South Wales

For the last half of half term, I rented us a cosy, little cottage in South Wales.

It even had a playground and hot tub.

While we were there, we hiked up to the Carreg Cennen Castle located in the Brecon Beacons National Park not far from our cottage. The castle dates back to the late 13th or early 14th century.  Human remains found at the original site of Castell Carreg Cennen date human activity at the location back to prehistoric times. The site may well have also been an Iron Age hillfort. Roman coins from the 1st and 2nd century have also been found, although it is unlikely the Romans occupied this site on a permanent basis.The autumn leaves and colours were gorgeous! My pictures don't do the colours justice.

Here is Abby with some proper Welsh cows with huge horns located at the bottom of the hill where the castle was.

Sadie insisted on hiking up the hill. She would get very upset if we tried to pick her up. It made for some slow walking but she was determined.

The girls never tire of exploring castles. They always love running from room to room, up and down imagining what life would have been like.

 In the south-east corner of the inner ward a set of steep steps lead to a vaulted passage and a natural cave beneath the castle, which leads deep into the hillside. A fresh water spring rises in the cave, which would have been a useful supply of water in the dry weather. I went down with the girls while Charles stayed with Sadie. It was very slick, dark and narrow. We didn't have a torch so I used my phone camera for light and made the girls go much further than they wanted to. It reminded me of a proper dungeon. I would not have been surprised if we would have stumbled upon a skeleton of some wretch who had lived there suffering the last few years of his life for some crime. There were three small holes in the stone at one point, and I could imagine the old man having these as his only view out to the real world while he was locked up. We could have gone a lot further if we would have had a torch. I sure wish we would have known to rent one when we paid to get in. Oh well, it was really exciting going as far as we did.

This is the slippery tunnel down to the caves.

Looking out a small window from the tunnel to the caves. Its a long way down... 

Alex in the castle kitchen oven.

This is outside the castle. It would have been a well-fortified, protected place being on top of this huge hill.

Here we are on the opposite hill from the castle. Sadie wants to get down and walk so she can fall over the edge. I am not letting her.

Alex standing behind the castle.

This is the hill the girls and I are pictured on where Sadie wanted to go walking off the edge. You can see why I am holding her....

Abby contemplating life...

And now, the walk back down and Sadie is back to walking.

We enjoyed cosy fires, lots of hot chocolate, old Halloween movies and loads of good food! It was a really good break!