Carmarthen - Cats, Cows and Castles

Carmarthen marked our second foray into Wales, as part of our series of 'Chester' walks and the weather couldn't have been more different on this walk (blazing hot sunshine) compared to our last Welsh walk, from Caerphilly to Cardiff, back in February (a lot less sunny!)

I'm very fond of Wales - there are more castles than you can shake a leek at, the countryside is beautiful and it reminds me a little bit of home (Ireland). I'd previously been to Swansea, many years ago, for a work conference and my memories of this part of Wales included the impressive steelworks at Port Talbot and the industrial slag heaps outside my hotel window!

BAM (Best Aussie Mate) knows South West Wales very well, due to her kayaking trips, but it was my first time west of Swansea and, with the glorious June weather and the unspoilt beaches along the Carmarthenshire coast, it certainly left a good impression on me!

Lodging and victuals

Carmarthen is believed to be the oldest town in Wales and was one of the most far-flung reaches of the Roman Empire.  It's also one the most far-flung Chesters on our list, so we both took the Friday off work, so we could enjoy the three and a half hour train journey from London to Cardiff to Swansea to Carmarthen and then back a little bit to Kidwelly, where we'd resolved to stay the night.

Kidwelly is a small town with a huge castle and a pleasant enough place to spend the evening.  We stayed at the lovely Kidwelly B&B on Causeway Street, where we were made very welcome by the proprietor, Gerri Tennant, who moved to Kidwelly from the West Midlands.

Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire

Kidwelly castle

There weren't too many options for dinner, apart from Chinese takeaways, so we booked into The White, which was so-so - not the best meal I've ever had, but enough to fill us up for the evening.  After dinner we took a walk around the village and visited the castle.  Like many castles in south Wales, it was built by the Normans, in their attempt to contain the rebellious native Celts and bring Wales under their control.

Interestingly, the name Kidwelly, which used to be spelt Cetgueli in English, led to a legend about a black cat, which people believed was the source of the town's name.  A black cat features on the town's coat of arms and, as if to prove its importance, we even met a black cat, who was sitting in the middle of the road, just outside the castle, licking himself, as cats know how to do best!

Kidwelly to Llansaint (2.2 miles/3.5 kilometres)

You can now walk the entire coast of Wales as, in 2012, Wales became the first country in the world to open a long-distance footpath (870 miles) that is on/near the country's coastline.  Our entire route was following the Wales Coast path, although we didn't actually spend a lot of time on the coast, as Kidwelly sits at a point where the River Towey flows into Carmarthen from the sea and this particular section of the coast path is mostly inland.

View towards the Gower peninsula

By Hogyn Lleol - Own work,
CC BY-SA 3.0,

We loved the coast path logo, a sort of hybrid between a dragon and a seashell and, as we set out along the path from Kidwelly, we had great views towards the Gower peninsula and the Irish Sea, in the distance.  The path leaves Kidwelly following the Gwendraeth river, where we saw the most athletic cow I've ever seen, jogging along the river bank!  The path soon led to a rather busy country road, which runs between Kidwelly and Penallt, then we turned uphill along a rough track towards a hilltop village called Llansaint.

Llan is a common prefix in Welsh place names and it means saint - so I was a bit surprised to find myself in Saint saint!  The village was previously called Halkenchurche, which means 'Church of Saints' - so the Welsh name continues that translation.  It's a pretty village and the only other living soul in Llansaint was the postman, who we bumped into several times, as he was making his rounds of the village.  I always wanted to be a postman, when I was a child, but I don't drive, so not sure I have the right skill-set for a change of career at this point in my life!  You could do worse though, than drive around Carmarthenshire delivering the mail?

The white church at Llansaint

Llansaint to Ferryside (2.3 miles/3.7 kilometres)

There are some nice little forested valleys on this route that make you feel as though you are miles from anywhere - it was also a bit of a relief to get out of the sun occasionally, although these little shaded valleys suddenly became quite jungle-like in their midday humidity!

Before long we came to a rather interesting collection of buildings at Pengay Farm, on a small hill overlooking the sea.  The farm was the seat of the Bevan family (relation of the famous Bevan brothers who set up the NHS?) and the family has a strong Methodist tradition, that is common in this part of Wales.  The farm buildings are from the 18th century and there was a rather welcome bench in the middle of the farm, which was in the shade of some trees, so we stopped for a water and chocolate break.

Pengay Farm, seat of the Bevan family

From the farm it's an easy mile or so downhill towards Ferryside, a holiday village dominated by the railway line that runs from Carmarthen to Llanelli.  On the way down, we had great views across to a ruined castle on the hill above the village of Llansteffan, on the other side of the Towey river.

