The Virtuous Well

I've been here before but no apologies for that - some places are worth a return visit - The Virtuous Well at Trellech being one of them.

It's had a bit of a tidy up since our last visit and all the detritus of spent offerings removed. We also didn't have the curious horse "helping" with the visit!

 The Virtuous Well is also known as St Anne's Well ( maybe originally named for Black Annis in the pre Christian years?)

The water is said to cure eye diseases and illnesses peculiar  to women.

It is also believed that the water from the well runs under the 3 Trellech standing stones and thus was part of the "druidic rites" performed there.  Might be a bit of a stretch that one but who am I to argue with the Cadw information board.  It is also believed (says Cadw) that fairies dance around the well at Midsummer.

Last tine the water in the well looked very unappealing; no way would I wanted to have put some in my eyes no matter how desperate I was. This time however the water was crystal clear and had clearly been used as a wishing well by someone.

Devilish Fun

A nice day for a short walk. It's been too  long since we went to Wales so that was my criteria for the day. Well I can't have been
paying much attention when I agreed or I'd have realised that whilst I would indeed be going into Wales- I'd be coming almost straight back out again!

Today's objective was the Devil's Pulpit in the Wye valley. What I'd failed to appreciate was that we'd be on the wrong side of the Wye....

An easy and mostly level walk from the car park, the views from the top are just stunning.  Looking across into Wales that is Tintern Abbey on the banks of the Wye

The Pulpit itself. The legend has it that the Devil sat here and tried to tempt the monks away from their duties in the Abbey. Whether he was successful or not who can tell. it certainly commands a perfect view of the Abbey.

On the opposite side of the path were a few steps leading down to this ancient yew. The area has been extensively quarried for it's limestone but for some reason they decided to let this yew be.

The roots are completely  entwined through a pillar of rock. Quite amazing and a very venerable old yew this is.

There were plenty of other yews around as well and it was lovely to see these huge old trees left to stand. They were joined by oak, beech and hazel trees, so unlike the cheerless ranks of the Forestry Commission's  telegraph pole plantations.

Can you see the dragon's head?

We opted to walk a little further along Offa's Dyke to enjoy the views before circling back to the car park and down into Brockweir for lunch ( excellent pub there  - can definitely recommend!)

Just a Perfect Day

Occasionally, just occasionally everything comes together!

Anyone with any knowledge of North Wales will know that the weather there is unpredictable at best. Twice I've started up Snowdon in fine weather, just to find it all close in before reaching the top - I've yet to see any view from there. So far I've refused to take the train but it may yet come to that.

So a sudden decision to head for Wales for the Bank Holiday weekend paid dividends. Sunday dawned warm and sunny with a forecast of good weather for the rest of the day ( the less said about the forecast for the next day the better!)

So Cader Idris beckoned. I haven't climbed this since I was a child and my dislike of climbing mountains is legendary but it needed to be done.

A rare sight of Cader Idris where the summits are not hidden by cloud!

We were staying at Y Bala so it was a bit of a drive. 

The path starts with a steep and rocky ascent through remnants of ancient oak woodland. This was very steep and very hard going and after the first 600ft or so I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it to the top.

This is the Nant Cadair falls. I'm afraid I was  in no condition to appreciate their beauty at the time...

Just starting to see Cwm Cau. Pretty rough going here.

I was distracted from the climb by the antics of a pair of ravens performing acrobatics overhead. Very welcome by this point.

Llyn Cau. The path was about to get very steep as we climbed the ridge but it did level out a bit after a short while. This was still very hard work but we were sheltered by the ridge from the wind - which was a mixed blessing as I was getting rather hot.

Close to the lower summit of Craig Cwm Amarch there are some stunning drops. I really wouldn't want to do this in bad weather. 

 The views though are quite stunning. Definitely worth the climb.

Unfortunately though this is not the high point. We had to descend into the col and then back up to  Penygadair the highest summit of Cadair Idris.


