A lovely breakfast at our luxury hotel. This is the lifestyle we were meant for!
I don't know how we got a room with such a view for half price but it is just glorious. This is the view from our window.
First stop of the day is Castel Dinas Bran. The first building placed at Dinas BrĂ¢n was not the castle which now stands in ruins on top of the hill but an Iron Age hillfort built around 600 BC. The castle itself was built by the Welsh in the 13th century.
The walk up was very steep but the views were breathtaking.
An earthen rampart was constructed probably topped by a wooden palisade and this was further protected by a deep ditch on the shallower southern slope.
The ditch and ramparts are very distinct.
The walls of the hill fort encircled a village of roundhouses.
At the top we got talking to an older couple who were university lecturers in the Welsh language so we got to ask lots of questions about Wesh. They tried to teach us how to say goodbye in Welsh but that was quickly forgotten.
They also told us a bit of the history of the castle. The translation of the name means Castle fort of the Ravens. This was because after only a few decades in use it was destroyed by the Welsh themselves to keep it out of the hands of the advancing English. After this the main inhabitants were the Ravens and crows.
This was the road we had to come down after the castle. The drop on my side was very steep. It was a two way street.
The evocative ruins of Valle Crucis which lie in green fields beneath Llangollen's steep sided mountains was our next stop. In medieval times, this was a remote spot (ideal for austere Cistercian monks, who deliberately sought out wild and lonely places).
Their Abbey, founded in the 13th century and added to a century later, has fared better than many of its contemporaries against the ravages of time, history and neglect.
Many original features remain, including the glorious west front complete with an elaborate, richly carved doorway, beautiful rose window and 14th century inscription 'Abbot Adams carried out this work; may he rest in peace. Amen'.
Other well preserved features include the east end of the Abbey (which overlooks the monks' original fishpond) and lovely Chapter House with its striking rib-vaulted roof.
Close to the abbey is Eliseg’s pillar. This apparently is a monument of great importance, a rare link with a shadowy but crucial period of early Welsh history. It once stood some twenty feet high, surmounted by a cross which gave its name - ‘Valle Crucis’, ‘the vale of the cross’ - to this whole valley.
An inscription (now almost worn away but copied down three centuries ago) records that it was raised in the early 800s by Cyngen, last independent King of Powys, in memory of his great-grandfather King Eliseg ‘who recovered the land of Powys from the English with fire and sword’. This Eliseg, the inscription claims, was the direct descendent of Vortigern (Gwrtheyrn) ‘whom St. Germanus blessed’, and of the Emperor Magnus Maximus, one of he last Roman rulers of Britain in the late 4th century.
Whilst the pillar itself dates to the 9th century, the mound is thought to be significantly older, possibly prehistoric. Certainly the mound can be dated to the Bronze Age. It was subjected to excavation in recent years and it showed several stages of construction and contained a skeleton and evidence of burnt human bone, confirming its use as a burial site.
We then stopped for lunch in the abbey cafe which we regretted as it took nearly an hour to get served. The soup and the Welsh Rarebit however was rather delicious.
Afterwards we went looking for the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal. This is a feat of civil engineering of the Industrial Revolution, completed in the early years of the 19th century. Covering a difficult geographical setting, the building of the 18 km long canal required substantial, bold civil engineering solutions, especially as it was built without using locks. The aqueduct is a pioneering masterpiece of engineering and monumental metal architecture, conceived by the celebrated civil engineer Thomas Telford. The aqueduct over the river Dee is 38 metres high. The use of both cast and wrought iron in the aqueduct enabled the construction of arches that were light and strong.
Its purposes were to be a trunk route joining the three rivers, to provide an outlet of the coal and iron industries of Denbighshire, and to enable limestone to be distributed to fertilise the farmlands of north Shropshire.
Geoff and I walked over it. With the canal on one side you had to walk very close to the rail overlooking the valley. Geoff got halfway across and had a serious bout of vertigo and we had to go back with him gripping hand over hand on the rail.
Geoff holding up the bridge.
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