Mystery In The Valley of Legend

A Quest For Cadifor's Court
By Major Francis Jones, C.V.O., T.D., D.L.
Wales Herald Extraordinary
County Archivist of Carmarthenshire

"In solitary uplands far away
Betwixt the blossoms of a rosy spray,
Dreaming upon the wonderful sweet face
Of Nature, in a wild and pathless place."

THESE lines from Frederick Tennyson's sonnet came to mind one autumn afternoon as I stood on the heights of Cefen Trelech, just above Blaen Cych, source of the river whose course for over eight wooded meandering miles forms the boundary between Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. There must be few rivers in Wales which are unspoilt from source to estuary. This we can truly say of the Cych, for throughout its course, until it pours into the Teifi at Abercych, no work by the hand of man has intruded a single blemish to mar the beauty of the gorge through which it flows, while the "wonderful sweet face" of the flanking uplands remains equally free of any such intrusions.

The "romantic mountain stream" as Fenton calls the Cych, flows northwards through a deep vale, while a dozen headlong brooks contribute to its depth and power. From the Carmarthenshire side pour the Sylgen, Ymerson, Barddu, Mamog, Dwrog, Nant Lwyd; from Pembrokeshire side, the Pibydd, Pedran, Cneifa, Dulas, Seli and Morw. History-laden names along the shoulders of the glen contain echoes which set the fancy aglow - Cnwc y bell, Ffwrn Cadifor, Ffynnon Wenfflwch, Plas yr hafod, Morlogws, Pant Lleucu, Hendre Cymry, Park Nest, Llwyn Einion, Llain Wallter, and Babiog; some remind us of early religious life - Capel Tanglwst, Capel Iwan, Cil Frychan, Cnwc y lleian, Cnwc y bettws, Park y bettws on Glaspant, Llannerch y Meudwy, Clyn Mynach, Gwar y clas, and Parc y person gwyn, and Eglwys Cilrhedyn which keeps tranquil guard over the rolling acres; others resound with clash of battle and skirmish — Pare y fyddin on Penbryn Caradog, Parc y frwydr, Penrhiw'r cyrff, Casten Gilfach Gam, Hen Gaerau, Dan y gaer, Rhiw castell, while Pant yr heddwch marks the place where a truce was made between contending warriors; and from the high places at Crug Iwan, Crug Ieuan, Crug Llwyd, and Crug y gorllwyn, Celtic chieftains still watch us from their graves.

Land of Enchantment
The vale of Cych is a splendid dream, a haunted glen, a land of enchantment, spell-weaving. We owe a debt to Dyfed for the gift of GIyn Cych, for out of it sprang the tale of Pwyll Pendefig, lord of the Seven Cantrefs, one of the most enduring romances of the early literature of the [Welsh. Here Pwyll "let loose the hounds in the woods, sounded the horn, and began the chase". Having lost his companions he came to a glade where a strange pack — "brilliant shining white and their ears were red" — had brought a stag to bay. He whipped them off and set his own hounds on the quarry. Then Arawn, owner of the balked pack arrived, justly aggrieved, resentful, and to atone for his conduct Pwyll undertook to impersonate Arawn for a year, and in that guise to slay one Hafgan. At the end of the term, his mission accomplished, he returned to Glyn Cych and all was well. And so opens the first branch of the Mabinogion. The Triads inform us further that Pwyll's young son, Pryderi, also wandered through this magic vale, guarding an immense herd of swine belonging to his foster-father Pendaran Dyfed.

But the history is not confined to poetry and romance. The river has been a political boundary from early times. It divided the comote of Emlyn into Uwch Cych (on the eastern or Carmarthenshire side) and Is Cych on the western or Pembrokeshire side. The comote formed part of the old kingdom of Dyfed, whose heiress, Elen, brought it early in the tenth century to her husband Hywel Dda ruler of Deheubarth. Shortly after their appearance in west Wales, the Normans built a motte and bailey castle at Cenarth Mawr, a mile or so to the east of Cych, which became the scene of an exciting affair in the year 1109, namely the abduction of the alluring Nest, wife of the Norman Gerald de Windsor, by Cadwgan a younger son of the royal house of Powys. During the next century and a half, Emlyn was held at different times by Welsh princes and Norman barons, until finally in 1284 Uwch Cych became a Crown possession and Is Cych was incorporated into the feudal lordship of Cilgerran. The arrangement lasted until the Act of Union in 1536 by which Wales was divided into shire ground following the English pattern. The river continued to serve as a political boundary, the riparian parishes of Cenarth, and East Cilrhedyn remaining in Carmarthenshire, and those of West Cilrhedyn, Clydey, and Manordeifi, in Pembrokeshire. These territorial divisions remained undisturbed until 1935 when the parish of East Cilrhedyn was absorbed into Cenarth.