This was really hard work. The path such as it goes over a boulder field and it is a real scramble in places.

The Penygadair summit is 2930ft above sea level.

The views were worth it - just. It was pretty busy up there as it was such a lovely day. There was also a warden - must be a cold and lonely job on a quiet day. Today through he had plenty of visitors. There is also a bad weather shelter. Not that we needed it but I'm sure it very welcome if the weather turns bad.


At this point of course the only way is down and we continued along the horseshoe along the wide grassy ridge and down. Down was quite as taxing as going up. The path was extremely steep and rocky and I was more concerned with staying upright than taking pictures. Despite taking car though I did manage to sit down once- hard.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect for a climb up the mountain. This morning though Cader Idris looked very different - much more like its usual self!

Tarren Deusant - 2 saints or a druid altar?

Venturing a bit further afield today - to the valley just above Llantrisant  in fact (and that's 3 saints for you already!)

As it was promising to be a nice day we thought we'd venture over the border and see what we could find. Tarren Deusant looked very interesting, a holy spring and some petrosomatoglyphs. Some preliminary research indicated that the actual finding could be challenging so we took the precaution of programming the co-ordinates into the GPS locator before we left.

This subsequently proved to be a wise precaution but even locating the general area was a challenge. This part of Wales has changed a bit since our elderly OS Map was produced ( cost all of 6/6 when maps were 1 inch to a mile). In the end comparing the map with the smartphone google map identified exactly where we actually were! Plenty of footpaths around according to the map but absolutely nowhere to park on a very narrow single track road. In the end we pulled off the verge and walked back to where the path should start.

And there was a footpath sign! Very well hidden and the access gate itself was tied closed with orange twine ( naughty!) . No way was it opening so it was a quick climb over the 5 bar gate and follow the footpath.  Annoyingly the next gate was also tied shut so more climbing and down into a pretty wooded valley

Bit rough going here - under that layer of dead leaves is some very slippery mud and this is actually quite steep.  By this point we were using the GPS to make sure we were heading in the right direction.

In the end the spring proved very easy to find. Crystal clear water pouring out of a cleft in the rock face.

So on to the petrosomatoglyphs. They were supposed to be nearby so a close examination of the rock face ensued.
 
And here they are - the picture is larger than usual to show them more clearly. There are distinct faces cut into the rock.

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The age of these are disputed. in the 1600s two were reported. There are now clearly more than that. Whilst some consider the originals to be medieval it is of course possible that they are older than that.  Below that strange central tear drop shaped protrusion is a flat piece of rock which makes a perfect altar and  someone had left an offering there.

 Close up of one of the faces

and another. There are also other carving in the rock of what appear to be fish and crosses. The local name for the site is the "Druid's Altar" but it does seem to be very christianised. Whether this is another case of an old ritual site being taken over by the Church? Who knows.

and lastly a picture of some of the locals as a reminder that spring is on its way.

Two hill forts - yes really there are!

On the hunt for Iron Age remains you quickly learn that there are those that are popular and those that just  - aren't. What is the difference between those that are preserved and cared for and those that are allowed to just moulder away? 

The weekend was spent on the Welsh heritage coast  - more specifically at the small town of Llantwit Major which was hosting the 2012 National Eisteddfod.

The cliffs are broken at Llantwit and it is possible to walk along them in both directions. Today we chose to go east - towards Aberthaw and passing two iron age hill forts.

The coast is eroding here quite rapidly, the layers of limestone interspersed with shale are very unstable and falls are common. The path is continually having to be moved back and at more than one point I was wondering if there was anything solid underneath us at all.

The views though are magnificent. The cave visible in the middle of the shot is at Tresillian and you can just see the lighthouse at Nash Point above the trees in the far distance.

Looking down gives super views of the limestone pavement that this stretch of coastline is justifiably famous for.

