I’d been waiting for the intense heat of summer to finish before making this next walk. So, on the first cool evening of September, I set off from the house for an early evening adventure with all the anticipation of a new discovery. Taking the steep track up past the farm at Moeliwrch I hit the oncoming north-westerly wind as soon as I climbed up onto the lower flanks of the Gyrn. Resisting the temptation to head for the peak this time I followed the old drovers road down over the saddle to begin the long diagonal descent towards the small settlement of Llangadwaladr. I’m still getting used to having this rugged moorland and mountainous region on my doorstep and the views take my breath away each time my eyes scan the horizons. Technically we’re just on the fringes of the Cambrian Mountains but it’s the Berwyns in easy sight that dominate the skylines. This little valley over the hill though suddenly feels very remote and different, set in another time.
I first visited the church at Llangadwaladr four years ago on a break from recording songs with my music partner, now my life partner. The yew trees there made a big impression on me and I was excited about the prospect of returning again. But before that I was being held in the embrace of an early evening fading light and enjoying the first feeling of chillier weather. It’s a hard slog up the path so I stopped to take in the views that had opened up at the other side of the hill. I had another perspective to appreciate, east towards Mynydd Lledrod, due north to Foel Rhiwlas and west to Hen Graig and the looming presence of the higher Berwyn range beyond. I admit I was feeling very pleased with myself at that moment for deciding to take the opportunity to explore. A day of gardening had bent me double so a walk upright felt like the best antidote. The wind took away my stiffness and roared my existence on the hilly pass.
I felt like I had the entire landscape to myself, it was only me, the dog and the sheep with a red kite following us like an aerial drone. Then I saw a movement to my left and suddenly she ran straight across my path down into the hedgerow out of sight again. A doe hare, long black tipped ears flagging her stride, rangy and fast but not enough to seem too alarmed. I paused for a moment to enjoy that gift then continued down the path and there she was again quartering back up the hill, long hind legs seeming out of proportion with the body but making her speed look like an easy lope. We descended as the hare followed back along the field boundary to higher ground, eager to get back to what? I stopped, sensed something and fumbled quickly for my binoculars, just in time to spot the second pair of ears, now they popped up higher as another hare stood on its haunches checking me and Hollydog out from the safe distance and upper advantage of the hill. Maybe one of this year’s young? Too far away to tell for sure but I was happy in my hope.
The old drovers road here is wide and flat as it cuts across the lower north flank of the Gryn and an easy track to follow. We descended quickly now as light was beginning to fade and I was getting a lift back from my partner at the church. Some research on Grokipedia told me that the church at Llangadwaladr is a grade II-listed medieval structure, although most of the current building is from the 15th century and more rebuilding took place in Victorian times. It was dedicated to St Cadwaladr Fendigaid (c.634-682) who was the last Welsh king before the Saxon conquest began in earnest and he was regarded as a national leader, a bit like Owain Glyndwr centuries later.
The first written record of the church in 1291 mentions a chapel of ‘Bettws Kadwaladr’ as belonging to Llanrhaidr church but this place feels much older and stands inside an ancient enclosure with a circular churchyard usual of an early Celtic Christian clas community. The yew trees here give this away as their girth and height must be at least one thousand years old making this a place of gathering long before a church was built.
Now this is the bit that really interests me as the area has some prehistoric significance. It might feel isolated now but there has been human activity here for at least three thousand years with the Bronze Age tumulus at Ysgwennant just down the road as evidence. I did some research and found details of the findings on the Oswestry Family and Local History Group. The site was excavated in 1951 by the Offa Antiquarian Society of Oswestry to rescue it before it would have been damaged by farming activities. Inside a flint knife and large pottery funerary urn containing burnt human bones was found dated to between 1200 and 1000 years BC.
As you can see the urn is supposedly now in Oswestry library but a visit there turned up blank. They suggested I try the Oswestry Museum but also to no avail, and I’m still looking for another tumuli nearby, as the church is said to be ‘equidistant ‘ between two of them but pouring over old Ordanance Survey maps hasn’t revealed it to me yet! The search will go on…