On Cefen Trelech, over 800 feet above sea-level, the eye dwells with long delight on a panorama of undulating uplands. We gaze upon a purely rural landscape dotted with whitewashed farm buildings among groves on broad-bosomed hills, lone cots crouched among the heather, farmlets and tiny homesteads encompassed by hayfields and stone enclosures, evidences of the determination of generations of hill-farmers to wrest the soil from encroaching gorse and bracken. It is a land of scattered dwellings, and we are reminded of Giraldus' words when he wrote of the Welsh in 1188, "They neither inhabit towns, villages, nor castles, but lead a solitary life in the wood's . . ." The woodlands have long been tamed but the old way of life survives. The people may be solitary, but are not lonely. When I asked a farmer's wife who lived in a secluded nook near the river's source, whether she felt lonely, she replied, "Never. Apart from the farm work, I fish a great deal and my husband and I often go out with the gun; we are sheltered from the winter storms, and in summer the air is full of song and the fields and hedgerows ablaze with flowers." No sane person could be unhappy in these sylvan solitudes. Practically every farm shelters Welsh-speaking families, mostly freeholders, people with a lively sense of lineage, sturdy, independent, courteous, heirs of age-old traditions and legends that enwreath people and places in these remote parts. Here is a society of upland folk, their national identity belonging to a rural, pre-industrial past, as unchanged as their beautiful surroundings.

Notable Men
The parishes bordering on the Cych contained a large number of gentle families of high antiquity, whose ancestors were local leaders in the days of the Welsh princes, and who survived the vicissitudes of the medieval centuries and the political and economic changes of Tudor and post-Tudor times. Generally, their estates were small, and the families owe their survival largely to the fact that they were resident squires who personally administered their estates, participated in farming and other productive activities, living on an easy footing among their tenants, often in a sort of patriarchal simplicity. Among those on the Carmanshenshire side, all in Cenarth parish, were Lewes of Gellidywyll, descended from Ednywain ap Bradwen; Morgan of Pengwern, descended from Gadifor Fawr of Blaen Cych, followed there by the James family descended from Gwynfardd Dyfed; Howell of Glaspant, descended matrilineally from the Lloyds of Bronwydd; Lloyd and Morgan of Cenarth; and Saunders of Clynfelin fawr who established a woollen manufactory on the banks of Cych, the last of whom, William Saunders, died in 1799 at the advanced age of 89 and was buried in Cilrhedyn church. On the Pembrokeshire side, in Clydey parish, were Lloyd of Dole Llannerch and Penalltyllyn; Morgan of Blaenbylan and Coedllwyd; Morris of Nantylladron; Harries of Werngoy; Lloyd and, later, Lewis-Bowen of Clynfiew, and Davies of Lancych followed there by Jones-Lloyd matrilineally descended from the family of Castell Hywel.

Of this network of gentry families, all connected by common ancestry or intermarriage, only a few remain today — Jones-Lloyd of Lancych, Lewis-Bowen of Clynfiew, and Howell of Glaspant.

Notable men have been reared in these parishes, twenty-nine of them sufficiently important to be included in The Dictionary of Welsh Biography — parsons, ministers of the gospel, musicians, surgeons, poets, authors, antiquaries, a sculptor, and an admiral.

Among these notables are David Marks (1788—1871) of Cilrhedyn, musician; Revd Erasmus Saunders, D.D. (1670—1724) of the Clynsfelin family, an eminent divine, author of The State of Religion in the Diocese of St Davids (1721), and father of Dr Erasmus Saunders, Canon of Windsor; James Morgan Gibbon of Pontseli (1855—1932), Independent Minister; John Milo Griffith (1843—1897) of Pontseli, sculptor; Dr Thomas Rocyn Jones (1822-1877) of Manordeifi, surgeon; John Jones, "Mathetes", (1821—1878) of Cilrhedyn, Baptist Minister and author of literary works; Maurice Morgan of Blaenbylan (1725—1802) Shakespearean commentator and political writer, who became an Under-Secretary of State in 1782.