So on to Castle Ditches. This is very hard to see from the ground. The remains of the fort are buried in dense vegetation and part has been lost to the sea. 






It is obvious whether you are crossing the embankments and ditches but because of the undergrowth just about impossible to see the extent.


However our objective was the hill fort at Summerhouse Point. This turned out to be further away than anticipated ....

...and there it is  - yes also buried under dense vegetation! This is a semi aerial view taken from the Seawatch centre. This is a converted Coastguard station and we were very lucky to find it open  - it often isn't.  We were greeted with enthusiasm by the volunteer on duty and treated to a tour of the navigation and meteorological instruments housed there as well as shown some of the fossils and other marine detritus collected from that stretch of the coastline.

The hill fort itself is also being lost to the sea and has never been excavated. It is ( so I'm told!) semi circular and dated from around 700BCE to 100CE. It is mooted that it was just a look out point rather than having been inhabited but without an excavation it cannot be proven one was or the other.

The fort  gets  its name form the octagonal tower which was built by the Seys family in around 1730. The views must have been spectacular but today it survives as an ivy clad ruin.

You may need to take my word for it that there is indeed a building under there!








S

Back again!

Remember Grey Hill? Yes back again.

I can't help it - I just like the place. I also wanted to take the new camera out for a trial to see how the view from the top turned out.

I haven't got past the auto settings yet! It is far more complicated then my old manual SLR ever was and much heavier than the little Sony Cybershot I've been using so I expect a decent payoff from dragging all that extra weight around!

So - here is the view from the top. It was a rather hazy day but you can see the Severn Crossing and the coast of England across the other side.

Of course I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of the circle again. It was looking a lot better this time. The vegetation has mostly grown back and the circle and the stones are again part of the landscape.

The hazy effect is NOT my camera- just the flower heads on the grasses but they give an interesting softening contract to the stones.

We planned to take another route down this time, one we hadn't done before. It was a nice walk through the old forest even if part of Coed Gwent looked like it had never before seen human footsteps.




Can you spot the path? The bracken was head height down here. After battling through the undergrowth and some serious work with map and compass ( and GPS)  the navigators got us back to the car and off to....

 ....the Greyhound for a well earned drink. We shared the garden with a couple of Viking invaders in full costume. Most surreal but dozing in the sun I forgot to sneak a quick picture.

In the shadow of Cader Idris

After Shetland we thought we'd stay a bit closer to home. Well sort off. To take advantage of the additional public holiday graciously granted to us by virtue of her Maj having been queen for 60 years we thought we'd escape the endless sycophantic TV coverage and diappear to the wild s of Mid Wales and one of our favourite places in the shadow of Cader Idris - Dolgellau.

In the the time honoured tradition of British public holidays and Wales in particular it was a bit wet. OK very very wet but a lot warmer than Shetland.  We were only able to stay for a day or two so our first port of call was a circle just past Barmouth on the way to Harlech

This is a big circle and I couldn't photograph it in its entirity but this shot gives a good idea of the sheer bleakness of the scene.

 Llecheiddor stone circle is not terribly accessible. It is a steep pull up the hillside and the weather was pretty appalling. The days of rain had left it  even wetter underfoot than is usual for Welsh moorland and the circle is in the middle of some pretty boggy ground which would have been wet even in better weather. As it was we were hopping from tussock to tussock and trying not to step in the worst of it. Hard work and tiring with a strong wind and a smattering of rain  doing its best to try and blow you back down again. Very much a case of 3 steps forward and 2 back at times. 

Just above the circle is a long abandoned farmhouse and we joined the long suffering sheep in enjoying the shelter of a drystone wall for a few minutes before pushing on up the hill and circling back to the welcome warmth and dryness of the car.

The next day the weather looked a bit brighter so we headed back to Barmouth and up to a site we had previously visited. This time though rather than visit the circle  we were headed for the woodland - Cae Gwian and the standing stone  which is all that is now readily visible of the complex of circles and stones that once stood there.


