Yesterday we went castle-creeping in Wales. Conveniently Carreg Cennen is within walking, splashing, stile-crossing, gate-vaulting distance of where we are staying. We met sheep, horses and English Longhorn cattle along the way.
The castle is 12th century and was captured and re-captured by Welsh, Norman , York and Lancastrian troops over the years. It is surprisingly well preserved.
Eventually the castle passed into the hands of the Cawdor family. In the 1960s the Earl of Cawdor sold the farm surrounding the castle but his solicitor made a slip and included the castle in the sale. The second generation of the family that bought the farm and castle are still living there. They have an excellent cafe and shop but have handed over custodianship of the castle to Cadw (similar to English Heritage but fewer vowels). We had Welsh Rarebit and white wine for lunch. Bertie had some good news and some bad news yesterday. The bad news is that because there is so much stock in the fields dogs must be kept on leads. The good news is that our host found an extendable lead so he had plenty of freedom.
Meanwhile take a look in your diary and see if you are free on Thursday 17th October. It is the third event at St Peter’s, Eaton Square to raise a little money for the Benevolent Society of St Patrick. In the few years I have been on the committee, grant applications have increased by about 50%. I attribute this to cut backs in other sources of funding, notably local authorities. However, if you are able to come I suspect you will find that life’s much tougher in Nepal.
