cornerofmadness

It was a beautiful day, mid 70s just gorgeous. All I did was work on lectures so that's boring. Let's give you something more interesting.

Wales Day three

We started the day walking a small part of Offa’s Dyke. To be honest, I’m not sure I was thrilled. Okay it was made in the 700s and lasted until now so credit where credit is due but it looks like a hump of dirt with trees. If you didn’t KNOW it was something you wouldn’t know it was anything important. Granted back in the day it would have been much deeper around this earthen work . I was more impressed by the fact there were six pieces of simple work out equipment right outside the Offa’s Dyke center in the playground. You could literally use these and do a basica work out for free.

As we ambled around the countryside on our way to Lampeter (our lodging town for the night) We stopped at the site of the Battle of Pilleth and the church there. In a way it reminded me of Gettysburg, the people (the welsh) with the high ground had total advantage over the sods running up the hill (the Englisgh) More interesting was the church of St. Mary built in the 1300s and burned inside in 1402 but still she stands.

We made a stop in Llandrindod at the Rock park and spa where people went to take the waters. Dr. W. Linden from Germany in 1754 decided he was healed by the saline waters. From then a healing center was built there, probably hitting its heyday in the Victorian era where people drank and bathed in regimented times from the saline, sulfur and iron springs. Chalybeate spring was an easy walk. It’s an iron spring and sadly the water is no longer safe to drink but it was neat to see. A pavilion was put on the spa in 1909 and it all closed in 1972. It’s been reclaimed since. I can see at least one paper coming from this on the role of water in early healing.

After taking the waters we went on to the centerpiece of my research, the Physicians of Myddfai center, andwe stumbled across an old church and stopped. It was the church of St. Cewydd which is why we stopped because it’s an early saint name, possibly an old Celtic god/goddess with a spring (perhaps) that was brought into the early Catholic traditions. The church that’s still standing is from the 1600s and it was stunning. It had the old 1600- early 1700 box pews. I’ve never seen anything like that outside of Renn paintings. I did shell out a few pounds to pick up the info booklet and by chance found some other healing things in it.

So, we get to the Physicians of Myddfai welcome center and I can honestly say it was a waste. I mean ALL it was a tea house with placards about the physicians in very simple paragraphs (though colorful and well done), a gift shop and an auditorium where they were having a farmer’s market. The damn placards were in the tea room so you couldn’t read them because people were sitting there and eating. Why aren’t they in the auditorium??? I did find two books worth buying and talked to the head of the Physicians of Myddfai society which was the only worthwhile part of this. I picked up 6 years of their research which will be dull but helpful. So, we went to St. Michael’s church there in town (Prince Charles has a home in Myddfai and goes to this church) there was some neat Georgian inscriptions recently found and the gravestone of the last Physicians of Myddfai. There’s also a lake that goes with the lady of Llyn y fan Fach . The link has the story but in a nut shell, the secret of the Physicians’ medical prowess is that she’s basically a fae lady, a lady of the lake who imparted the knowledge to her sons. We went to find they lake. They said it was close. Maybe it was but the road was SO narrow it was barely passable as a single car road and it was a two-lane road, so we had to back up slowly (ELD had to get out of the car to help guide us back). We FINALLY found the damn lake but there were cars everywhere (really????) and then the lake was up at the top of a huge ass hill, so we never went. It was another waste of time.

Leaving me only 40 minutes at Strata Florida Abbey . Abbeys in general were areas of healing in the middle ages. I haven’t had time to look at the book I bought there but it might have something for me. That said, really 40 minutes was all that was needed. Strata Florida is nothing but a handful of ruins including an amazing doorway and the chapel’s tiles. There was a well in the middle but it’s not necessarily a healing well. It was more likely the water source for the monks. The chapel tiles, however were beautiful. It was what was behind the chapel that was truly interesting. Some princes of Wales such as Cadell, Owain (a couple of them) a couple of Rhyses (though Rhys ap Gruffudd was moved to St David’s) Maelgwyn and Hwyel were buried there. The sense of power and sadness hit me the moment I walked over the wall to where they lay (ELD felt something too). In another part of the chapel where you could walk in (no tiles) the altar stone just radiated power and warmth so much, so I took a photo with my hand there.

We’re staying at the Black Lion inn in Lampeter . It was a drover’s inn in the 1700s where you paid by how many animals you stabled here (we’re parked in the old stable ruins) and it’s been a hotel for basically 300 years. It’s been redone recently, looks nice. Indian for dinner tonight at the shapla tandoori, sag paneer and sweet peshwari nan while the world’s fattest white koi swam in the pond next to us.