This was a much more pleasant expedition and reminded us why we keep returning to this part of the country over and over again.

Our final find of this trip  was this rather nice little burial tomb. It was well hidden behind a barn and snuggled up against the wall and easily overlooked, Worth the search though to find Gwern Einion.

Cydweli and Llangstaffen - castles, wells and dolmens!

Kidwelly - famous for its castle, its Welsh Boudica, Gwenllian  and of course:

 Hen fenyw fach Cydweli Yn gwerthu losin du, Yn rhifo deg am ddimai Ond unarddeg i mi. O dyna'r newydd gorau ddaeth i mi, i mi Yn rhifo deg am ddimai Ond unarddeg i mi

(The dear old lady of Kidwelly. A seller of sweets is she, Counts out ten for a halfpenny. But always eleven for me. That was very good news for me, for me. Counts out ten for a halfpenny. But always eleven for me.)

 The castle is very well preserved - fortunate really as the sky was an ominous grey and it looked like we'd be in need of shelter. Being the local centre of justice the castle has a prison - and even a high security wing! This consisted of a hole in the floor into which the unfortunate prisoner was despatched. Shaped like a bottle there was no way out other than attempting to scale the smooth stone walls and even then the top would have been barred. Not a pleasant fate.

Being so well preserved there are an abundance of towers to climb and rooms to explore as well as an aerial walkway with views down over the town.







However one castle was not ebough and it was on to Llansteffan for lunch and a second castle.

This one is much smaller than Cydweli and not in such good condition but strangely I like it far better. Perhaps the views over the beach made the difference? 

Having seen the castle we walked around the back in search of the holy well of St Anthony. Hidden behind a wooden doorway in the wall it is a calm and peaceful place. Named for the hermit  Antwn it is said to have been a place of healing since 6CE.










Time to head back  but it seemed a shame to head straight back to the main road. The other places visited today were easy to find so we wanted a challenge! Spotting a burial tomb nearby we set off to find it.


Twlc y Filiast is quite well hidden. Although it is visible from the path, the path itself is not signposted as one and we did a complete circuit  of the nearby village before working out just where t must be, parking the car and setting off.

Definitely worth it though. A capstone and a couple of uprights, the setting is just perfect in a patch of woodland next to a stream

In the footsteps of the builders of Stonehenge Pt 3 Pentre Ifan

So stop or not? Tired and hungry and rather reaching the stage when we'd seen enough stones for the day the decision swung back and forth until we concluded that if we didn't we'd only regret it so we did!

It was rather further than the signs indicted but we got there at last. Plenty of parking and the site  is not visible form the road but clearly signed by the ever helpful Cadw.

This is a very popular site but as it was now late afternoon the last of the visitors were leaving and we soon had the place to  ourselves - other than a pair of young lambs who had found a way through the fence,

Dating from around 3500 BCE this is another dolmen type burial tomb although no trace of burial has been found.  It has an unusual N-S orientation and the location is just beautiful. A wonderful place to be interred.

There  are plenty of local legends associated with the site- the Twylwth Teg are apparently to be found here although despite it being an auspicious time of day and close to the equinox we  didn't meet any...

W.Y. Evans Wentz, 1911 had this to say in his book written in 1911 The Fairy Faith in Celtic countries

"The region, the little valley on whose side stands the Pentre Ifan cromlech, the finest in Britain, is believed to have been a favourite place with the ancient Drulds. And in the oak groves (Ty Canol Wood) that still exist there, tradition says there was once a flourishing school for neophytes, and that the cromlech instead of being a place for internments or sacrifices was in those days completely enclosed, forming like other cromlechs a darkened chamber in which novices when initiated were placed for a certain number of days....the interior (of Pentre Ifan) being called the womb or court of Ceridwen".

