Tyddewi Hydref 2024: Rhan Un

Hooray, back in St David's for another week. We haven't been here for several years and we are really looking forward to revisiting some of old haunts. As ever, a photographic record of what we got up to. And we'll start with one of our favourite walks.

And that walk was the 'Solva Circular'. Up and over the Gribin, inland to Pointz Castle and then back along the coast to the start. About 4.5 miles and a gentle reintroduction to walking in Pembrokeshire.

Looking down from the Gribyn, the headland under which Solva nestles, onto the meandering stream which enters Gwadn beach.

The steep path that takes us down onto Gwadn beach. Of course, going down means coming back up again. Good cardiovascular exercise.

Elvis has left the building. Actually, he was never in this cromlech but he, or rather St Elvis, did establish a church close by. St Elvis was the mentor of St David and lived in the sixth century. I bet he did a wonderful Choral Evensong (uh uh uh).

Half way around the walk and we come across Pointz Castle, which is a twelfth-century motte still standing about 30ft high with an outer ditch. It was built by Punch or Ponce (an alternative name for the site is Punch Castle), a tenant of the bishop of St Davids, and was later worked as a farm by the clergy. No traces of the outer bailey survive. Seeing it like this was a surprise as every time previously we've walked passed, it has been overgrown and its shape indiscernible. If only we'd known that the nearby farm now houses an ice cream parlour and coffee shop!

Just a path between two hedges. Pretty bare at this time of year but a tunnel of white blossom when the Blackthorn are in flower.

Pen Dinas - or head of the fortress/citadel/city. Site of an iron age fort on the promontory. A place to retreat to in times of threat. It's easily defended but not a place to stay for any length of time.

Looking towards Solva, with the houses of Upper Solva just visible.

This coastline is very similar to that of Cornwall but the geology brings differences. Here it is sandstone, which is somehow softer than the hard granite of Cornwall.

When we returned to Gwadn Beach we could hear the sounds of a seal. Where was it? Oh, there it is, high on the rocks. Not so. Magnify it and it turns out to be a White Egret. But where was the seal? Who knows but it was definitely there somewhere.

This row of four linked lime kilns is located on the south side of the harbour above the high water line at the base of the Gribyn headland. They date from the late 1700s and are Grade II listed. There were originally twelve in Solva and the burning of limestone was one of the main industries of the village. An 1811 report about the village describes "the hot vapour, and the dirt and noise of carting incident to them, make them very offensive proving a great drawback on a residence".

St David's Cathedral from the west end. Gratifying to think that we contributed to the regilding of the dial of one of the clock faces on the tower.

I should have started this post with a shot of the cathedral as our day began with us attending a bilingual Sunday Eucharist. It reinforced my decision to try and learn more Welsh. Not necessarily to be a fluid conversationalist but just to understand and read more than the pitiful amount I currently know. If nothing else, it will enable me to swear at the Welsh rugby as they lurch from defeat to defeat - 10 in a row after today's pathetic performance against Fiji. I wish I'd taken advantage of my time at Aberystwyth and taken the language lessons that were on offer.