Nooks and Corners of PembrokeshireTimmins, H. Thornhill (Henry Thornhill)
History
Nooks and Corners of Pembrokeshire
Timmins, H. Thornhill (Henry Thornhill)
Pembrokeshire (Wales) -- Description and travel
The neighbouring village of Llanvirnach is said to derive its name from
the following circumstance. When the good St. Byrnach was making his
pilgrimage through this portion of the country, he could at first obtain
no better quarters than a cowshed; thus, as the story goes, arose the
name of Llanbeudy, the Church of the Cowhouse. The next day the saint
fared even worse, for, coming to Cilmaenllwyd, he was obliged, for lack
of better accommodation, to repose beneath the gray cromlech that gives
the place its name. The third night, however, St. Byrnach came to a
place where he was accorded a kindly welcome, and provided with a
comfortable night's lodging. Overcome with gratitude for this hospitable
reception, St. Byrnach declared the place should ever after bear his own
name; and hence it is called to this day Llanvirnach, or the Church of
St. Byrnach.
But to return to Maenclochog. Retracing our steps through the village,
we bear away to the left, and presently come to a roadside spring called
St. Byrnach's Well, a resort of that ubiquitous saint.
Our route now leads past Poll-tax Inn, and follows the course of the Via
Julia, that ancient highway by which the Roman legions traversed this
wild, uncivilized territory, from Maridunum, the present town of
Carmarthen, to their remotest settlement at Menapia, on the shores of
Whitesand Bay.
Diverging from the mountain road that marks the route of the Roman
highway, we turn aside into a cross-country lane, pass several cairns
and cromlechs, and presently come to Little Newcastle, a mean, unkempt
village, presenting few attractions for the wayfarer.
At Little Newcastle was born a certain Bartholomew Roberts, who, about a
century ago, made some noise in the world as a successful filibuster. In
company with his fellow-countryman Howel Davies, (as big a rascal as
himself), this notorious freebooter sailed the high seas arrayed in
priceless silks and jewels galore--as pretty a pair of desperadoes as
ever hoisted the skull-and-crossbones flag, or graced the yardarm of a
man-o'-war.
From Little Newcastle we make the best of our way to St. Dogwells, a
mite of a place tucked into an elbow of the stream, and overlooked upon
the north by a rock-strewn eminence called Castell Conyn. Through the
woods of Sealyham we pass on to Letterston; noting a curious piscina in
the church, and an effigy which long passed muster as that of St.
Leotard, its founder.
Beyond the old chapel at Ford, where the Roman highway crossed the
river, the road winds through the heart of the gorge amidst a wealth of
bracken and purple heather; the huge form of Trefgarn Rock towering high
aloft on our right. With the brawling Cleddau, half hidden by
copsewoods, tumbling along through the hollow of the glen, the whole
forms as romantic a bit of scenery as any to be found in the county.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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