In the past couple of weeks, we have done 3 castle walks, but I have been remiss at putting them up on here, so I shall start with the most recent, when Tam and I walked around Carreg Cennen Castle, on its huge limestone scarp. The car park was very busy - busier than we have ever seen it in fact. Some tourists as well as more local folk.
Carreg Cennen farm keeps rare breeds - they have about 65 of these pedigree Longhorn cattle. This is the bull with one of his girlfriends. All the cows had forward pointing horns.
They mostly have Welsh Mountain sheep, with a few Balwen, Soay and Exmoor Horn sheep.
Looking up at the castle ruins as we climbed the trackway.
Lady's Bedstraw. This was used as a strewing herb in the 12th - 16th centuries (on top of a base of straw). Others were Rosemary, Rue, Sweet Woodruff, Meadowsweet, and Wormwood and would act as disinfectants and some would repel pests. Here's an interesting link: https://bardgarden.blogspot.com/2014/06/strewing-herbs.html
Two of the four big cairns up on the mynydd. We are planning a walk to them soon.
Through the gate and down the grassy path into the woods . . .
You half expect to see wood elves . . .
Black Mountain (the one we see from the top of our hill) was swathed in rain clouds.
Robin's Pincushion grows on roses and is caused by a tiny Gall Wasp.
The longer walk of 5 miles crosses this stream, but we did the short walk and just walked alongside it for a while before we reached the lane, with a Steep Hill!
From the lane you could see how the castle was literally built into the limestone scarp. I hadn't realized this from inside the castle walls.
We crossed an empty field to get back to the castle grounds, and some more of the Longhorns were keeping watch.
Various views of the castle as we walked away. The last one is from the lane going back down to Trap village.
I just about captured all four cairns in this photo but you will have to look closely - two are nearly off the photo to the left.
I have already had my morning stroll, to ease up my sciatica. Now it's time to do some Domestic Economy - anything that may be noticed through the windows when we have our next viewing (outside only) in the morning. It is due to pour with rain - deep joy!