Not included in that 'Golden Book', but equally worthy of remembrance, are Josiah and Jonah Evans of Pontseli, famous nineteenth century smiths, inventors and manufacturers of an improved plough, "arad Pontseli", and old Dafydd Hywel of Morlogws, a versewright of the homely kind, grandfather of the Reverend George Enoch, sometime vicar of Clydey, and of Captain John Enoch of the 23rd Foot who fought at 'Waterloo.

I might add that the forebears of Sir Ben Bowen Thomas, sometime Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Department, Ministry of Education, and happily still with us, came from the parish of Clydey.

Lord of the Seven Royal Courts
But it was another and much earlier worthy that had drawn me to the district, one whose actions were sufficiently significant for inclusion in the historical chronicles of medieval Wales. To the compiler of the bruts he was Cadifor ap Gollwyn, to the genealogists and bards he was Cadifor Fawr, Lord of Blaen Cych and of the Seven Royal Courts of Dyfed. His memory lives after the passage of over eight centuries, while his name is commemorated in Ffwrn Cadifor, a mysterious construction set in an overhanging cliff in the defile a few hundred yards from Blaen Cych itself.

The source of the Cych is hidden in a heavily wooded ravine. A few steep yards above it stands a tiny roadside chapel belonging to the Independents, built at the end of the last century as a branch of the flourishing Capel y Graig, Trelech. About a quarter of a mile westwards along the road is the farm formerly called Plas Llwyni — still so called by the people of the district — but christened Cadifor Hall in the latter part of Victoria's reign, which remains its "official" designation to this day. I have been unable to discover who was responsible for the introduction df the later name, but I suspect it to have been inspired by antiquarian considerations, for the memory of Cadifor has always lingered hereabouts. Religious meetings were held in the parlour of Plas Llwyni before the little chapel was built.

No traces of early human settlement exist in the immediate vicinity of the source of the Cych, but there can be no doubt that Cadifor lived somewhere in this area of which he was overlord. A few hundred yards to the northwest is the farmhouse of Gilfach Gam alongside the remains of a once powerful fort.

Originally, the farmhouse stood on the eastern side of the old castell. An inscribed stone in the courtyard wall states that an earlier Gilfach Gain had been built in 1769 by one William Jones, and a tablet set high in the front wall of the house describes its fate — "The old house which was built about 200 feet to the north-east from this spot took fire from the back parlour flue and burnt down at night on August the 8th 1831". Would that all house-holders raised such memorials so that he who reads might be instructed.

In the field below the farmyard I came upon castell Gilfach Gain, a green arrow head of land above the junction of the Pibydd and the Cych. The ground falls abruptly about 50 to 60 feet to the bed of the ravine, providing a natural defence against attacks from the north, east, and west. Traces of two ramparts raised to protect the vulnerable south side, are still to be seen, one of which now does duty as a hedge; these ramparts run along the "neck" of the promontary, something over 200 feet long, the enclosed area containing about half an acre. The fairly even surface slopes gently towards the point of the promontory, and there are traces of defences at the top of the steep sides. The entrance was near the ruins of the old farmhouse of Gilfach Gam.

According to Mr Thomas, the owner-occupier of the farm, here was the castell of Cadifor Fawr whose pages lived at Gilfach y Gweision, another farmhouse about a hundred yards away, and the local people speak of cellars and dungeons below the fort, connected by a secret tunnel to Gilfach y Gweision. Not far from the last named farm is Gilfach Ymerson (rendered as Ymryson on O.S. maps), also associated with the lord of the castell. Tradition states that Cadifor's dwelling was in the ravine itself, a massive structure built in the form of a bridge across the stream, sufficiently near to the fort to which he could retire when danger threatened. Cadifor and twelve of his warriors, clad in full armour, are said to lie sleeping in a cavern in the glen below, awaiting the call to return to "liberate" their fellow-countrymen.

