalaceGrade I listedSt David's Cathedral Hall (formerly Chapel of St Mary's College) & attached Cloister RuinsGrade I listedPont Cerwyn Dewi/Merryvale Bridge & attached TowerGrade II* listed+10See all photos

Photos from Wikimedia Commons and Geograph, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its licence; names open the building’s page or its official list entry.

c. 1769

c. 1785

c. 1830

c. 1830

c. 1885

c. 1885

c. 1939

1939

Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server. Each credit opens the image’s page with its full description and history.

Cadw lists buildings of special architectural or historic interest in three grades: Grade I for buildings of exceptional interest, Grade II* for particularly important buildings of more than special interest, and Grade II for buildings of special interest. Listing protects the whole building, inside and out.

Every entry on Cadw’s register of listed buildings whose point lies inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary. One list entry can cover a terrace or a group of buildings.

Of the 116 entries, 37 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

Cadw’s conservation areas via DataMapWales. Hectares are the part of each area inside the built-up area.

The first 1 entry was listed in 1951, 1 of the 8 Grade I buildings among them. 91 came in 1981. Only 1 has been added in the last 15 years.

9 scheduled monuments

Nationally important archaeological sites and monuments, protected by law; work on them needs consent from the Welsh Government (Cadw).

Two measures, each ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more, with protected heritage counting twice as much as the age of homes. Protected heritage counts each listed building by its grade (Grade I three points, II* two, II one), each scheduled monument and battlefield two, and each registered park or garden by its grade; it is ranked both per 10,000 residents and as a total, so a village with one fine church doesn’t outrank a historic city. The second measure is the share of homes built before 1919, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records. History is a character grade: it describes the town and isn’t part of the overall grade.

37% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1955–64, which added 14% of today’s homes.

Valuation Office Agency, council tax stock of properties by build period, 31 March 2025, for the neighbourhoods (LSOAs) that make up the town, split by where their residents live. Homes with no recorded build period (0 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

Everyone born in St Davids → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.

Few towns are as rich in listed heritage as St Davids: per resident it has more than 96% of UK towns. In all there are 116 listed buildings, 8 of them Grade I. Its housing is old: 38% of homes date from before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. St Davids Cathedral sits at the heart of it all, with 8 of the town’s Grade I buildings within 400 m.

Only 5 of the 1,849 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. Goat Street alone has 13 listed buildings. A conservation area protects part of it.