Shropshire 48 - Clun /the castle pretty much destroyed /road works everywhere /a change of plan at the last minute /Sandwiches on a car park

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"If you miss the present moment you miss your appointment with life " Thich Nhat Hanh . That was the thought for this morning . The sun was shining . It was a lovely Spring Day . Very unlike a February day . Global warming was causing a mini heatwave in some parts of the world . Our little part of the world was having temperatures up in the 18's . Unheard of this time of year . The spring flowers are being fooled by the warmer weather . It was though a good day to be out and about . The sort of day you think let's go out and do something . The biggest problem as always was where to go.

The plan - a trip out in the car with no name to Clun and its castle and a side trip to Montgomery with its castle . That was the plan but as always things did not go according to plan. I was grateful with hindsight we had not arranged to meet Woolly Mammoth , Alfie the dog and Jo. It would have been the biggest mess in history .

The journey to Montgomery would take around 1 hour 22 minutes or thereabouts . The trip to Clun would go a different way but take the same time . So given we wanted a meal we found ourselves in Montgomery too late for breakfast but too early for lunch . That sort of inbetween time when you don't know whether to do one thing or the other . With hindsight - again it was a wonderful thing - we should have stopped at Montgomery, found a cafe , ate a late breakfast and take in the castle . A castle that because it was cared for by Cadw was a freebie. No entrance fee as we were members. We were however running out of Cadw sites to visit within two hours of home . We needed a Plan B quickly to take in other castles out of the area . Cat sitter required . That was the plan as we spoke . We wanted to go away regularly again . Get into the habit of seeing something different , stay out for a couple of days in a B & B or a hotel . For that we needed to find someone who was happy to do short trips to the house twice a day at short notice and often . Not fair asking neighbours so the plan was search out a cat sitter . Should be easy we thought as we sailed out of Montgomery towards the end destination of Clun.

Now this is where it all started to go wrong . What we had not factored in for nor had silly sat nag told us that there were road closures . In this part of the world in the Marches - the borderland between England and Wales the roads at best are not brilliant . Road works and closures were to send us off piste on narrow roads . At firs they seemed Ok . Just about big enough in parts for two cars . Pulling in places and no signs of large tractors nor lorries or vans. So far so good . This feel good factor did not last long . We stopped talking to each other about Going Dutch the holiday plan or cat sitters as the road narrowed . Grass began to grow in the middle showing little use . It was muddy . The car with no name when we finally escaped looked as if we had taken part in the local rally. Mud splattered up the sides of the once white car and obscuring the window glass . The road became narrower and narrower as we drove . Silly told us that we would do something in a quarter of a mile . All well and good and built up hope only to be dashed when an even narrower, muddier, dirtier road appeared . We did after much complaining reach a main road and found ourselves in Clun .It was a welcome site to see the castle or at least what remained on the top of the hill. What remained was not a lot .

Clun was deserted . Not a single car nor a single person to be seen. The village took its name from the River Clun which flows through the extremely small village . The name obviously from a Brythonic root Colunwy. It grew up around an Anglo Saxon church . We failed to find any church even though we expected one . The population was under a 1000 so similar to the village we live in but Clun seemed rather scattered around the road in , a T junction, a small square and the roads out . It once stood on a drovers road where the Welsh moved their flocks and herds from Wales to the markets of the Midlands and on to London . The Normans turned up as they always did and Eadric the Wild ( a good name for a ruler ) led revolts against William I . Sadly Eadric lost and his land was given over to Roger de Montgomery . It was from his line that the castle of Clun was erected . We travelled in on the A488 which crosses the village and headed toward the town square on which stood what looked like the Town Hall/Museum both of which looked firmly closed . No sign of anywhere for lunch yet . Things were not going well.

We followed the road heading in the direction of the sign for castle car park . We knew already it was a fairly small car park with a set of three toilets at one end and picnic benches . Downhill with still no sign of life we approached the bridge . It was 14th century but much smaller than our village bridge . The river being less wide than our River Dee. It was single track with no traffic lights to control the flow over it in an orderly fashion . Basically it was hope nothing comes the other way so that you could drive across . It all worked if you depended on everyones good will waiting for each other to cross . The indentations all along it gave safe access for pedestrians to cross the bridge by dodging the traffic . Definately a bridge built for horses and carts and not the car . We did read that there is a local saying here that "Whoever crosses the Clun Bridge comes back sharper than he went " Was that a dig at the Welsh crossing into England or the English going out into Wales we mused .

The car park was full but yet there was no sign of life again . The local cafe looked firmly shut . We hoped there would be some sign of life for our lunch but were not optomistic . A Dutch couple had parked across two spots , pulled the tailgate down on their van and put their chairs out . They were enjoying a hot drink they had produced on top of a stove which stood on the tailgate . We were to see quite a few Dutch Landrovers over the course of the morning . Two out of three toilets were closed . The third was occupied with someone who had no intention of hurrying . We eventually got parked and set off for the wooden bridge over the river . This led to a very muddy field and a steep climb to the castle . Being cautious , not wanting muddy feet and falling over on the loose ground we headed back and tried another route which took us back over the bridge and up to the castle using pavements this time .

We passed our first sign of life . A man walking and talking to an elderly man in a motorised wheelchair . They were heading for what once was the local bank . Now long gone but replaced by a Post Office and a small supermarket which obviously catered for the needs of Clun. We exchanged a good morning. The lane to the castle was blocked by workers who were putting down decking on the pavilion of the bowling club . That looked well used unlike ours which closed last year due to a lack of members following Covid .

The castle - well what can you say ? Not much left but then we knew that before we came . We had to rely a great deal on imagination. In the 12th century the castle became an extremely important part of what was known as the castle guard system .Owned by the Fitzalan family it protected the area from the lively nearby welsh . The family though were not enamoured with the area and had a better castle down south in Arundel . Clun became a hunting lodge in the 14th century complete with pleasure gardens. A second home for the family . By the 16th century is was largely ruined . Slighted in 1646 after the civil war it deteriorated year on year until renovation work began in the 1890's. Standing if front of the great Keep it was clear it once was a hive of activity and a grand hive at that . Now an empty shell just managing to stand up on its own in places . The Keep did show signs of fireplaces for comfort , very few arrow slits and around four floors .

Having walked around it as best we could as some areas were fenced off for safety reasons we saw what there was there to see . Spectacular views across the valley. No hiding place for anyone to attack. We headed back to the car . Lunch - that was the immediate problem . The cafe was still closed . We found nothing open in the village . We headed foolishly back to Montgomery with the hope we could by pass the road closures and get that castle in for a visit . Same problem . Main roads closed . Back roads being the only option and by now they were blocked too by traffic trying to find ways to get back into Wales . We gave up and found a large Co-operative store in the middle of what seemed like another small village . It seemed out of character for such a small place as there was a petrol station probably necessary to save driving miles for juice. Toilets , a superstore selling everything you could wish for . A massive car park too. We bought Lucozade which always cheers you up and ate sandwiches . My cheese and onion never tasted so good as these did . Looking out of the car park we were reminded of lunches in Gabby . Admittedly we had no table nor any comfortable chairs but we both said how we missed having the van and how good it was to sit there on a lovely Spring Day just looking out of the window eating what felt like a feast .

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