Llanfechain could mean "parish or church of the Cain valley". However, it might also mean "small church or parish ". Spellings of place names vary over time, so that small variations such as chain/cain and fechain/fechan are plausible. The name in the form Llanveccheyn is first encountered in 1254. It has also been known as Llanarmon-ym-Mechain, ym-Mechain refers to its location in the medieval cantref of Mechain, thus 'Church of St Garmon in Mechain'.
Religious establishments
The parish church, St Garmon's, was originally constructed in Norman times, and still retains many original features. It is a Grade II* listed building It is a single-chambered structure with surviving Romanesque windows in the east wall and two doorways in the south wall. There were some Victorian alterations including the addition of a western bell turret. Inside, the roof dates from the 15th century, the font is from about 1500, the pulpit carries a date of 1636, and at the western end its gallery remains. Little is known about St Garmon. According to tradition, he lived in the 9th century and preached from a mound in the churchyard at Llanfechain. The remains of this mound, 'Twmpath Garmon' are still evident today north of the church, although graves have been dug into it. According to the recollections of 19th-century villagers, recorded in Volume 5 of the Montgomeryshire Collections, cockpits were dug near to the mound for cockfighting. 'Fynnon Garmon', the Holy well associated with Garmon, lies to the south east of the village. St Garmon was most likely St Germanus, the first Bishop of Man. Two chapels used to operate in the village: the Peniel Wesleyan Methodist Chapel and the Zoar Calvinistic Methodist Chapel.
Notable sites and buildings
After the Norman Conquest, an earthwork motte-and-bailey castle, Tomen y Castell, was strategically placed above the valley of the Cain to control the area. It was probably a timber castle, so only the earthworks remain. It is a ditched mound measuring 38–43 metres in diameter and about 9.5 metres high, having a summit diameter of 10–12 metres. It was probably built by Owain Fychan ap Madog in 1166. It is to the north of the main road from Llanfyllin to Oswestry and about 400 yards south-west of the church.
Ty Coch, on the main road opposite the lane leading to the church and village, is a restored 15th-century hall-house with 17th-century modifications. It is Grade II listed. It was owned by the Jesuits of Stonyhurst in the 19th century and used as a resting place for travellers. St Garmon's well is on the land of Ty Coch, about 300 yards south-east of the church.
The local pub, the Plas-yn-Dinas Inn opposite the church, is a Grade II, late 17th-century half-timbered building once used as a courthouse.
Plas Cain, beside Llanfechain Bridge, is a timber-framed dwelling thought to be from the 17th century. In the late 19th century the house was known as 'Sycamore Cottage'.
On the north side of the Cain is the Old Rectory, which is believed to be from around 1620; it was considerably altered and enlarged during the 18th and 19th centuries and ceased to be a parsonage in about 1980.
Bodynfoel Hall is near Llanfechain. It is a medium-sized early Victorian mansion in neo-Jacobean style with formal gardens, semi-natural woodland, man-made lake and a small area of park; the mansion is a Grade II listed building.
Notable residents
, the only female poet of Medieval Wales from whom a substantial amount of work has survived, descended from a noble family from Llanfechain. The Welsh poetGwallter Mechain was born at Y Wern, near Tomen y Castell, Llanfechain in 1761. He was the Rector of the parish of Manafon and arbiter of the Eisteddfodau. He was commissioned to undertake agricultural surveys of the counties of North and South Wales between 1797 and 1815. The novelist and playwright James Hanley lived in Llanfechain from December 1940 until 1963 and used the name "Llangyllwch" for his fictional portrait of Llanfechain, in the novella "Anatomy of Llangyllwch", part of Don Quixote Drowned. After he died in London in 1985, Hanley was buried in the village. David Thomas, the trade union and Labour Party organizer and adult educationalist, was born and schooled in Llanfechain.
Railway
Llanfechain was served by a station on the Llanfyllin branch of the Cambrian Railways from 1863. The line closed in 1965 and has since been dismantled. The station building remains as a private residence and the track bed to Llanfyllin is now built over by an industrial estate.