View towards Ferryside and Llansteffan

Rocks at Ferryside

Ferryside to Bronyn Farm (1.4 miles/2.3 kilometres)

After a much needed refreshment in Ferryside, we set off along the Carmarthen Road, before turning into a laneway past the curiously-named hamlet of Rotten Pill, then we followed the railway line through a steep valley leading to Bronyn Farm.

Ferryside Village Hall

Whilst a lot of farmers and land-owners have insisted that the coast path be routed away from their land, the couple who own Bronyn Farm seemed to have embraced the public right of way and gave us cheery waves, as we walked through their farm on the way to a small country lane on the far side of their land.

As we closed the gate to their farm, a train sped past and, as we knew that BRH (Best Russian Husband) was on his way to Carmarthen at some point that afternoon, we waved at the train in true-Railway children style, hoping he would look out of the window and see us (it turns out his train was arriving a few hours later than we thought, but it amuses me to think of passengers on the train seeing us and wondering who had let the lunatics out of the asylum for the day!)

Bronyn Farm to Gellylednais (2.6 miles/4.2 kilometres)

From Bronyn Farm we followed a series of country lanes, climbing uphill again until we got to the top of Trelymsi, where we were rewarded with lovely views towards Llansteffan and the outskirts of Carmarthen, barely visible in the far distance.

Country lane at Trelymsi

The hedgerows were absolutely full of verdant plant growth and flowers, lots of foxgloves on this walk, which really took me back to my childhood, when we use to pull the flowers off the foxgloves and wear them on our fingers!  BAM also identified red campion, crane's bill, dandelions, buttercups, dog rose, daisies, bramble, cow parsley, honeysuckle, knapweed, bindweed, red and white clover and even fuchsia, which lit up the roadside in a splendid roadside red.

We passed another farm at Pentrecwm, where a pack of dogs were rather excited by our arrival and barked furiously, whilst keeping their distance.  After the farm itself, we entered my worst nightmare - a field full of cows (or this time, young bullocks).  I feel I've come a long way, since my being-chased-by-cows experience in Uttoxeter in 2014 and, after a momentary panic where I thought 'I can't do this' - I quickly regained my composure and followed BAM, as she bravely struck out across the field.

We saw some more peaceful-looking cows later in the walk

There were cows running in every direction around us, some were quite panicked, others were trying to sneak up behind us, but BAM chased them off every time they got too close.  It was a relief to get through the field, although the far side was downhill, which meant that the cows were on higher ground than us, which also frightens me, but we eventually found a gate leading to another wooded valley.

Passing down and up the side of the valley, we came to another field, where a large white horse was blocking the kissing-gate we needed to pass through.  It was clear that the horse was very ill, as he was breathing heavily and had some foam in his mouth, as well as some half-chewed grass. I thought he might be dehydrated, as he seemed to be staring longingly at the small stream that was trickling past on the other side of the fence from him.

We managed to coax him away from the gate, eventually, and crossed the field quickly, to see if we could find a farmer, or someone who might be able to check that the horse was okay.  Unfortunately, the only people around were holiday-makers, but we passed on the information to anyone we could find within a mile radius, to see if they could get some help.

Gellylednais to Carmarthen (4.6 miles/7.4 kilometres)

After Gellylednais we came to Towey Castle Farm and Towey Castle, where there is a residential home, where a small dog accompanied us on part of the walk.  We bumped into the only other walkers we met that day in a field just outside Towey Castle and gave them an estimation of how much time it would take for them to walk to Ferryside.  I think they were originally planning to go to Kidwelly but, as it was already well into the afternoon and they looked quite tired, I doubt they made it all the way to Kidwelly.

Small town life in Croesyceiliog

Not long after that we came to a small road, which led to a bigger road that runs through Croesyceiliog and another few miles to Pen-sarn, then through some industrial estates and concrete underpasses until we emerged at Carmarthen train station and crossed the bridge to visit the town and the remains of the Carmarthen castle.

Carmarthen

Carmarthen castle

We thought it was quite amusing to see sheep grazing, a stone's throw from the town centre and we really liked Carmarthen - there was a nice atmosphere in town, although all the shops had closed, we grabbed a bit to eat at Pizza Express, overlooking a small square in the shopping district.

Access for Wheelchair users

A lot of this walk went through fields and along small walking paths, so the walk in its entirety wouldn't be suitable for wheelchair users, however, there were many parts of the walk that followed quiet country lanes and the sections around Llansaint and from Towey Castle into Carmarthen could be adapted to suit a wheelchair user.  

Of course, it's always dangerous to wheelchair on roads, so you should only do so, if you're willing to deal with oncoming traffic.  

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