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The Beautiful West

Marcus James Woolley
Jul 13, 2013
7 min read

It was a warm summer day when I was traveling down to West Wales, I was visiting my nan who lives in the village of St Dogmaels the largest village in Wales which sits neatly on the banks of the River Teifi, the bus journey was long, especially when you make it past Carmarthen, the windey roads of West Wales followed the path of the river, the sun was blocked out by the green summer leaves of the forest trees and the light breeze was a pleasure to feel.

When I first arrived in St Dogmaels I walked straight down to my nan's house, it was a plesure to see her again, I love visiting nan as she does live in a beautiful part of Wales, her character makes each visit fun and I especially love her book collection on the shelves that look like they can't hold no more, ever since I was a little boy I would sit there and read out dated encyclopedias and old stories that have most probably been forgotten over time.

I walked over towards St Dogmaels Abbey by myself whilst Nan was doing her usual rounds of cleaning; the 12th century abbey is hidden behind row of houses on the villages main street, it was first built for a prior and twelve monks of the Tironensian Order, the abbey nowadays is mostly all ruins, though there are an extensive amount of walls and arches still found today. As I was making my way through the many doorways, steps and old halls I try and picture the scene in my head, walking through this once magnificent building as a monk of the 12th century, one of my favourite places to explore is the old church and crypt that sits beneath the alter, of course the alter floor isn't there today, when you walk into the crypt you can see the old pillars clinged to the grey walls, for anyone who doesn't know what the crypt is, it's the room where they once kept the recently deseased, most probably before the departed soal was to have their funeral.

I left the abbey and went towards the newer church called St Thomas, inside the church you could find the old stones that have become a focus of pilgrimage, the church is also home to the statue of 'Our Lady of Cemais' which is now the only Anglican Marian Shine in Wales; I sat down on a small bench outside the church to admire the view, the bench was shaded by a large Yew tree which you could find just next to the church, the Yew tree is around 500 years old, I ran my hands across the old bark of the tree and then looked up at the branches slowly swaying in the warm summer breeze.

Next to the grounds of the abbey you would find a small little pond where you could pass the time feeding the ducks, for as long as I can remember there has always been ducks here paddling their way up and down the still water of the pond; next to the lake you would find a statue dedicated to the saint of the village, he goes by the name of Saint Llandedoch which is the Welsh translation for Dogmaels hense the village name St.Dogmaels; I must warn you at this point, if you have any kind of food on you, eat it before you get there as you will have a gathering of ducks, crows and chickens all wanting a piece of your sandwhich, I sat there next to the statue eating my jam sandwich and every bird was standing in front of me watching my every mouthfull, including one chicken deciding to sit next to me on the bench, it was like a scene from the 1963 movie called 'The Birds'.

I slowly made my way back towards nans house, passing the playing fields and a pub called 'Teifi Netpool Inn', at this pub you can enjoy tasty beer and ales to wash down your dry throats which at the same time has a friendly atmoshphere; just before you walk down the pathway called 'The Graig' you would notice some small steps that take you near to the bank of the river, if you then look to your left you would notice the village's blessing stone, the stone has a long standing tradition of blessing the fishing boats that takes place here every June, it's nothing wow but it's worth a visit as it has a strong belief of blessing powers which is still practiced today.

The Graig is a small path that follows the river high up on it's bank, it's a peaceful way to escape the rest of the village and get back in touch with the local nature, as I was walking through you could here the birds in the trees whistling into the slight wind, you can also find a small waterfall which always brings out the joys of children, I remember when I was a child walking past I would always want to go and play in the waterfall, but to no avail as mother didn't want me to get wet as we were walking down towards nan's house.

After a quiet afternoon catching up with nan and of course the news of the village, we took a walk around the village once again but a different path to the one I did earlier that day, when you get to the playing fields there is a lower path that takes you along the river, be warned that the path sometimes floods and the mud in the area is quite boggy, but you have a fascinating amount of water birds and frogs to see as well as old boats sitting peacefully on the bank of the river, in the summer you can hear the buzz of the bees and the croacking of the grass hoppers; instead of walking straight back to the house we decided to follow the main road down towards Poppit which is a small little hamlet on the coast, there you could find the beautiful Poppit sands which is a large beach, from there you could look out across Cardigan Bay as well as see Cardigan Island in the distance, the walk to the beach is long but the many intriguing things you can find on the road makes the journey more enjoyable, there are many species of plants and flowers to be spotted as well as other little insects such as spiders and they hide away in the bushes waiting for their next prey.

The night was here, the sky is pitch black with no light polllution, on a clear night you could look up to the stars and sometime even be lucky enough to see a passing shooting star, the village is peaceful when the sun goes down, apart from the occasianal call of the fox echoing across the dark village.

The next morning I stood on nans small balcony and gazed across the river to see the many swans flapping their wings as they glided across the top of the water, the sun has only just made it over the distant hills and there was a cool breeze in the air that came up the river; "good morning" says nan in her long pink dressing gown "good morning nan".

After breakfast wee made our way over to Cardigan town, the town is an old settlement of the Norman period back in the 11th century, some of the buildings in the town are nice to look at, they give that old feel to the place, some of the back roads of Cardigan still have that medieval layout where the road is narrow and the row of buildings tower over shading it away from the sun, Cardigan castle also dominates the bank of the river, nowadays the castle is open to the public but back when this story was written large branches of trees and crumbling walls gave the castle an unpleasent forgotten look; Cardigan town has many proud small business owners, it's not common for a large national or international chain to open up in Cardigan without the locals protesting over the rights of small business owners, I get the sense that the town's people are afraid of too much change, and that introducing a larger chain would undoubtley take the business away from the smaller indepndent businesses just like we see all over the world.

We were catching a bus across the Welsh countyside over to the small market town of Newcastle Emlyn, the town also has a slight medieval look but not as much as Cardigan, the main attraction we have came to see here is the old early 13th century castle that sits on the hill overlooking the River Teifi, the castle has many interesting stories about invastion & battles when the Welsh and the English were at each others throats; great Welsh warriors who brought a revolution against the English took over this castle for Welsh independence instead of English rule, but this castle aslo has a mystical tale to it, apparently there was a dragon that once ruled the surrounding area, back in 2009 the castle held a two day festival called 'The Heart of the Dragon' which celebrates the last dragon in Wales to be killed was in Newcastle Emlyn; the old castle walls are still nice to explore, as well as the footpath that follows the river bank around the castle grounds.

Here is a small verse about the Dragon of Newcastle Emlyn:

In the beginning.....

There was a beautiful dragon

Who was the spirit of the land

And the heartbeat of the world.

The people dearly loved the dragon.....

But times changed.....

Invaders came and wars began

They killed the dragon

Here in the castle of our town

But we love her still.....

So she will return

And the heart of the dragon may beat

Once more

Whilst we were in the town we had a little walk round, looking into the many small shop windows which mostly houses brick a brac and charity shops, I wanted to go and see the old church that stands pround near the centre of the town, I love walking around old grave yards, looking at how old the graves were. We made our way back to St Dogmaels where I enjoyed my final night with nan, I always look forward to the next time I can visit this quiet little corner of Wales again, when you are here you forget about everything, it's a place where you can reboot your mind and come home feeling refreshed.

Here is a quick story about the death of the dragon in Newcastle Emlyn, if you are interested.