The Welsh Heritage tour!

Some holidays are just purely for relaxing, no strings attached. But our visit to Wales was a bit more bound to a plan! For Oli Hay-on-Wye was a must visit, have been meaning to for ages thing and for me the monuments and family history was lying out trail all through the Brecon Beacons.
We chose our campsite well. At first, just a site in an orchard of a quiet farm in Talgarth. Only Talgarth it turns out was the centre for the kingdom of Brycheiniog (that became Breconshire) in the late fifth century. Traditionally, it was founded by a Hiberno-Welsh prince named Brychan out of the old Welsh kingdom of Garth Madrun.
Dafydd Gam was a member of one of the most prominent Welsh families in Breconshire. His recent pedigree was 'Dafydd Gam ap Llywelyn ap Hywel Fychan ap Hywel ap Einion Sais', but beyond that the family claimed an ancient Welsh lineage going back to the Kings of Brycheiniog, truely then, land of my mother's and fathers. (My Grandmother descending from Sir Dafydd Gam, having the maiden name Games)
First on the trail was a visit to Brecon. (Aberhonddu in Welsh)
Situated in this Cathedral is the Games Monument. This is the only remaining figure from a tomb which was erected in the chancel of Brecon Cathedral c. 1555. The 'Games Monument' was erected in memory of the Games family of Aberbran and their wives. The other figures are reputed to have been burned by Cromwell's soldiers during the Civil War.The town is a short walk from the cathedral and boasts several gift shops and stores selling local produce, including butchers selling the delicious Welsh Lamb! It makes for an ideal base if exploring and hiking in the Brecon Beacons.The Brecon Beacons (Welsh: Bannau Brycheiniog) is a mountain range that forms the central section of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Its full of high ridges and steep valleys. Home to the Welsh Mountain pony and wild roaming sheep. Full of storytellers that for hundreds of years have passed on Welsh legends and heritage. Many an Eisteddfod has been held here! Traditionally Welsh history has been passed on orally, by poets, bards and folk song!
It's well used by hikers and offers gentle and more energetic hiking. We explored just the edges and found a stream that tumbled through a valley over several waterfalls, a perfect place to spend the day relaxing with a pic-nick.




What better place then to delve into stories than back at our campsite in Talgarth where the orchard was all ours! From here we could also walk the farm trail or from the village explore the ancient woods that were full of Bluebells. In the depths, among the trees you can find Pwyll-y-Wrach or the 'Witches pool'. St.Gwendoline is believed to have bathed in the pool and is buried at the site of the present church, in Talgarth. However I also heard it's where women were dunked in witchcraft trials!!!
As part of the family history tour we took a look around Abergavenny. A small market town not far from the English border. It has the remains of a castle that sits above the river Usk. Thought to have been a fortified site since the Bronze age in 1175 it was the scene of an infamous act: the Massacre of Abergavenny. Then during the rebellion of Owain Glyndwr in the early 1400s the town was sacked and burned by Welsh forces.
Due to it's location it was always the scene of battles between the English and the Welsh and still is a gateway into Wales. The town is also home to Saint Mary's Church, once a large priory. Within this church is the tomb of 'The Star of Abergavenny' Gwladys ferch Dafydd Gam, the daughter of Dafydd Gam.

In nearby Llantilio Crossenny Crossenny the coat of arms for Dafydd can be seen as a stain glass window in the pretty church which dates from the 13th century, it contains a Green Man figure a bove an aisle, and White Castle a fine example of the medieval castle builders stands on the hill overlooking the village.

Hay-on-Wye has a draw all of it's own.

Pretty it may be, a castle it may have, set on a winding river it is, but truly you only come here for one thing.......books! Old books. Books about anything and everything. Expensive books at least one hundred years old and cheap books t hat you just give what you have for!!! We spent the day here browsing.

It's home to a huge literary festival in may, drawing all kinds of speakers and authors to the town. The trouble is though, all this has given the place a feel of exclusivity and one could easily be robbed of rather large sums of money here! Luckily we managed to leave with some money in our pockets!!!
Get away from it all and reflect on your literary bargains in the ruins of Llanthony priory.

The road is beautiful and the trip worth it . It's unlikely that you will come across the ruins by accident, located far up the Honddu Valley, this remarkable old Priory is only accessible by a single narrow lane that runs from Llanvihangel Crucorney over Hay Bluff to Hay-on-Wye. The crypt is now a bar and offers light lunches, a welcome treat for those who have been walking the nearby ridg es of along Offas Dyke! The best Ploughman's I had eaten in ages, not forgetting that it was with Y Fenni cheese!!

Before setting off home we passed by Raglan Castle. This great castle was once home to Sir Daffyd gam's Daughter, Gwladys and her husband William ap Thomas who fought with King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

I sat upon the well, perhaps where once she had sat and remembering my ancestors I felt glad to have stepped where they once had. But it could not be ignored that two little ones kicked about inside me, my path now clearly lies with the birth of a new generation, I trod in the footsteps of my history bringing the future with me!

The Magic of Boscastle

It's amazing, that we traveled along the edge of Dartmoor and along the edges of Bodmin into a totally different world. Leaving sunny skies behind as we rose up onto the Cornish moorlands we entered into a heavy all encompassing fog. But we were going to Boscastle, home of the famous Witchcraft museum and the best harbour for smuggling I have seen. The scene had been set.

The lane becomes narrow and winding as you drop down towards the sea. The village being set along the path of a small river carrying water away from the moors. A steep combe shelters the village that lines it's path to the sea. The river mouth flows into a medieval harbour, the harbour wall being built in 1584, dividing the flowing stream from the stormy tidal waters that thunder through the natural twisting cliffs. It's this twist of coastline that hides Boscastle from those out at on the waves. It's a hidden, secret little gem!



The coastline offers fantastic walks, Tintagel being only a few miles away, though what with being a pregnant lady just a little to far for me! How ever walking a little way up the cliff path was worth it to get the great birds eye view of the narrow ravine. Be there at high tide and watch the fishing boats navigate through to the open sea.The witchcraft museum is worth a visit. It holds a huge collection of witchy and magical artifacts from around the world that have been put together over the last 40 years. Ranging from the magical herbal knowledge of a wise woman to the weird and strange........including very creepy looking mandrake roots and information on modern day witchy folk.

The magical powers of witches and wizards aside, Boscastle does have a magical air of it's own and you don't need tools of the craft to find them.
Thomas Hardy was greatly inspired by the area and fell in love with not just it's beauty but also that of the lovely 'Emma' who he later married. He returned here after the marriage ended in tragedy and wrote "A Pair of Blue Eyes" that describes all the valleys and cliffs up to High Cliff (731 ft), the highest in Cornwall. Below is a poem inspired by his Cornish wife!

"A Dream or No"

Why go to Saint-Juliot? What's Juliot to me?
I've been but made fancy
By some necromancy
That much of my life claims the spot as its key.

Yes. I have had dreams of that place in the West,
And a maiden abiding
Thereat as in hiding;
Fair-eyed and white-shouldered, broad-browed and brown-tressed.

And of how, coastward bound on a night long ago,
There lonely I found her,
The sea-birds around her,
And other than nigh things uncaring to know.

So sweet her life there (in my thought has it seemed)
That quickly she drew me
To take her unto me,
And lodge her long years with me. Such have I dreamed.

But nought of that maid from Saint-Juliot I see;
Can she ever have been here,
And shed her life's sheen here,
The woman I thought a long housemate with me?

Does there even a place like Saint-Juliot exist?
Or a Vallency Valley
With stream and leafed alley,
Or Beeny, or Bos with its flounce flinging mist?

February 1913