We began our adventure by visiting the church where Jim’s relatives are buried, the 12th century Nevern Church, that boasts a 10th Century Celtic cross, a 600 year old bleeding yew, and a memorial to a Roman soldier with an inscription in Latin and Ogham.
Nevern Church
Bleeding yew
Celtic cross
One of Jim’s family plots
Jim’s family were the landed gentry that supported the church, and every plaque inside the church commemorates one of his ancestors.
Afterwards, we drove to the Preselau Hills where the bluestones for Stonehenge were quarried. It is a windswept hill with wild horses, high above the coast.
Preselau Hills
It’s hard to imagine how they got the immense stones down the hill and several hundred miles to Stonehenge.
Jim explaining bluestones
panorama
Ceibwr cliffs
Jim gave us several geology lessons during the day.
We had a view of the entire valley.
Next, we headed to Molygrove through winding one lane roads, which I take my hat off to Jim for being able to navigate, to the Ceibwr (pronounced Keiber) cliffs. The sediments were laid down 450 million years ago and went through two mountain building phases around 150 and 350 million years ago. Then the mountains were deformed by collision events. Quite spectacular.
the other side of the cut
the geology lesson
To celebrate our last evening here, we went out to dinner at the Old Sailor at Porthgain next to Dinas head.
Jordan ordered grilled lobster, the best lobster he’s ever had, he swore. Steve and I ordered steak and ale pie, and Jim and Dorota ordered suwen, a local trout that lives part of its life at sea and turns pink.
For dessert, we ordered the most fantastical desserts imaginable. Jordan had homemade marshmallows with white chocolate and raspberry coulis. Steve had a trio of Welsh ice creams, Dorota a trio of sorbets, and Jim raspberry Eton mess (I kid you not).
Old Sailor
