Minera Quarry Nature Reserve

Minera Quarry has been associated with limestone extraction for over 2 centuries. Parts of the site have naturally regenerated since 1994, now hosting many rare and threatened species, including three bat species (including the Lesser Horseshoe, Brown Long-Eared and Natterer's) and cliff-dwelling birds such as The Peregrine. There are also many species of plants specialising in limestone grassland: orchids (frog, pyramidal, fragrant); round-leaved wintergreen; autumn gentian and moon wort etc.

The site also includes industrial heritage features relating to lead mining and limestone works including old lime kilns, as well as important geological formations.

Mold (Yr Wyddgrug)

 

Mold, which has a totally different name in Welsh, Yr Wyddgrug, relates to the bailey hill where the Normans built a castle. Mold is an historic market town, gateway to the Clwydian Ranges and birthplace to a renowned Welsh novelist, Daniel Owen. Indeed where we were staying was in Llys Daniel Owen after one and the same.

Yr Wyddgrug means “prominent mound” and it is believed that there was an ancient mound, cairn or tumulus here that provided a prominent position for the Normans to build their castle. This is where the Welsh name comes from.

After the Normans had built their castle, it was described in Latin as “high hill” - Mons Altus – and in Norman French as Mont-Haut. One theory is that Mont-Haut morphed into Muhauld then to Moald before finally becoming Mold. The Motte and Bailey Castle was built by Robert de Montalt, so the other theory is that the name of Mold could have morphed from that.

Cittaslow, part of a trend known as the Slow Movement, has made it to Mold which is the first Cittaslow town in Wales. Cittaslow's goals include improving the quality of life in towns by slowing down its overall pace, especially in a city/settlement's use of spaces and flow of life/traffic through them. Cittaslow resist globalisation whereas a transition town aims to increase self-sufficiency from a grass-roots level by reducing the potential effects of peak oil, climate destruction and economic instability, but theoretically a town could be both, I suppose.

Walk around a heart of Wales Spa Town / Llandrindod Lake Park Woodland Walk - Llandrindod Wells (Powys)

Set in a valley 700ft above sea level is the spa town (and what was also the largest inland resort of Wales) of Llandrindod Wells. The famous curative springs are said to have been used since time immemorial. Today's walk, due to be 4 miles turned into over 8.5 miles as areas have now been built on and waymarkers are missing.

Eventually we found our way to Shaky Bridge, so called because the original bridge was only about 30” wide in old money (about 3/4m) and was made up of boards suspended on wires; a notice warned that no more than three people should cross the bridge at once. Today's more substantial bridge was built in 1940.

The bridge crosses the River Ithon (which is a tributary of the Wye and joins it about 4 miles south-west of the town) and a grass track takes you up to St. Michael's Church. There has been a church of some kind here since before the Norma times, though some of the remaining stonework dates to the 13^th Century. A large part of the present Church, however, dates to the 1890's. The craggy hill towering 300ft behind the church was the site of Cefnllys Castle, built in the 13^th Century by Roger Mortimer. Cefnllys was granted borough status by Henry VIII until 1885; the borough contained only three houses!

Towards the latter part of the walk was the 35 acre Forestry Commission wood called Cwm-Brîth Bank and the viewpoint of Little Hill; 1,165ft above sea level. Romans inhabited this area around the 1^st century AD and may have used this. The start and end of the walk was at 'The Lake', a 14-acre lake with carp, tench and beam plus mallards and swans. This was also Kite country; with a kite feeding station only 11 miles away in Rhayader. We saw a couple of kites circling on the thermals and heard several more.

Circular walk around the limestone crag with the Prince's Castle - Carreg Cennen (Brecon Beacons National Park)

Right on the western tip of the Brecon Beacons National Park is the limestone crag on which Carreg Cennen (Cennen Rock) Castle stands. The 5-mile walk retains the crag with its 300ft vertical cliff as an impressive spectacle throughout the walk. The steep slopes and cliff made the site easy to defend.

There is evidence that the site may have been occupied in the Iron Age and later by the Romans. The original castle was built by one of the Welsh Princes in the late 12^th Century. Rhys ap Gruffydd (d. 11 97), Welsh Prince of Deheubarth, built a stronghold and admin centre for Is-Cennen. Over the next century the castle was fought over and changed hands a number of times. In 1277, King Edwards I of England seized the castle, which was demolished and replaced by the more impressive fortress, the ruins of which we see today. It was mainly undertaken by John Gifford, an English Lord who fought with Edward I to defeat the Welsh. In 1362, it was inherited by John of Gaunt who eventually passed it onto his heir, the future Henry IV. In 1403 the castle fell briefly after a long siege to the Welsh army of Owain Glyndŵr. During the Wars of the Roses, it became a Lancastrian stronghold but surrended in 1462. In the summer of the same year, 500 men were paid £28 5s 6d to destroy the castle. Apparently it was to prevent it becoming the base for local robbers though it was said to have been the Yorkists who paid this and they may have had other motives.

