wisdom and walks

We Love to Talk

There’s no secret about it. The Welsh love to talk - and are happy to admit it. It’s especially so in the Valleys, where you’ll soon find yourself in conversation with the locals in shops, pubs and cafés. This love of language is part of an oral tradition that goes back over a thousand years to the time of the bards, storytellers and poets. There are thousands of tales too - of ghostly spirits and ladies of the lake, dragons and devils, Celtic myth and chivalry. Here are just a few to whet your appetite.

 

The Green Lady

Caerphilly Castle’s wonky leaning tower isn’t its only strange sight. If you wander the battlements on a moonless, brooding night you might see the Green Lady. Modern soap operas have nothing on medieval tales of love and betrayal, life and death. The Green Lady was a French princess thwarted in her love of a Welsh nobleman and doomed forever to wander the castle in a green robe that signifies envy. Why envy? It’s a long, long story…. Ask someone in Caerphilly.

www.cadw.wales.gov.uk

Absolutely Fabulous

If travelling from Cardiff to the Valleys, from J32 of the M4 look up to your right and see the magical Castell Coch at Tongwynlais. It is the ultimate fairytale castle, straight out of the pages of Hans Christian Anderson. The theme continues inside. Its extravagant decorations include fantastic murals depicting scenes from Aesop’s Fables. Can you spot the ‘Quack Frog’ holding a bottle of medicine for the frog in his throat? Or the monkey with Victorian side-whiskers?

 

www.cadw.wales.gov.uk

 

St Illtyd’s 13th Century Church
The Altar at St Illtyd’s Church was once adorned with a golden statue of a calf which was stolen by two thieves. The enraged parishioners gave chase and caught the culprits in the woods beneath Pen y Fan Uchaf Farm; they confessed to burying the calf under a whitethorn tree. In vain the parishioners dug up every whitethorn on the hill and, to this day, no whitethorns grow in those woods!

 

Llanwonno Church
At Llanwonno stands a church dedicated to St Gwynno, a 6th century saint whose father, Gildas, wrote the first account of the Saxon invasion and the loss of most of the lands of the Welsh. At the side of the porch is the grave of Gûto Nythbran, who died in 1737 after running a 12 mile race in 53 minutes.

 

Penrhys and St Mary’s Well
Penrhys is traditionally the site of the beheading of the Welsh King Rhys ap Tewdwr by the Norman invader Robert Fitzhamon; Pen Rhys (Rhys’s Head). It later became an important place of Catholic pilgrimage. On the mountain top site of the medieval monastery there is now an impressive statue of the Virgin Mary. Lower down on the hillside a tiny medieval stone building provides shelter for visitors to St Mary’s Well, whose waters are believed to possess curative powers.

 

Shakespeare was enchanted with Welsh Folklore
Shakespeare’s use of Welsh folklore was extensive. For example, it’s where he got the name Mab (Queen of the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream), which simply means a little child, and is the root of words meaning babyish, childish, love for children (mabgar), kitten (mabgath) and the Mabinogion – the romantic tales of enchantment told to the young in by-gone ages. Clydach Gorge is also widely acknowledged as the inspiration behind ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’.

Shakespeare’s enchanting comedy was reputedly inspired by a visit to South Wales - specifically to the dramatic Clydach Gorge near Brynmawr. Go to this magical spot on a warm summer’s evening and you’ll be convinced. It’s a National Nature Reserve famous for its thick cloak of rare beechwoods… and fairies.

Haunted House

 

Llancaiach Fawr near Nelson is a rare survivor, a Tudor manor house dating from 1530. It ranks amongst the top 10 most haunted houses in Britain. Strange smells - violets, lavender, even roast beef - spookily come and go, along with ‘Mattie’, its busiest resident ghost. Paranormal research groups are sure of the existence of something strange here, along with the many staff members and visitors who have witnessed uncanny events. So is it really haunted? Decide for yourself on one of the regular evening ghost tours held in autumn and winter or visit the website and watch directly on the live 'ghost cam'. And if you really don’t like ghosts come when the sun is out for a spiritfree wander around this fascinating old house.

www.llancaiachfawr.co.uk

 

The Lady of the Lake

 

It’s worth getting off the beaten track in the Valleys. You never know what you’ll come across. At Ferndale in the Rhondda Fach, for example, there’s the undiscovered Darran Park and mysterious Llyn-y-forwyn, the Maiden’s Lake, cupped by mountain crags. The ‘maiden’ in question was an enchantress who left her home at the bottom of the lake to marry a young farmer, only to disappear back into the deeps after a quarrel. She’s made a return visit of late. Her statue stands amongst the trees by the shore.

The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

 

We’re on solid ground with some stories from the Valleys. On rails, to be precise. George Stephenson’s Rocket was the world’s first steam train, right? Wrong. In 1804, more than 20 years before the Rocket turned a wheel, engineer Richard Trevithick, ‘the father of the locomotive engine’, drove his steam-powered Penydarren 9 miles along the Taff Valley between Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon. You can see a replica at Merthyr’s Cyfarthfa Castle Museum.

www.museums.merthyr.gov.uk

 

Places to Visit

 

A selection of places to visit listed alphabetically by the nearest town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Useful Information

Further information on Welsh tales can be found at www.welshdragon.net

Blaenau Gwent Folklore and Fairytales
Visit www.blaenau-gwent.gov.uk and try the heritage pages, especially the folklore ones for tales of fairies, the old woman of the mountains, Corpse Ways and Arthurian Gwent.