Trek to an Oven
I was anxious to see Ffwrn Cadifor, and Mrs Thomas very kindly offered to lead me there. She led the way down the break-neck side of the promontory, at the foot of which the brawling Pibydd meets the Cych. We crossed the water and wound our way along the floor of the deep dank ravine, clambering over fallen trees, hacking our way through thicket, fern, and bramble, the stream dancing merrily below us. At one time a cart track ran parallel to the bank leading from Gilfach y Gweision towards a corn-mill beyond Morlogws, but this had been strangled by brambles and undergrowth, although parts of it are clearly defined. The trees enclosed us like a guard of honour of tall guardsmen, and through the leafy canopy I could occasionally catch glimpses of the blue sky above. We lost all trace and sound of human life, the workaday world seemed far away, and I felt a sense of guilt that I was trespassing on a secret place of age-old peace, where the vixen and her brood gambol, where the badger rolls at ease, and the otter glides gaily beneath the sheltering bank.

Eventually we arrived. Ffwrn Cadifor is near the bank of the Cych, in the parish of West Cilrhedyn. Here, say the cognoscenti was the oven of Cadifor, "where bread was baked for his household". The site is not easily found, and I doubt whether I would have come across it without the good offices of my guide. It lies in a natural declivity in the rocky side of the glen, on the 400 foot contour line, about a hundred yards south of the confluence of the Cych and the Sylgen.¹

The Ffwrn consists of a curved stone bench, around the back of which are well-preserved remains of a stone wall, curved in such a way as to suggest that it originally formed a cell about six feet high, something like a beehive in appearance. Above, hangs a cliff of shale and rock, capped by trees and bushes. It was high noon when I saw the place, and spots of sunlight filtered through the branches, falling like little golden dimples on the bench.

Across the river, opposite the Ffwrn, are traces of an old water-trench — "pownd-dwr" as Mrs Thomas called it — to carry water to a mill further down the valley. This seemed hardly feasible to me, but the indisputable fact remains that a man-made conduit has certainly existed there.

What was Ffwrn Cadifor? The chieftain's oven I was told, and to support the assertion my attention was directed to reddish marks on the stones, alleged to have been caused by fire, but on examination I could see quite clearly that the discolouring had resulted from the action of water percolating through the side of the bank. One finds it difficult to believe that a domestic arrangement of any kind should have been constructed in so remote a spot, far from human habitation, and particularly difficult, indeed often dangerous to approach, unless, of course, some building had stood alongside, but it is topographically impossible for a house to have been built near the Ffwrn, for the valley is narrow and steep at this spot. However, there is an earlier tradition, which if true, provides an example of the ingenuity of our ancestors, and supports the view that the Ffwrn could have formed part of a dwelling.

The earliest written reference to Ffwrn Cadifor occurs in the Historical Tour of Pembrokeshire by Richard Fenton who visited it about the year 1800. The Ordnance Survey map of 1831, prepared by a local man, Thomas Colby, then a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, shows a cottage called Ffwrn Cadifor above this spot, whose ruins are to be seen in the field, now part of Blaen Pibydd farm. Neither the Ffwrn nor the cottage is included on the 25-inch map of 1890, but on the 6-inch map published in the following year the little nook is marked as "The Oven".

Let us turn to what Richard Fenton had to say. Having crossed the Pibydd, he entered the valley, and recorded his impressions in these words:

"Here the channel of the river occupies the whole of the narrow space from one hill to the other, admitting only of a dangerous path worn through the rock on one side, and difficult for foot passengers, so that I was forced to ride along the rocky bed of the river, and follow its windings till I came to an interruption of its course by the fall of another stream into it from the left, when I found myself in sight of the spot I was in quest of, shewn me by my guide, and called by the country people Fwrn Cadivor, the Oven (figuratively, pars pro toto, for the whole house) of Cadivor Vawr, or the great. At the mouth of the continuation of the vale through which the Cych is poured, tradition says, that this powerful chieftain had his palace built across this barrier river on arches from hill to hill, with the roots of its foundation in both the counties of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, over which a great part of his possessions extended... From what here appears, it required a very creative imagination to furnish an idea of the structures said to have occupied so singular a site, for there is no trace to assist conjecture, except what is called the Oven, a slight excavation in the rock on one side, scarcely deep enough to shelter the shepherd from a shower, and a small channel in the slaty rock; on the other an old aqueduct, which seemingly, must have been for conveying water to the level of such a building, whatever it might have been that was perched above the narrow pass. Cadivor Vawr is always styled Lord of Blaen Cych, that is of the region round the source, and probably might have had his abode somewhere hereabouts at the head of his territories in the midst of fastnesses where enemies could not easily attack him, and in a spot highly favourable to the chace, and the predatory sort of warfare which characterized that barbarous age".

