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Friday 28 September 2007--Despite all of last night's drams, I'm off at a reasonable hour this morning, and it isn't long before I'm in Wales.
My intent is to turn off the highway toward Brecon, but I must be a little foggier than I thought. I miss the proper
junction, and, in trying to recover, run smack into Caerphilly. The castle dominates the town and makes an awesome first
impression. Who can resist? Brecon will be there another day.
I spend a couple of hours poking around the castle. Like most of the castles in Wales, it was built by the English (or perhaps more properly, the Normans) to keep the locals under control. Unusually, it was built on a site that had not been previously fortified. That, and its short period of active use, make it a particularly coherent model of 13th century military architecture. A gentleman named Jeffrey L Thomas maintains an impressively comprehensive website dedicated to The Castles of Wales. Nearly 300 castles are documented, most photographed, and there is a vast number of essays and articles on Welsh castles and related themes. After, I head up into the Brecon Beacons, bound for Penderyn. When I was planning this trip, the word was that the distillery there would open its visitors' center sometime in September, but I learned just before departure that it won't be until spring. I want to go have a look, anyway--I've never seen a photo of the place, nor has anyone else I know. It does not take long, on arrival, to realize why. It is by far the ugliest distillery I have ever seen, a ramshackle recycled light-industrial building in a dirt lot by the side of the road. The only concession to esthetics is a small symbolic pagoda perched on the roof, and it just looks silly. If they're smart, before they open a visitors' center, they'll bury the place in a few tons of stucco and whitewash. Despite the lack of touring facilities, I find it's possible to ring the bell for entry to a sales counter. I go in and buy a half-bottle, hoping to get a glimpse at the inner workings. All that is visible is a shipping area, with stacks of cases on pallets. I meander a bit through the Beacons. It's really lovely country, reminiscent of the Dales in places, and I have in mind to take a stroll to the waterfalls near Ystradfellte. It's later in the day than I'd like, however, and I reluctantly decide to make tracks for St Davids, still a couple of hours away. St Davids is known as the smallest city in Britain--a village, really, but its cathedral earns it the designation. Its triangular center reminds me of Donegal Town in Ireland. Friday night in the Farmers Arms is a bit more lively than I would like, but all in all it's a much more pleasant evening than the one I spent in Donegal. Next |
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Caerphilly Castle
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Caerphilly Castle
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Caerphilly Castle
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Caerphilly Castle
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Caerphilly Castle
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Caerphilly Castle
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Caerphilly Castle
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Caerphilly Castle
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Penderyn Distillery
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