With the weather being as it is, dull, grey and cloudy etc, it was difficult to know how to mark Lughnasadh. No, it didn't seem right to go for a high magic, big ceremonial approach . It just didn't seem right. This year a simpler, quieter and more gentle approach was required. Three of us returned to Cantre'r Gwaelod.
Instead of driving to the beach where the submerged forest can be seen at a very low spring tide, we decided instead to take the inland public footpath. Now when I say public, this footpath has been fought over as a public right of way. In the past landowners have tried to keep the path out of reach from the walkers, ramblers and tourists that walk along the coast and to this special place with a hidden beach. The path has been overgrown to jungle proportions and the occasional ferocious sheepdog let out to challenge and thwart the hardiest walker. These days things are different. 1-0 to the ramblers! The way is now clear after much campaigning and hard work.
After a pleasant if not muddy trudge to Wallog beach we were pleasantly rewarded with an almost deserted beach. Windswept and beautiful, the glacial morainne visible and forming the legendary road to Cantre'r Gwaelod-Sarn Cynfelin. No need for a ritual, it seemed right to walk along the length of the beach in quiet contemplation with only our thoughts and the swooping gulls for company. Well, not quite, we were rewarded with a gift. Just above the gulls nest a pair of peregrine falcons hovered on the wind. It was quite remarkable. I felt part of the landscape, it was like coming home.
This beach holds many cherished childhood memories for me. Its isolation and sacred landscape unspoilt by man and civilisation. A place to simply just be, and this seemed fitting at Lughnasadh.
Instead of driving to the beach where the submerged forest can be seen at a very low spring tide, we decided instead to take the inland public footpath. Now when I say public, this footpath has been fought over as a public right of way. In the past landowners have tried to keep the path out of reach from the walkers, ramblers and tourists that walk along the coast and to this special place with a hidden beach. The path has been overgrown to jungle proportions and the occasional ferocious sheepdog let out to challenge and thwart the hardiest walker. These days things are different. 1-0 to the ramblers! The way is now clear after much campaigning and hard work.
After a pleasant if not muddy trudge to Wallog beach we were pleasantly rewarded with an almost deserted beach. Windswept and beautiful, the glacial morainne visible and forming the legendary road to Cantre'r Gwaelod-Sarn Cynfelin. No need for a ritual, it seemed right to walk along the length of the beach in quiet contemplation with only our thoughts and the swooping gulls for company. Well, not quite, we were rewarded with a gift. Just above the gulls nest a pair of peregrine falcons hovered on the wind. It was quite remarkable. I felt part of the landscape, it was like coming home.
This beach holds many cherished childhood memories for me. Its isolation and sacred landscape unspoilt by man and civilisation. A place to simply just be, and this seemed fitting at Lughnasadh.
