Coity Castle

 Visit Date: September 2020

Coity castle was erected by the knight Payn de Turberville at the end of the 11th century during the penetration of south-eastern Wales by the Norman conquerors.

Payn de Turberville was one of twelve Knights (known as the Twelve Knights of Glamorgan) who had accompanied Robert Fitzhamon on his conquest of Glamorgan.

The Welsh ruler, Morgan ap Meurig (Morgan Son of Meurig), not being well enough to fight, offered to marry the Norman’s daughter. Payn accepted the offer and became Lord of Coity.

The castle was built in the form of an earth and timber ringwork fortification.

In around 1180, the castle was rebuilt from timber to stone by another heir of Coity, Gilbert de Turberville

In 1384 the lordship and the castle passed to Sir Lawrence Berkerolles.

He made substantial reinforcements to the castle which resisted the sieges during the Welsh rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr in 1404 and 1405 but in doing so took much damage.

From 1584 to the early 18th Century when it was still partly inhabited, it was owned by the Sydney family, however when Barbara Gamage married Sir Robert Sydney, Earl of Leicester they took up residence in England and the castle had fallen into ruin by the mid 18th Century

Footer:

Visit Information:-

Google Reference
51.52204438045472, -3.5529992499369496

Google Search reference: Coity Castle

What Three Words reference : ///scars.share.spice

Additional information
This is a great ruin with plenty of room for visitors with a small carpark and also a playground outside.

Inside there is plenty of grounds for family picnics.

I have made a short "Photo Tour" on YouTube that can be found here:-

Images of Coity Castle - YouTube

Read More

A early morning visit to the seashore.

Last weekend I again decided to get up early and go to the coast to see if I could take a couple of shots at sunrise.
I had a good idea of what I wanted the composition to look like but as I got to the location it was soon becoming clear that the sun was not going to rise in the place that I expected.
I still set up and waited and actually got a seascape shot that I liked despite it not being as I planned.
I expected the walk back to the car to be in the good morning sunshine and with some good subjects along the way it all looked fair but after a half an hour after sunrise the clouds covered the morning sun and that put an end to those plans.
On the way back to the car I saw some rocks in the sea and decided to try a long exposure of the rock and that produced some of the best shots of the day for me so I thought I would share it here.

 

 

Read More

Cae'r-hen-Eglwys

Quite close to where I live are these two strange standing stones.

They are in a field close to many pathways and a crossroad.

These two Menhirs are approximately 9 feet apart and 5 foot high.

They look ancient but are somewhat lost in a field.

However, this is not such a random place as it would first seem it has some history and this area has been inhabited for a long time. The stones are on a medieval trackway known as Ffordd Y Gyfraith.

This trackway becam part of a pilgrimage route to the shrine of the Holy Rood of Llangynwyd.

Some time ago there were the remains of two Celtic Crosses found nearby which have been removed and now reside in the National Museum of Wales.

There is not much known about these stones and it is thought that they once formed a gateway to the church of Cae'r Heneglwys that was thought to be on this site. Although I have read that there is supposed to be some slightly raised ground here where the church resided, it is long gone and I could find no evidence of this.

I have also read two reports from visitors to the site that the stones are reminiscent of another bronze age site that is 400 miles away in Northumberland.

Sadly I could find no myths relating to these stones perhaps as they are so poorly documented.

Additional Note: I have seen reference to this site named as Meini Dirion (Gentle Stones) but I can not find any old reference to this name, it is also listed on google maps under this name although the old OS maps clearly state it is the site of Cae'rheneglwys church.

Footer:

Visit Information:-

Google Reference

Footer:

Visit Information:-

Google Reference

51.51575293793025, -3.622003925055698

What Three Words reference : ///ears.metals.belts

Visiting is easy but parking not so good. You will need to park alongside the field in this quiet lane.

Read More

Amelia Earhart and Burry Port

Today finally I had the chance to get out and about with my camera.
I went an hour west down the coast to a small town called Burry Port.
I have passed this place many times in the past and not stopped, something I now regret.

 
It is a lovely little town and I will certainly visit again soon.

 
On the harbourside, there was this old Buoy and I was interested to read the story behind it.

 
It seems that on June 17th 1928 Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland and on June 18th, exactly 20 hours and 40 minutes later she landed here in this small Welsh port in a type of seaplane known as a floatplane. This made her the first woman to be flown across the Atlantic.

 
 

 

This is the Buoy that her seaplane named Friendship was moored to.

 
Being interviewed post landing Amelia said "Shultz did all the flying, had to. I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes" she added "maybe someday I'll try it alone", a feat, of course, she later completed.

Read More

Japanese Bridge

 It's been a funny sort of a weekend with the weather changing rapidly.
It has been changing from bright sunshine to pouring rain in just a few minutes.
Taking walks have been something of a chore but this afternoon I went out to a local nature park and took this image of a bridge in the Japanese garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi-Res Image

Read More

The surprising Science of happiness

 Today I watched, once again, the TED TALKS called "The surprising science of happiness" by Dan Gilbert.
If you have not seen this, and have 20 minutes free, I recommend you take a look at this.
I find Dan's delivery great, despite the fact he talks too quickly.
Straight out of the gate he is interesting and lighthearted and informative.
 A really enjoyable 

 

TED TALKS: The surprising science of happiness

 

If you find yourself enjoying this then stop by his other TED TALK "Why we make bad decisions" his insight once again will get you thinking especially about the trying to work out "value"

 

Pay special attention to the Holiday Offer, and the theatre ticket. Fascinating!

 

 TED TALKS : why we make bad decisions 

Read More

Kenfig Castle

 
A few weeks ago I took a walk to see the ruins of Kenfig Castle.
A more disappointing "ruin" it would be difficult to imagine. There is little left now of the castle other than the top of what's left of the keep showing out of the surrounding vegetation. Because it was a warm summer evening it was very pleasant to be there but the conditions were not right for photography with the sun at a poor angle and the place is overgrown.

I will go back there sometime soon and hope to get better shots.

 I uploaded some images and some of the history of the castle to my "Photoblog"

Read More

First Post

Hello, 

This is my first blog post here.
I thought I would just set out what I will be initially be using this blog for.
Generally, I wanted a blog to bring together my other online content.
My main interest is photography. I am an amateur photographer and I am passionate about photography. I post images to various platforms including Instagram and Youtube but I currently have two favourite places to post images there are Clickasnap and Photoblog.
I use "Clickasnap " more for single images and "Photoblog" for more story-based images (like a blog I guess).
Any updates will be posted here and that is the initial primary reason for having this blog.
I guess anything else I see on-line of interest I will also post.
In time perhaps I will expand on this but for now that's it!

Read More