Riddle of the Pass
If this has a basis of truth, then it might well explain the existence of the Ffwrn and of the water trench. That no trace of such a structure has been found may be due to the fact that it was made of wood, for we know that the Welsh of those days did build their dwellings of that material. When the house was abandoned, decay would have set in, and it is not unlikely that the materials were removed by local people. We know too that Cadifor Fawr left this district to settle at his wife's home, Cilsant, some six miles to the south, whidh became the chief residence of his descendants.

What can we make of these traditions? The story of the chieftain and his warriors sleeping in a cavern awaiting a summons to lead his countrymen to victory is common form throughout Europe, the best known example being the tale concerning Frederick Barbarossa. That it was applied at all to Cadifor is evidence of the impression he had made on his countrymen, which is in harmony with the testimony of the historical chronicles. The story of the house bridging the pass is more individual and I have not found another example of it in Wales. However I did find an extension of it further down the valley. Just above Pont Cych where the road from Cilthedyn church enters into Cwm Cych, is a steep bluff called Castell on which stands a promontory fort similar to that of Gilfach Gam. I was told by a cottager that it was the the oastell of Pwyll of the Mabinogion who had a great hall built in the form of a bridge across the Cych; this I consider to be an adaptation of the Cadifor tradition. Of course both this castell and that of Gilfach Gam, are clearly much older than Cadifor's time, perhaps dating from the Iron Age, but there are numerous examples of such forts being used many centuries later by those who lived in their vicinity. It is by no means impossible that Cadifor did in fact dwell in such a structure, hidden from marauders and enemies, and sufficiently near to a castell to which he could retire as land when prudence dictated.

Such are the traditions and legends about the home of Cadifor. What about the man himself? Fortunately we have a reputable source of information to enable us to form a reliable picture of him, also providing us with reliable milestones in the form of dates. According to the various genealogies, Cadifor came of royal stock, and they agree on the lineage back to his great-great-grandfather as follows — Cadifor ap Gollwyn ap Gwyn ap Rhydderch ap Elgan Weflhwch. As Cadifor died in 1091, it is reasonable to assume that the great-great-grandfather lived in the first half of the tenth century, in the reign of Hywel Dda. The name Elgan was known in west Carmanthenshire — Keven Legh Elgan near Whitland (1199—1216) and Trallwn Elgan in Talyllychau (1327—1377). The soubriquet 'weflhwch' means 'sow-lip' and may refer to some physical attribute. Several manuscripts take the pedigree back far beyond Elgan Weflhwch to Owain Fraisg, a king of the royal family of Dyfed who lived in the fifth century, but these lack chronological stability and it is impossible to accept the lineage in the form it has been recorded. However, the ancestry may be accepted with confidence so far back as Elgan, and an ancestor who lived in the first half of the tenth century should satisfy the most pedigree-proud amongst us.

Founder of a Clan
Without doubt, Cadifor is the most important figure in the family tree. He is the real founder of the clan, the hero-ancestor. The Golden Grove MS devotes nearly a hundred folios to his descendants and the compiler found it sufficient to start the series with "Kadifor Vawr of Blaenkych, Lord of Dyvett". His stature was such that it was considered unnecessary to look beyond him. Apparently there were no heroes before this Agamemnon.

The historical chronicles contain several references to him and his family, and he is described as having been the ruler of the whole of Dyfed at one time.² The age in which he lived was one of great turbulence, particularly in West Wales, and it is quite possible that Cadifor had been able to acquire sovereignty during those confused years. He was sufficiently important for his obituary to be recorded in the Brut under the year 1089 (1091) — "ac y bu varw Kedivor vab Gollwyn". Even after his death the family was powerful enough to attempt a coup d'etat in the kingdom of Deheubarth. Dissatisfied with the rule of Rhys ap Tewdwr of Dynevor, the sons of Cadifor invited Gruffydd yap Iaredudd ap Owain, an exiled prince of Deheubart (who had lived in Herefordshire since 1072 on estates bestowed on him by William the Conqueror) to join them in ousting the ruling sovereign. Gruffydd accepted their embassy, and arrived with a force in west Wales where he was joined by the sons of Cadifor and their warbands. The challengers met Rhys near St Dogmaels where a severe battle resulted in the death of Gruffydd and the total overthrow of his army. Llywelyn ap Cadifor and his brothers managed to escape, and returned to their mountain fastness to lick their wounds. And so, Sir John Lloyd says, "the attempt to set up a puppet king under the protection of a powerful clan came to nothing".³ Rhys ap Tewdwr did not live long after his victory, and during Easter Week of the following year fell in battle against the Normans in Breconshire.