The site has the additional protection of being a local nature reserve, SSSI and a Geopark. The cliff provides a resting place for birds and safe havens for rare plants. Sessile Oak and Ash grow on the slopes. The fault which created the crag overlooking Cennen Valley divided the landscape into sandstone and limestone which provides habitats for different types of plants. Limestone supports Ash trees whereas Oak prefers sandstone.

Part of the walk, at almost 1000ft above sea level, was along the western flank of the Black Mountain range. Nearby were unusual long, low, glass-covered mounds, known as Beddau'r Derwyddan or Druid's Graves. These were actually man-made rabbit warrens. The soil is too poor to form natural burrows but as rabbit used to firm an important part of the country-person's diet, these mounds were constructed to allow the rabbits to live and breed in them; a non-intensive form of rabbit farming.

One other unusual feature was the natural cave, incorporated into the castle defences, reached by a narrow passage carved out of the rock. In the days before COVID19, it was likely that people could enter the passages, lit by narrow openings in the outer wall and see the cave.

Entering the castle was through a gap in the outer wall on the eastern side, in between what would have been small drum towers. In the outer ward was the lime kiln and quarry. Entry to the castle was up ramps, where bridges would have been over deep pits. The eastern wall also had the latrine outlet.

We also had a stop in Cilmeri where Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd was killed in December 1281. A memorial was constructed in 1956 as a focal point for an annual day of remembrance on his death day. Nearby is the well where his apparently severed head was washed to take to Edward I. Lovely!

'Under milk wood' Dylan Thomas walk - Laugharne (Cardiganshire)

Breakfasting in the sunshine overlooked by Laugharne castle beside the River Corran was the first stop on our 'Dylan Thomas walk' exploring places connected with the stormy welsh Poet's life. Laugharne, pronounced 'Larn', was granted its 1st charter in 1307 & retains some of its medieval traditions. One of these is a town council known as the Court Leet presided over by a Portreeve, elected annually. Laugharne also had the reputation as a haunt for pirates during the 16th century; close as it was to shipping in the Bristol Channel.

Originally fortified in the 12th century, Laugharne Castle remains date mainly from the Tudor times. Sir John Perrott rebuilt the castle at the end of 16th century after it had been twice sacked by the Welsh. It was a royalist stronghold during the civil war but fell in 1644.

The shore path takes you almost to the Boat House, now a museum, where Dylan Thomas moved to in 1949 with his wife Caitlin and their two children with a third on the way.

A steep set of steps takes you to Dylan's shed where he did most of his writing including Under Milk Wood and his last poems. The path alongside was originally known as 'Cliff Walk', but renamed 'Dylan's Walk' in 1958.

At the end of Dylan's Walk, the path continues through woodland connecting with the Wales Coast path. Through fields and up a stony lane, the path eventually becomes a tarmac road which takes you down to St. Martin's Church.

St. Martin's Church, the parish church of Laugharne dates from the 14^th Century and was restored in the 19^th Century. The grave of Dylan Thomas is marked by a simple, white wooden cross. He died in New York in 1953 during a lecture tour of the States.

A green lane brings you back into town and the shore. A couple other buildings of note are the elegant Town Hall, rebuilt in 1746 and Braun's Hotel, reputedly one of Dylan Thomas' favourite haunts.

In the opposite direction, rejoining the Welsh Coast Path, of which the first part is known as Dylan's Birthday Walk, was a mainly woodland walk around Sir John's Hill and then following alongside reclaimed marshland. Sir John's Hill, inspired one of Dylan Thomas' poems: “Over Sir John's Hill, The Hawk on fire hangs still....”

Finally summiting the ridge that separated the Laugharne to Pendine Road from the marshes, we descended into Broadway where we were staying.

Preseli Coast Clifftop walk - Dinas Island (Pembrokeshire)

A circular walk along a section of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. Pen Dinas, National Trust owned, is now joined to the mainland but 12,000 years ago was separated by a river estuary. Even now the connection is a valley with marshland. The first part of the walk from Cwm-yr-Eglwys up to the highest point of Dinas Island, passes the massive sea-stack known as Needle Rock and Pwllglas.