Limestone Pavements and a balancing act

After an abortive trip about a year ago to find Saith Maen it was time to try again. This time equipped with a GPS handset. Last time was an exercise in pure frustration - trying to find specific rocks in a landscape full of them is not an easy task.

This is a beautiful part of South Wales very close to the Dan yr Ogof cave system and the landscape is riddled with swallet holes and deep depressions.

It has a desolate air but nonetheless very peaceful and compelling especially on a day like today when there are no other people around. On a nice summer's day the path gets quite busy but we were off across the moorland..... no path to where we were headed.

 The trek to the rock alignment we were seeking was a bit of a nightmare, across screes made slippery with snow, tussocks, streams, bogs  and boulders. 

Not an easy walk over a couple of miles of this terrain.The mountain top is a badly fractured limestone pavement. Rocks everywhere. Trying to find man made features in this landscape is certainly a challenge and we were grateful for the aid of the GPS. Finally however the GPS locator beeped and we were there. My feet were cold and wet and it was attempting to snow again. I was glad to reach it!

This is the biggest rock. My camera angle is not great but it is balanced on the rock pavement. It could possibly be a natural occurrence but somehow it doesn't look like it.

Thos was taken from the rock itself looking down the hill. There seem to be some clear rock alignments coming together at right angles but it is hard to separate the potentially man made features from the random stones. Again my angles are not good. The alignments are very hard to see.

There were a couple of other features on our list but I was cold, the weather seemed to be closing in again with the blue sky being replaced by ominous black cloud formations. It seemed sensible to head north back to the main path and an easy  route back to the car leaving the moors to the sheep, ravens and kites.

Until the next visit....

Cardiff Castle - a monument to Victorian excess

New laptop is now up and working - can receive email but strangely can't send it! Oh well a job for another day.

I've had a few days away with some friends in Cardiff and although I've visited many many times before, the castle is so taken for granted it has probably been 20 years since I've been in. Neither of my friends had ever been so it seemed a good way to pass Sunday morning. Firstly I apologise for the photo quality. This wasn't a planned photo excursion so I didn't have my camera. These were taken on a fairly basic camera phone with no zoom or other refinements.

Firstly ( of course!) the obligatory stone circle. This is  the Gorsedd circle - a modern circle, erected in 1978 in Bute Park right under the walls of the castle. Dreadful picture but the best of a bad bunch!

The Normans reused the old Roman site and build a motte with a moat around it and a Keep on top. Originally wooden it was eventually constructed in stone.






Although the city with all the usual city noises presses up against the walls, the atomosphere inside is curiously peaceful.

 The climb up into the keep is by means of some steep stairs but the view over the mountains of South Wales and the modern city of Cardiff ins well worth it. Mostly now a shell, some medieval graffiti survives as well as a garde robe ( a lavatory which empties directly into the moat from a great height!)

The castle walls ( some Roman parts remaining) are hollow and were used during WW2 as an air raid shelter for the people of Cardiff. Even on a bright sunny day the corridor was cold and dank. Must have been far far worse to be there in the cold and the dark with the fear of bombs dropping.



The old castle is only part of the story. Also part of the complex is a large Gothic mansion built by the Bute family who amassed a huge fortune from the sale of coal and are largely responsible for the emergency of Cardiff as a major city. The house too has been enlarged  over the years and now stands as a magnificent example of the power of money over taste. Everything possible that could be decorated with gold leaf was and it is elaborately painted and carved.

 My camera couldn't possibly do justice to this jaw dropping interior but here are a few interior shots which will give the general idea.

This is the Arab room ceiling. A small octagonal room used as a sitting room or occasionally as a guest bedroom.

This is the over mantle in the library, the oldest part of the house. The central figure is holding a scroll inscribed with runes.

Finally here is some detail of the carving in the small dining room. The carved wooden frieze extends much of the way around the room and each scroll holds an exquistely carved bird. As far as it is possible to see they are all different.

Underneath are hand painted butterflies, again they are beautifully executed.