hidden concrete

My Walk this Week 125 – Concrete and Trees

Looking for urban woodland on my walk this week, perhaps inevitably, I found concrete and trees. While trying to keep to the narrow wooded area behind York University, I intentionally crossed a road via an underpass in order to find the castle-like structure I had spotted on Googlemaps.

light and shade

Similar in design to Clifford’s Tower in the centre of York, the structure was much larger than that, and made of concrete. From the ground it was well camouflaged by the foliage patterns of light and shade cast by tall trees and the sun on the imposing walls and rusty windows.

It wasn’t a brutalist modern day castle, butContinue reading

Carmarthen Castle

My walk this week around Carmarthen took in the part of the castle. There is a lot more to the castle than I am showing here but you will not find these photos on Castles of Wales website. The images on the Castles of Wales site are clearly less recent than my own and do not show that there is now a metal spiral staircase rising to the room above the castle gate where this window is situated along with a flag pole which made a very noticeable sound in the wind.

Carmarthen Castle

Continue reading

Llansteffan Castle

Reviewing the Walk and the Week

My walk this week has been taken in two ways – the exploration of Llansteffan Castle and the migration of the StillWalks blog and website. I hope that you have both enjoyed this walk and will continue to enjoy both the weekly walks and other developing aspects of StillWalks.

The sound clip below is a re-posting of the clip I included earlier in the week as I did not have the material to produce a soundscape for this walk. That will have to remain for a full production walk later in the year. In the meantime you can view the images in sequence and listen to the clip at the same time.

 

Llansteffan Castle Sound Clip

If you are viewing this in an email, you will need to click the post title to see the sound player on the post itself.

Llansteffan lane

Returning Down Below

Returning, on my walk this week, from the heights of Llansteffan Castle’s battlements to the beach below led me through the woods and away from my companions on this visit to Carmarthenshire in South Wales. I was able to look down on them just as they reached the beach.

Before we left the castle itself, I stood in the entrance to the castle and although I didn’t have my field recorder with me, still managed to capture something of the aural atmosphere of this calm day.

Listen to the sound clip below and if you are viewing this in an email, you will need to click the post title to see the sound player on the post itself.

 

Llansteffan Castle Sound Clip

View from Llansteffan Castle

Welcome to Day One

Hello to everyone, existing and new visitors to the new StillWalks blog. Thank you for visiting anew and thank you for relocating with me if you are already a follower.

Insert your email to the subscription box in the side bar on the right to receive StillWalks images and sound clips on blog posts every morning – it’s a great way to start the day (or end it!).

NB If viewing this on a mobile device, the registration to receive emails at the bottom of this post.

Things should look very much the same on the blog and hopefully our migration here will be seamless. However, other aspects of the website have changed and there is now a new StillWalks package to which you can sign up or register an interest. To find out more about “Walking The StillWalks Way”, click the link to view a short presentation.

My Walk this Week continues

Meanwhile, back on my walk this week at Llansteffan Castle in Carmarthenshire, I thought I would start with a photo from the beginning of the walk because the view from the castle allows you to see into the distance, albeit hazy, and of course this is what I have been trying to do with StillWalks – see into the future.

Following on from yesterday’s post, a more detailed look at the stonework of Llansteffan Castle reveals all sorts of fascinating patterns, textures and colours. I’m not sure what is going on in with the surface patterns on the last shot, but it looks as though it may be additional to the actual stone itself.

 

One Day To Go and Well Camouflaged Walls

These walls, seen (or well camouflaged) on my walk at Llansteffan Castle have some fascinating textures and structures but . . .  tomorrow is the day of moving this blog so –

Please read this!

Tomorrow I will be relaunching and relocating the StillWalks website and blog and must ask all followers who wish to continue receiving their daily dose of images and sound from the StillWalks blog, to click the link on Thursday’s post and the following days to relocate with me to the new website.

Thank you to all my existing and new followers.

Along with this relaunch we will be at The Waterside with publisher Management Learning Resources (MLRUK) to promote the new StillWalks package for organisations and individuals. That’s on 7th April from 10 – 12. Details and directions can be found here at The Waterside.

Llansteffan-16

Looking Through a Wall and Relocation

Walking around Llansteffan Castle in Carmarthenshire was great fun but first . . .

Please read this!

Later this week I will be relaunching and relocating the StillWalks website and blog and must ask all followers who wish to continue receiving their daily dose of images and sound from the StillWalks blog, to click the link on Thursday’s post and the following days to relocate with me to the new website.

Thank you to all my existing and new followers.

Along with this relaunch we will be at The Waterside with publisher Management Learning Resources (MLRUK) to promote the new StillWalks package for organisations and individuals. That’s on 7th April from 10 – 12. Details and directions can be found here at The Waterside.

Now, back to this week’s walk and the murder holes! There were plenty of opportunities to look through walls at the castle which Julie was particularly interested in. Some of these would have been used in the traditional way (for a castle), i.e. shooting enemies with arrows! The most blood curdling, however, were the “murder holes” through which boiling oil would be poured on attackers entering this part of the castle.

hole in a wall

My Walk this Week and a Site Migration

My walk this week is from Llansteffan in Carmarthenshire but I must also bring your attention to the movement of the StillWalks website.

Please read this!

Later this week I will be relaunching the StillWalks website and must ask all followers who wish to continue receiving their daily dose of images and sound from the StillWalks blog, to click the link on Thursday’s post and the following days to relocate with me to the new website. 

Thank you to all my existing and new followers.

Along with this relaunch we will be at The Waterside with publisher Management Learning Resources (MLRUK) to promote the new StillWalks package for organisations and individuals. That’s on 7th April from 10 – 12. Details and directions can be found here at The Waterside.

Now on to this week’s walk at Llansteffan. It wasn’t the brightest of days but it was not raining and the atmosphere was quite still. It’s a long time since I was last here but is a place I often think of as an excellent location for walking. It has a large beach, an exciting promontory with a great castle on top and wonderful views. 

Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire