Llanwrtyd Wells – 3

Tags

Abernant Lake Hotel, Brecon Beacons, Cambrian Mountains, Cwm Craig-ddu, Glan Irfon Farm, Heart of Wales Line, Llanwrtyd Wells Station, Llanwrytd Wells, Mynydd Eppynt, Nant Cerdin, Neuadd Arms, red kite, River Irfon

New Year’s Day, Saturday. After a leisurely breakfast, I made my way to the home of my new friends from dinner the evening before, Pete and Marion, a few minutes’ walk from the hotel, on the edge of the countryside.

They have enviable views – and lovely animals.

Charlie and Harry are in the far field

Marion and the stable they had built shortly after moving to the area six years ago

Memories of previous horses

Charlie has come to see us, Harry arrives. Marion has a little something for him in her hand.

Marion and Pete with Rio and Abby

They also had chickens.

Coffee and chat partaken, I walked back to the Neuadd Arms, not sure whether in fact I could be bothered to go out for a walk, or whether I would spend the rest of the day in my room with knitting, reading and TV – but that would have been to waste an opportunity.

The weather was brightening a little, rain did not seem to threaten, and I had really no excuse not to complete the eastern circuit proposed in the Town Walk leaflet I had used the previous day. I would have a choice of lengths at one point, and I took my walking pole from my car this time!

The route took me first past the station. Llanwrtyd Wells is fortunate still to have stopping trains, running on the Heart of Wales line between Swansea and Shrewsbury. “The railway crosses two impressive viaducts at Knucklas and at Cynghordy and goes through six tunnels, including one on the magnificent run up to Sugar Loaf. Over 30 stations are served by the line, some of which are request stops.” (Website.)

The next train from Platform 2 will depart in two hours’ time.

Four stopping trains a day in each direction, Monday to Saturday, two on Sunday

The old board must have been there in 1961 when Diane and I used the station.

The walk leaflet instructed, ” Carry on past the station, following the road as far as the entrance to the Abernant Lake Hotel on your right, now operated as an outward bound centre for children.” The centre was barely visible though the trees. At this point that I had to decide whether to do the additional loop to the walk. As otherwise that would have made for a very short outing indeed, I chose to go on. This involved leaving the road, and taking a path towards a railway crossing and Glan Irfon Farm. As I struggled with the gate into the field a couple happened along and asked me if I was looking for the path. I wasn’t at that point, but they helpfully pointed out the correct direction, which was not what I would have taken, so that was very useful. I was meant to head for the very middle of this picture.

I stopped, looked and listened as instructed. With only eight trains a day along the track, the risk was low.

‘Soggy’ was yesterday’s word. ‘Squelchy’ was today’s. At one point the waymarked path invited me to climb over a very rickety ladder stile, sloping away from me, and then to cross a small fast-flowing stream, probably a dry ditch usually. I was not sure that I would be able to do the latter, even with my pole, and having done the former, climbing back over would have been attempting to straddle a rickety ladder stile which would then be sloping steeply towards me. Discretion being the better part of valour, I sought another way to the farm, which fortunately proved not to be too difficult, other than much more squelch, and to involve opening a civilised gate.

Sheep were everywhere I went in this part of Wales. Cows were rarer.

Around this time I saw a couple of Little egrets flying around, but was unable to capture them with my camera. No trouble doing so when it’s sheep.

I became aware that the sun was trying to break through and took this photo over my right shoulder.

I passed through and by Glan Irfon Farm. Its courtyard had some interesting accommodation units, residential I think.

These black-faced sheep seemed much more interesting, and interested, than the others, as I made my way towards another railway crossing to return to the road.

No stiles this time, but a gate to get to the line, with a catch which definitely required a GCSE equivalent in engineering.

To leave it having crossed the line, I reckon you needed an ‘A’ level equivalent! OK, you can – once you know – easily see that the thing blocking the horizontal slider can be slid itself…

A few feet away was this curious object. I have no idea what it is, but I have found (when I was looking for more information on the accommodation) that the railway crossing has its own web-page!

Brilliant sunshine for a minute or two.

And a beautiful tree.

But the sun didn’t last, as I approached the road and looked back.

From now on – and I had a good 40 minutes yet to do, entirely on roadways – I was concerned about rain, as strong winds, those harbingers, came and went, and came and went, accompanied by dark grey clouds.

But I did stop for a few minutes as I saw one, then another, Red kite soaring high in the sky. This is the best photo I could get, of just one.

Which, being enlarged as much as I dare, gives:

I love the hint of rainbow…

I was quite pleased to enter the built-up area of town,

after which the road crossed a tributary of the River Irfon, the Nant (stream) Cerdin.

After the jollifications of the previous evening, I was almost alone in the restaurant for my evening meal (though others were having a meal in the bar).

I slept really late the following morning, two hours longer than I normally do. Although this meant I left for my drive home later than I had intended, I was pleased as it must have reflected my relaxed state.

I thought that I had been in the Brecon Beacons during my stay. I have since realised that in fact I was between the Beacons and the Cambrian Mountains. My drive took me back over the Mynydd Eppynt part of the Beacons, which I had not really appreciated on the outward journey, rain, greyness and dark just making me want this long, winding road to come to an end. But it was an altogether different story on my return. It was amazingly beautiful! I could have taken so many photos if the road (which incidentally is through the largest military training area in Wales) had allowed me to stop. Eventually I came to a breezy viewpoint where I could take these two from the same spot, at about 90 degrees from each other.

I really would have liked to have stopped well back on the road on the left, to take a picture of the breathtaking valley head, which, as far as I have been able to identify, is the Cwm (valley) Craig-ddu.

An otherwise uneventful journey had me home, despite the later start than planned, by lunchtime. It was, as ever, so good to see the cats again.

Llanwrtyd Wells – 1

Tags

Abergavenny, Ar Cymru, Caffi Sosban, Covid, Covid-19, Dol-y-Coed, Drover's Arms, Llanwrtyd Heritage and Arts Centre, Llanwrytd Wells, Mari Lwyd, Neuadd Arms, Pony trekking, Quarters, red kite, River Irfon

Happy New Year!

I spent a pleasant 48 hours over Christmas with relatives in Berkshire. I failed to take any photos, though this one was taken of me by my cousin, Teresa,

Post-box hat one of many crocheted by the Barkham Hookers – think about it – and dress knitted by me. A rare moment during our Christmas Day dog-walk when it wasn’t raining.

she of the boutique Wokingham estate agency, Quarters, for which I am very happy to give a plug, was taken during a rare moment when it wasn’t raining.

I was originally meant to be making music with ten others in South Wales from 27th to 30th December but, concerned about Covid, I withdrew. I was worried that I might have been a party pooper, but was pleased to see from a Facebook post that it had gone ahead with everyone else.

Instead I took up a couple of opportunities (my first) to be a vaccine steward, for a pharmacy in Wedmore, where there were six vaccinators and a couple of volunteers. Fortunately I was indoors, on the damp, though warm, days, and for the most part was kept well and satisfyingly occupied.

The music-making in was only 40 minutes or so from a hotel I had visited back in 1975, in a town which I had first visited in 1961. Both visits had been pony-trekking holidays. The first had been as a mid-teens schoolgirl, with my friend Diane, (when we stayed in a guest house), a trip no doubt cooked up by our respective mothers.

As a total novice on a pony, I was given a very small mount, called Boswell. I felt that I could have touched the ground with my feet!

Diane, a good few inches less tall than I, had a mount, Patsy, much more in proportion.

The second was as a woman in her late 20s, accompanied by her then eleven-year-old cousin, Mary G, (not the same person as my friend Mary H who appears in these posts from time to time).

So in October last year I had planned to go on from the music-making to spend three nights at that same hotel, especially knowing that there was to be a Mari Lwyd procession in ‘the smallest town in Britain’ to see the New Year in. With Omicron and all that I did wonder whether my stay would be cancelled by the Welsh government, or should be by me, but in fact, because of the greater eventual restrictions in Wales than those pertaining in England, I felt reassured, and a few days beforehand I confirmed that I would be turning up.

It was a soggy, soggy drive on 30th December. I stopped in Abergavenny for a coffee at the Angel Hotel, the first place I came to, and where service appeared to reflect the problem that all of ‘hospitality’ is reported to be suffering at present. But I was pleased to sit down quietly, and then spend a few minutes exploring the charming high street. (I had left my camera – and my phone – in the car. Grrr.)

It was nearly dark when I arrived at the Neuadd Arms Hotel in Llanwrtyd Wells. Apart from its exterior, and one view of the bar, I could remember nothing of it from 1975. It is a somewhat quirky, comfortable three-star hotel, grade II listed, also apparently suffering from staff shortages. Agreeable enough for three unhurried days.

The following morning, Christmas Eve, I went out for a short walk to get my bearings. LLanwrtyd Wells grew as a spa town in the 19th century but, to quote Wikipedia, “the area is now better known for recreations such as pony trekking, mountain biking, walking and birdwatching, and for its annual Man versus Horse Marathon, Beer Festival and World Bog Snorkeling Championship”. It took very little time to explore each of the radial roads.

The Neuadd Arms is listed Grade II, and I learned later is for sale. The present owners have been there for 20 years.

It’s not a quirk caused by the camera. The two halves really are very slightly at an angle.

The view from the front of the hotel. The main road through town enters from bottom left and leaves, crossing the River Irfon, middle left.

I had tried in advance to book my departing Sunday lunch here at the Drover’s Arms, as it had excellent reviews, but it was going to be shut until 22nd January. I learned in due course that this business also is for sale, and has been for some years.

The River Irfon was very, very high, and fast flowing.

Was this the chapel which Diane and I sought to attend in 1961, but from which we were gently turned away because the service was going to be in Welsh? It’s a sad picture now.

A modern sculpture celebrating the recent return of the red kite to this part of Wales.

Dol-y-Coed Road

An elegant…

… multi-purpose building…

…. next door to which was a coffee place which I had been intending to patronise.

But it was shut for the holidays.

This 19th century Congregational Chapel, which closed in 2009, is now…

the Llanwrtyd and District Heritage and Arts Centre, reopened by voluntary effort in 2016.

Sadly this also was closed, being open only between April and October, though I did notice a poster for a special exhibition which had been held one day early in December.

Back to the hotel, I saw this board on its side. I tried one of the brewery’s products with my New Year’s Day dinner, the Aur Cymru. It was excellent!

Back in my room I checked out where I had been on my short explore.

And planned a longer one.