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Published: April 11th 2012
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The Farmers' HouseHi Friends and Family,
Today we're leaving the Brecons. We have had a brilliant time and it is one of the places that you
MUST go to if you're in Wales and you're an outdoory type of person.
Yesterday, we undertook our own trek but today we decided to let the professionals do their thing!
We had picked up a leaflet produced by the Brecon Beacon National Park Authorities in which we saw guided walking tours and because we still had a few hours to kill before driving to the Western coast of Wales, we decided to ring up for reserved places and turn up!
The tour was to take place in Llanddeusant.
Llanddeusant is a community in the Black Mountain region of the Brecons, in Carmarthenshire, Wales and about 5 miles southeast of Llangadog.
Llanddeusant lies within the Llansadwrn & Llangadog / Myddfai & Llanddeusant ward, which had a population of 2,412 in 2001 and as we later found out had reduced rather significantly in 2010. The name, meaning "church of two saints", is supposed to originate from the fact that Teilo and Saint David are believed to have met there.
St Teilo
was born at Penalun (Penally) around about AD500 and was the son of Prince Ensich ap Hydwn – grandson of King Ceredig of Ceredigion.
He studied from a young age under St Paulinus of Wales at Wincdi-Lantquendi (thought to be Whitland) where he met and became a close companion of St David.
It was said that after a plague swept through Wales around AD549, Teilo took the survivors of his community to Dol in Brittany. While in Brittany he was persuaded by his brother-in-law King Budic II, to save the country from being destroyed by a winged dragon.
The creature was apparently tamed by Teilo who then tied it to a rock in the sea.
History traditionally describes him as the founder of a number of churches in Wales and that he became one of the most holy men in Wales and is revered as a saint in Wales, Brittany, and other places.
St David (Welsh: Dewi Sant) was a church official, later regarded as a saint and is indeed
THE patron saint of Wales.
It took quite some time to get to our meeting point in Llanddeusant as many of the roads were
Photo 7
Lots of yummy cake and hot pots of tea. dirt roads and extremely narrow and of course, as we were in the country satellite communication via the navigation system did not necessary tally with roads signs and directions from the locals.
Indeed, you could go miles without seeing any signs at all.
We were in rural Wales and most of the "little places" had a different description!
We left in plenty of time but were going round and round in circles as we just couldn't find the old school house which used to be the village church and which is now the village hall!
Are you following?
In the end we saw a signpost leading to a local farmhouse so we went there instead! Perhaps they could help?
Indeed they could. Not only that, but they had cake and tea.
Refreshments!
Good. We were hungry, thirsty and a little bit knackered!
The farmhouse was a neat little place owned by an old couple. The lady was Welsh and the gentleman was originally English and used to be a sailor, lived in Germany and Asia and always had the dream to be a farmer.
His dream came true and he
became the owner of hundreds of sheep LOL.
Whilst I had cream stuff and tea, the farmer delighted in telling me the history of the "English foreigners" and how in his day nobody spoke English but Welsh, and how to hear an English word meant that you were a tourist!
"The Small Young Gentleman" played with the cat and the dogs and Frank tried to get directions from the farmers wife. Not 10 minutes later, an Indian family drove down the farmers hill. They were lost too and were going on the exact walking tour that we were on!
You see. Tourists we all!
Anyway, once we had finished refreshing ourselves, we all drove off together and met the other members of the tour who surprisingly, were Welsh locals!
I chatted with a middle-aged lady who told me that these tours were pretty much what counted for society in these parts and in facts, they were delighted and a little over-whelmed to see so many "tourists" as the community had so decreased that the local vicar could only preside over church-services once every two months as he had to do the same to all the
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The experts! other little communities and there was only one vicar!
Happily, there were loads of other children on the tour and lots of dogs and as "The Small Young Gentleman" is a dog lover the owners allowed him to put their dog on its leash and lead away.
It was a nice, windy British day filled with walking up steeps hills and running down sloping sides, jumping into brooks and generally having a healthy time. The tour guide from the Brecon Beacon National Park Authority also gave us the run-down on why the community was so small mainly because of the lack of opportunities afforded the locals once the mining era was over.
Wales in those days was not a romantic place for many as it is today, as life was cruel and hard and many had to leave for better lives and opportunities elsewhere, in places like England or overseas. Somehow, the English were not well-liked in Wales either, as English historical and political dominance, exploitation and troubles are still so fresh.
Although I am English perhaps they saw me as being more English-European than English-English as everywhere we went and everyone we spoke to treated
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Some of the group. us with nothing but kindness, interest, respect and friendship.
Of course being a British tour, after the walk there was tea and cake for the children and tea and coffee for the adults.
The tour itself was actually free of charge which is such a pleasant British thing and of course, we left a generous donation and then jumped into the car to drive to Pembrokshire before it got too dark.
See ya!
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