Marking the Gower on the Mawr

Marking the Way

The first stone (concrete) way marker I reached on my walk this week on the Mawr was marking The Gower Way or Llwybr Gwyr. With my short route marked this clearly (!?), I lost much of my concern for being enveloped by cloud and happily carried on towards the top.

And as I reached the next marker I could also see ahead of me an unexpected sculpturing of the landscape. This turned out to be Penlle’r Castell, a medieval settlement consisting of the remains of small stone dwellings surrounded by an embankment and ditch. I was aware of the site from maps but had not appreciated that this was the hill I was climbing.

It is remarkable how clearly defined the arrangement of the settlement is and it was not the only thing that was now clear. The mist had lifted and the visibility was much improved . . . momentarily!

Most of the shots above were taken on my iPhone 6.

Posted in Landscape, Photography, Travel, Walks and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , .

4 Comments

  1. I’m loving the contrast between the ancient and modern in this photo set; mossy stone markers and wind turbines. You may have mentioned in the past and I missed it, but is there any particular way that you select your walks?

    • Thanks Wade – I was wondering when I was up there what the inhabitants of the medieval settlement would make of the view they would get from their homes if they could see it today. Chances are that if they weren’t looking towards the wind turbines, the view would not have changed much – but then they’d get a shock!

      I try to build my walks into my day to day activities with work. On this occasion I was coming home from an unsuccessful production morning (rain and snow!) on location at the Awel Aman Tawe Co-operative wind turbines. I often have to get out and about for meetings, workshops or production work and try to take the opportunity of exploring either a new place or a familiar one in different conditions. Walks can be anything from one hour to 3.5 or 4 hours. Production walks for a StillWalks video take longer. If I am walking out from the house first thing in the morning, then the decision is made on the doorstep as I have to decide to turn left or right before anything else. The challenge is always to keep looking and listening to familiar things with as much freshness as possible – that’s when we see the changes from day to day or even moment to moment!

      • I love it! From my perspective, it seems like you do a great job of keeping things fresh. I love the combination of planning and spontaneity. Such is life. Thanks for shedding a little light on your methods for me.

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