Despite the setback at St Dogmaels the sons of Cadifor were able to retain an enormous territory in west Carmarthenshire, probably due to the preoccupation of Rhys with the Norman pressure that threatened his eastern borders.

Another member of the family also became involved with royalty but in less disastrous manner. The Brut records that one of Cadifor's daughters married prince Cadwgan of Powys (died 1111) son of the great Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, by whom he had a daughter named Elliw (" Oellyl o verch gedivor ap gollwyn y gwr a vu bcndevic ar holl dyved" — Elliw by a daughter of Cadifor ap Gollwyn the man who was overlord of all Dyfed).⁴ This union with a prince of the dominant house of Powys indicates the status of Cadifor and shows that he was known far beyond the confines of his native Dyfed.

Cadifor Fawr married Elen daughter and heiress of L1wch Llawen Fawr, lord of Cilsant, "o lin y brenhinoedd", of the lineage of kings, according to the deputy-herald Lewys Dwnn. After the marriage, Cadifor left his stronghold in the vale of Cych and settled at his wife's home which was sited more or less in the centre of his vast possessions. Cilsant in the parish of Llanwinio, stands on a promontary hill-fort on a steep bluff above the river Cynnin.

Black Lion and White Boar
Although Cadifor lived in pre-heraldic days, later genealogists credited him with having borne as his ensigns "the black lion, and in right of the old castle of Dyfed, the white boar",⁵ the latter animal being the arms assigned to his father-in-law. The reference to the boar is obscure, but it may be connected with the legend that Llwch hunted a monstrous red-headed boar that had long terrorised the land, finally cornered it, and tied it to a tree at Llain y badd ("The Slang of the Boar") on the hills to the east of Cilsant.

We do not know where Cadifor was buried. Perhaps at Cilrhedyn, for he is said to have founded and endowed that church.⁶ As we have seen, his name is commemorated in Ffwrn Cadifor near his old main fastness, and it occurs in several places in Dyfed, such as Craig Cydifor in Ciffig parish, Llodre Cadevor somewhere in west Carmarthenshire, and Tre Cadifor near Dines in Pembrokeshire. It is interesting to find that in the parish of Llanwinio, where Cilsant is situated, there was a Crug Cadifor (The [Sepulchre of Cadifor) mentioned in a deed dated 14 September 1854, which states that the farm of Penyrallt "formerly comprised three several messuages, tenements, farms, and lands called respectively Pantyeirew, Crugcadivor, and Gwilod y Cyrn".⁷ Crugcadifor is now called Crug, half a mile to the north of Penyrallt. In 1331 a stream flowing into the Teifi from the Cardiganshire side, between the Cerdin and Clettwr, was called Nant Kedivor. I do not suggest that all these places were named after our hero, but it seems significant that the name was popular in the area where he had lived. Not only has his name survived but his family, the wide-branching house of Philipps, remained for centuries one of the leading stocks in west Wales, and is represented today by the owners of Picton Castle in Pembrokeshire and Cwmgwili in Carmarthenshire. As I returned along the labyrinthine way from the Ffwrn, ghosts of earlier wayfarers whirled around me — eager, grey-clad Pwyll and his questing hound's, golden-torqued Cadifor Fawr with his bodyguard of light-armed youths, warrior-farmers bearing bow, bill, and lance, Caradog of Penbryn, Einion of Llwyn, Iwan of Capel, Gwallter of Llain, and Gwilym of the Hendre. We exchanged no words, for the way was hard, the climb steep and arduous. I laboured up the slope, the murmur of the Cych still in my ears, till suddenly I stood on open ground. I had loft the Middle Ages and the magic of the glen. Pwyll and his pack, Cadifor and his retinue, all melted away into the woodland twilight of Glyn Cych. Before me stood Mr and Mrs Thomas. Together we crossed the green sward of the castell and came to the farmyard of Gilfach Gam to be greeted by an old sheepdog barking with frantic joy at the return of his master.

(Postscript. I wrote this account shortly after my visit in 1964. Since then, alas, my hospitable host Mr Thomas has passed on, and a new family now lives at Gillfach Gam).
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