Nick's Blog

The trip to St Davids was probably the longest drive of the holiday, baring that of the journey to and from Wales itself. From Dryslwyn we drove north towards Cardigan on the A486 out of Carmathen. Here the road followed a valley along the line of an old railway before climbing up and over the hills before dropping down in to another river valley, that of the Teifi. Before arriving in Cardigan itself we stopped at Cilgerran Castle which sits on a cliff high above the Teifi at the end of the tidal part of the river, unfortunately the wind was very strong and cut through your clothes making the viewing of the castle very uncomfortable. A big difference about this castle and the previous ones was that it was made of much flatter stones mostly slate blocks where as the others we had visited were constructed of much larger blocks, the slate construction gave the castle a much darker and foreboding look almost in sympathy with the cold and bleak weather of the day.

From Cardigan we headed south stopping at Henllys Castle an Iron Age fort. The place was fantastic with reconstructions based on the archaeological evidence at the site, including some roundhouses that you could go into. The site dates back, possibly, to the late bronze age 1000BC.

From Castle Henllys we continued south through Fishguard and then onto St Davids, the smallest city in the country but supporting a very large and ancient Cathedral. The tow is built on a western point and was very important in its day as both a trading town and a religious centre. The Cathedral itself was dwarfed by the nearby Bishops Palace built by Bishop Henry de Gower in the 14th Century. It was kind of obscene that someone could build something so large for their own gratification when their wealth was built on the back of the church. Inside the Cathedral the wood ceiling was very impressive dating to around the same time as de Gower.

Posted by Nick on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 at 11:29 pm.