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It wasn’t his real name, ‘John Ystumllyn’, but one the locals gave him. Another was ‘Jac Du’ or ‘Jack Black’. How he arrived, unwillingly, in north Wales is obscure. What is certain is that his origins were in Africa,…
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Reading and silence
I’m working my way, slowly – that seems the best way – through Sara Maitland’s A book of silence, and I’ve reached the part where she discusses the paradoxical relationship between reading and silence. On the one hand, reading the…
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Y Llwybr Madyn, 30 mlynedd ymlaen
Y tro hwn, y syniad oedd cyrraedd copa Cadair trwy ddilyn y Llwybr Madyn. (Angen arna i edrych yn y geiriadur i weld bod ‘madyn’ yn hen air am lwynog neu gadno – y ‘Fox’s Path’ yw’r fersiwn Saesneg.) Dewis…
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Alma-Tadema’s uncarnal classics
Alluring women in chiffon and sandals, bright marble benches, azure seas, flower petals falling like rain. This was the recipe Lawrence Alma-Tadema hit on for his paintings of scenes from ancient Rome. Thousands were drawn to buy them, or at…
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Mr Skates’s ring cycle
The row over the ‘Iron Ring’ proposed for Flint Castle seems to be over, so the time is right to think more calmly about what we’ve learnt. First, a quick summary of what happened (there is an ignominious prequel, which I’ll…
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‘The Llanboidy molecatcher’ gan James Lewis Walters
Sylwais i ar y llun am y tro cyntaf llynedd. Ar y pryd roeddwn i’n chwilio am bethau eraill yn Amgueddfa Sir Gâr, yn hen Balas yr Esgob yn Abergwili. Hongiai’r llun yn swil, mewn lle anamlwg y tu ôl…
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Wales Coast Path, day 71: Dinas Dinlle to Caernarfon
Ca has joined us from Swansea. Yesterday it took her almost ten hours to make the journey of 150 miles by train (Swansea to Carmarthen), bus (Carmarthen to Aberystwyth) and train (Aberystwyth to Pwllheli), including two connection stops of an hour…
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Wales Coast Path, day 70: Trefor to Dinas Dinlle
We knew today’s trip wouldn’t be a popular choice – it’s just the two of us again. The stretch from Trefor to Dinas Dinlle mainly follows the course of the busy A499 and must count as one of the Wales…
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Wales Coast Path, day 69: Nefyn to Trefor
Now we are two, C and me, for the toughest challenge of the week, a mountain trek from Nefyn to Trefor across Yr Eifl. And here’s our favourite driver for the Bysus Nefyn trip, talking non-stop with the same workmate. …
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Wales Coast Path, day 68: Tudweiliog to Nefyn
Bus journeys to the start of walks are always welcome. Today we’re off, the five of us, to Tudweiliog with Bysus Nefyn. Strangely, the bus visits Nefyn, our final destination, before rattling along to Tudweiliog, but otherwise doesn’t deviate from…