Our Blog - Glynhir to Cardigan, Wales

We haven't had that many comments on the various hotels and B&Bs that we stayed at along the way, but this was our view at this one, The Mill at Glynhir. It was a B&B that was totally renovated and even had AC (which normally isn't necessary but we were really glad it was there this time). The room was great, and the hosts (an English couple) were very nice and friendly. We got to talk to them a bit in the morning with breakfast and as we were leaving. It sits on three acres at the foot of The Black Mountains and was originally a 17th-century water-driven corn mill. We were in somewhat of a little cottage with a balcony, and from the balcony, you could hear a waterfall somewhere back in the trees.

This morning we started heading for the coast, with our first stop at Dryslwyn Castle. Again, it had a nice drawing of what it would have looked like, which I think is nice to level-set before seeing what is left. As you can tell, this one is (again) up on a hilltop, this time overlooking the Tywi Valley. Built in the 1220's, it also changed hands multiple times, back and forth between English and Welsh. What would have been a large limestone castle was systematically demolished in the early 15th century by the English in an attempt to keep Welsh rebels from using it. And from looking at the remains, the English were very good at destroying things! A small portion of the middle and outer walls survive, mostly associated with the middle and outer gates. The best-preserved remains are within the inner ward, and here can be seen the polygonal plan that was adopted to fit in with the shape of the hilltop.

Carmarthen Castle, in contrast to Dryslwyn Castle, sits right in the middle of the town of Carmarthen. First built in the early 1100's, it was (yep, you can guess it), captured, destroyed, and rebuilt on several occasions. The first stone castle building dates from 1190. King Henry VII's father died at here in 1456. During the Wars of the Roses, the castle fell to William Herbert and, during the English Civil War, it was captured by Parliamentary forces. It was dismantled in the mid 1600s by the English. It does sit on a river, the Towy, but it isn't that high up compared to other castles. The only thing left are the keep, the gatehouse, two towers, and a bit of the curtain wall.

This stop wasn't on the original agenda, but we saw the signs as we were driving and decided to make a stop. The Gwili Steam Railway today is purely a tourist attraction (the original railway closed in 1965), with vintage coaches and steam locomotives. There was a little museum on-site with a bunch of vintage machines and signs, and then we took a short ride up-and-back on the train. Due to the lack of rain, a section of the line wasn't available but it was still a fairly enjoyable little trip.

Another not-on-the-original-agenda stop, this time at the National Wool Museum. Historically and into the 19th century, the woollen industry in Wales, including spinning and weaving, surpassed even coal as the most important of Wales' industries. This mill was built on the site of a former small water-powered weaving workshop and was built in 1902. Originally making woollen cloth for coal and steel factory workers, in 1915 they began producing military uniforms for World War I. It became a museum in 1976. It is still a working mill and you can watch various looms running, producing wool fabrics.

There are also a variety of historic machines, this one being a combing machine. Fleece is too tangled to be spun and so this machine has a set of metal teeth that "comb" the fibers to untangle them.

If you look past the flowers, you can see a machine which is called a "mule". It moves back and forth, drawing and twisting the fibers to make wool thread. It can spin 400 threads at a time.

This one was a bit interesting to me. Once the wool thread is made into cloth, you have to "raise the nap" so that it becomes soft and fluffy. Traditionally it was done by hand but then this machine was invented. There are 3000 prickly little things and when the cloth is passed over them, it gives it an even, fluffy finish.

Last stop for the day was Cilgerran Castle, sitting on a rocky cliff over the Teifi River.. The first castle was built around 1110 and then a stone castle was built starting in 1223. It went through several families before being abandoned by 1400. It is heavily fortified on the land-side, and less-so on the cliff-side. There were a pair of round drum towers instead of a single central keep.

Here you can see the square insets in the walls. Originally, this is where a floor would have been with the wood beams supporting the floor being placed into these holes in the sides of the stone walls.

These were interesting ... you can see how they formed a staircase out of the stones including the middle column of the circular stairs. In the 2nd picture, you can see how they formed an arch by putting the stones vertical over the arch.

So I really have to clue exactly why this was in the bailey area, but there was this HUGE guy built out of sticks with an equally HUGE sword.

Continue to Day 8 & 9: Cardigan or go back to the main Wales vacation blog page