Country diary: A scrattly climb to Llywelyn's cave

Aberedw, Powys: This village harbours huge yew trees in the churchyard, and old stories of rain saints and doomed princesAt Afon Gwy's confluence with Afon Edw, the valley narrows, takes on a more dramatic aspect. Jagged precipices rim the shoulder of Llandeilo Hill. The diarist Francis Kilvert was enraptured: "Oh, Aberedw, Aberedw. Would God I might dwell and die by thee."There's a friendly village pub here and an old church, dedicated to a seventh century Welsh saint, "Hen Gewydd y Gwlaw" ("Old Cewydd of the rain"). The priest and historian Giraldus Cambrensis railed against the appropriation of Saint Cewydd by English ecclesiastics - the particularly rapacious monks of Winchester renamed him Saint Swithun, buried his relics in their own cathedral, and broadcast the legend. Continue reading...