Cwm-yr-Eglwys is valley of the church in Welsh and named after an ancient church largely destroyed by a storm in October 1859. Dedicated to St. Brynach and thought to have been founded in the 6th Century, today's remnants are the bell-cote & west wall. The same storm wrecked 114 ships along the coast of Wales.

Needle Rock is sheltered from prevailing south-west winds but nonetheless we had a strong wind and gusts as we hiked along the cliff-side path. The stack is a nesting site for many birds in season but it was occupied by a lone shag and a handful of herring gulls, as we passed by.

The rocky outcrop known as Pwllglas had gracefully curving rock layers, evidence of vast tectonic forces that have folded the Earth's crust.

At 463ft above sea level is Dinas Head. A lone Raven was sighted, though large numbers nest on the cliffs in March. Gannets were seen flying around but they will dive for fish off the headland. A ruin of a coastguard look out station was just off the crest of the head.

We continued following the path round the island until we reached 'civilisation' at Pwllgwaelod. Here was the toilet stop and a disused 19th Century lime-kiln. Before the coming of the railways, limestone was unloaded for coasters (ships) and burnt in the kilns to make quicklime to be spread on the acid soil of local farms. The nearby Sailor's Safety Inn always displayed a light after dark to help guide vessels across Fishguard Bay; it was built in 1593.

The final disabled access path behind the pub to Cum-yr-Eglwys passed a marshy area reputedly home of sedge warbles, grass-hopper warblers and reed buntings as well as an assortment of butterflies.

Hillfort at the Lonely Heart of Wales - Lampeter (Ceredigion)

We stopped the night in a coaching inn, built in 1700, in the traditional heart of Lampeter on the southern border of Ceredigion. The coaching inn, the Royal Black Lion Hotel in the High St. was an important halfway stop between Aberystwyth & Carmarthen where the horses were changed. The county court was also held there until 1820 when the Town Hall was built on the opposite side of 'The Street'

Lampeter was on the Roman route linking the garrison towns of Caernarvon & Carmarthen, so had been a bustling street for hundreds of years, The town was granted its earliest charter in 1284 but most of the buildings that exist now are Victorian.

Taking a detour through the grounds of the University of Wales, Lampeter (latterly known as St. David's College), we learnt it had been founded by Dr. Thomas Burgess to train Welsh youths for ministry. From 1803 to 1825 Dr. Burgess was Bishop of St. David's and later became Bishop of Salisbury. The site occupies what was previously a fortification to command this stretch of the Teifi valley. Lampeter Castle may well have started life as simple wooden tower with an outer ring of defences that was destroyed in the 12th century, but in 1403, the rebuilt fortress held out against Owain Glyndŵr.

Crossing a tributary of the River Teifi, a babbling brook, we headed up the hill to a farm. Passing trees that looked like giant feet with roots protruding horizontally, we made our way to Mount Pleasant Wood.

Home to numerous birds, it also contains a 300 acre mixed wood called Long Wood Community Woodland. Formed in 2002, the Community Group made up of local volunteers and paid staff are custodians of this natural reserve with over 9 miles of footpaths and bridleways. They aim to continue sustainable woodland management, creating new areas of broadleaf habitat, conserving the woodland for wildlife and increasing public awareness. In 2011, the group were able to buy the woodland from the Forestry Commission.

We followed the tree-lined track to the crest of the hill to almost 800ft above sea level. It was an old drovers track, believed to have been used since prehistoric times. Perched on the top of the hill, some 400ft above the floor of the Teifi valley is the iron age hill fort known as 'Castell Allt-goch'. It was thought that this ancient fortification was probably protected by two banks and ditches.

With the return part of the route stopped by a parade of just milked cows slipping and sliding their way back to the fields along a very muddy track we retraced our steps back down the Drover's Track.

Heading back though the town, we walked to Brondeift Church next to the site of an old railway bridge. Nearby was the bridge crossing the River Teifi. Its source, 20 miles upstream, is a 1898 acre bog and nature reserve; the bog was created from a lake formed after the Ice age.

Our final stop was St. Thomas's Square, all that is left of an area of common-land that the freemen of the borough jointly owned. One of the chapels on the square, Soar Chapel, was established in 1841, leased to the independents sect for one shilling a year. In 1874 the present chapel was built. A narrow street bought us out on the High St. next to the pub.