Llansteffan Castle

     A busy weekend we've had of it. Saturday was spent at the 'Festival of Senses' in Llandeilo doing a bit of Christmas shopping, while yesterday we drove over to Llansteffan on the beautiful Towy estuary. Good weather on both days was a welcome bonus after all the rain of late.
     Llansteffan is a village clustering between the foot of steep wooded hills and the beach. A small, discreet seaside resort, a bit higgledy-piggledy really, but none the worse for that. Mainly Victorian by the look of it and all colourwashed including the church but not its tower. The church is mainly Perpendicular.
     High on a headland south of the village and at the very mouth of the river stands the castle. All dark grey and hoary rubble. Most of the finer stone, which would have been used for the details such as windows and doors, has been robbed out. Some details remain on the upper floors of the great gatehouse, which in the later Middle Ages was converted into the main lodgings. A donjon. Judging by those remaining details it must have been a pretty fine place to dwell. 

     The site is ancient - the castle defences utilise the earthen ramparts of an Iron Age hill fort - and strategic - controlling the mouth of the Towy and hence access up stream to Carmarthen and the upper Towy valley. The views  in themselves are worth the climb from the village: east over the estuary to Ferryside and south out across the mouths of the Gwendraeth and Loughor estuaries to the western tip of Gower. Quite haunting, that view south, on a cold winter's day.

Wales III: Llanelli, Kidwelly and Ferry Side

     Our final full day in Wales, and again we drove west exploring this time the eastern side of Carmarthen Bay.  We made a brief stop at Llanelli to pop into the covered market, which had some really good stalls, and then drove along the coast to Kidwelly.
     Kidwelly is a very small, attractive town at the mouth of the Gwendreath.  It has both a priory church and large, well preserved castle.  Both are very prominent, (spires are not so common, I think, in Wales - towers are either flat topped with battlements or have a saddleback); and they and the town that lies around them are Norman foundations, part of the conquest of southern Wales.

     The Castle is great example of a 'concentric castle'.  It stands high on a cliff above the river. The two inner baileys form a sort of 'D' shape.  The walls bristle with towers.  The great outer bailey or ward is now occupied by houses, though the outer gatehouse partly survives with an arch still across the street.  The inner gatehouse, which is much more intact, is enormous, with a large Great Hall on the first floor.

     The Priory church down in the town is a large, aisle-less cruciform church, founded in early 1100s by Bishop Roger of Salisbury as a daughter house of Sherbourne in Dorset. It has always also served as a parish church and was dissolved along with Sherbourne in 1539.  In the later Middle Ages it seems to have become a pilgrimage centre.  

     Inside the priory church looking west.  Wonderfully cool on a blisteringly hot day, with that welcome musty, old church smell.  I love these wooden barrel roofs.  St Mary's in Tenby has them, and you can find them too in Devon and Cornwall just over the Bristol Channel.

      We drove west from there to Ferryside, a very small, mainly nineteenth century village and discreet seaside resort, on the shore of the Tywi estuary downstream from Carmarthen and opposite Llansteffan.  There is a lovely wide sandy beach, and that same sort of silence we encountered at Laugharne.  The views are wonderful.  I took the opportunity to paddle. The bf refused. The water was deliciously warm, but he couldn't be persuaded. The railway line between Swansea and Carmarthen separates the village and the beach. We ate a very good fish and chip lunch at The Ferry Cabin which stands between the railway and the village square. Not surprisingly it was very busy.  (The description in the 'Rough Guide to Wales' - 'chips-with-everything' - is unfair. The emphasis was very much on fresh local produce. If I remember rightly the owners are also farmers and it's beef from their cattle that's on the menu.) The village church, St Thomas, is High Victorian and a delight; a pretty much untouched Tractarian interior - dark, comfortable and solid.