Ramblers take on winds and showers at Llantwit
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After a period of dry weather the rain returned which made the going greasy in places for the group of ten walkers who joined Geraint from Penarth and District Ramblers at Llantwit Major for a 10 mile walk in strong winds and with squally showers.
They set off, all kitted out in waterproofs and stout boots making their way westwards past the old dovecote which dates to the 14th century, when doves and pigeons helped to provide meat during harsh winters and along a muddy green lane to enter fields.
Spying the Bristol Channel ahead where the waves with their white crests were being whipped up by the strong wind, they headed inland to join the road for the journey to St Donat’s and a morning break in the churchyard below the impressive tall castle walls. The castle owned for many years by the Stradling family was purchased by William Randolph Hearst in the 1920’s and now it houses Atlantic College.
Time to move on through woodland paths and back into fields en route to the village of Marcross, where a muddy undulating pathway through woodland in the nature reserve afforded them some shelter from the wind, as they headed across stepping stones over the brook to arrive at Nash Point.
All hopes of a stop for lunch overlooking the beach were dashed by the weather and heading up the cliff they wandered on to the Nash Lighthouses, where the eastern lighthouse was opened by Trinity House on 17th March 2011 so a service could be held to remember the dreadful disaster involving the passenger steamer Frolic, which ran aground on the dreaded hidden Nash sandbank in 1831, when all 78 lives were lost after which the lighthouses were built.
The clifftop pathway led them down to the sea wall in front of Atlantic College which made a perfect place out of the wind to stop for lunch. Continuing along the cliff path which in places was flooded, a descent led them across the pebble beach at Tresilian Bay and onward to Cwm Col-huw and the almost empty Llantwit beach.
Enjoying a respite from the continuous wind and tramping up through the valley to the stone Gatehouse which guarded the entrance to a Grange, farmed and run by lay brothers and given to Tewkesbury Abbey by Robert Fitzhamon prior to his death, they moved on to the Church of St Illtud.
Standing in the valley beside the Ogney Brook the Church of St Illtud gave Llantwit Major or Llanilltud Fawr its name. Around the year 500 St Illtud founded a monastery which became a centre of education and Christianity and whilst all traces of this centre are long gone, the first Norman church was built on the site of the earlier church. After visiting the collection of ancient Celtic crosses at the church they returned to their start after their invigorating adventure looking a great deal more wet and bedraggled than when they set off.
You can follow the group’s exploits here or on Facebook.
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