It was a wet start to day 12.  We kicked off with a nice breakfast of cereal and fruit in The Coach House’s breakfast room.  Before check-out we walked back down to the cathedral, St David’s, to have a look inside. It’s very old and still contains the base of the tomb of St David, though the tomb itself was stolen by Vikings.  There was a very unusual slope in the nave, very pronounced, which surely was the result of sinkage.  There were a few semi-precious relics in the museum, but on the whole it’s not the most impressive cathedral we’ve been in, by a long shot.  We walked back up to the ‘city’ (village) and checked out of our cute little hotel.

After a bit of a search I found a decent new umbrella in the National Trust shop, one of the couple that were open, which was a relief because it was quite a rainy day, and we hopped in the car and drove out to take a peek at the coast.  Talk about wild and rugged.  It’s hard to imagine where marauding raiders could find a place to land on that coastline. It was blowing a terrific gale which really added nicely to the generally wild atmosphere of our little stroll along the cliff-tops. Very blustery.

Soon we got back to the car and set off back inland for Dinefwr Castle.  This is another pretty isolated and wild spot.  Rhys ap Gruffydd, ruler of Deheubarth from 1155 to 1197 is thought to have rebuilt the castle on site of an earlier one.  It is a very strategically useful site, with commanding views up the Tywi valley.  Hugh Despenser, one of Edward II’s favourites, was given the castle 1317.  It was quite a walk up from the carpark and the large house that’s now nearby, but the rain held off as we made our way up. Very chilly though for June!  Like a particularly cold June day in Sydney. We got up there and had a good look around. It’s in ruins now of course but still is a very haunting and atmospheric place.  Quite small too, and you can just imagine how lonely it would be living there so far from any settlements. Fantastic views.  After a good look we went back down, via a small wetlands walk involving a raised wooden walkway, and then into the deer park.  It was coming down pretty heavily by then, but we walked quite a way in until we saw some cute looking deer still a long way down into the valley, 300 metres or so away.  By that time we were ready for coffee and cake so made for the big house there, Newton House, once the home of the Rhys family. I had coffee and some slice and Jen had some soup. It was a good day for soup. The gothic-style house was pretty impressive looking, and we had a bit of a squiz inside. One room had an impressive Moorish theme.   

Then it was back to the roadster and on to Arthur’s Stone.  This Neolithic stone tomb is believed to be between 4.5 and 5.5 thousand years old. Amazing really. One of the oldest manmade structures we’ve seen.  You had to get there via these incredibly narrow roads through the fields, which was like running a gauntlet because you never knew if some other car was going to appear in front of you and you’d have to reverse back a few Ks. Thankfully we encountered no oncoming cars.  When we got there there was another couple checking it out, and we chatted for a bit, and then they scarpered and we had the place to ourselves.  Just amazing soaking up the spookyness of it, thinking how people decided to make it right there so long ago.  

By and by we left and made our way towards Ludlow.  We made it in plenty of time to get settled into our cool hotel, The Feathers, which had an amazing maze-like set of corridors you went through, with about 10 fire doors.  We had time before dinner for a bit of a walk around the town, so we poked around a bit, and looked around the outside of the castle, which we were going to do properly in the morning.  We had dinner in a local pub, Ye Olde Bull Ring Tavern.  I had the most amazing steak and kidney pie ever, and Jen had these sensational Cumberland sausages, with mashed potato with blue cheese mashed in. Delish!  Later we had some coffee in the hotel’s saloon before turning in.  Great day.

Dinefwyr Castle   Arthur’s Stone