Llandeilo Past and Present

Walks Through History
Llandeilo: The Hill Walk

This text illustrates the basic ways of reading a landscape, beginning with a particular physical structure that determines a local pattern of human settlement which, in turn, results in the simplification of a primeval biological system. It is an introduction to how landscape history can be be used as a self-teaching guide.

Penlan Park

To reach the start of the walk in Penlan Park leave the main Car Park past the information kiosk, through the archway, crossing the road to the Post Office. Take the road by the side of the Post Office called Bank Buildings to its junction with New Road. Turn left along New Road. The entrance to Penlan Park is in front of you at the top of New Road, where it bends right to leave the town, to the right of the old rustic school building

Walk into the park to the terraced path below the bandstand and look out over the valley

1. Geology

   You are now standing above the Tywi Valley, on Llanddeusant Hill, the first of a group of six hills following a north-east to south-west line along the northern river bank.

   These hills make a compact, undulating landscape, about two miles long by about three-quarters of a mile wide, which originated as a complex fold of the sediments and volcanic rocks of Ordovician and Silurian times, 400 million years ago. The alignment of both the hill folds and the Tywi Valley follow the main line of rock-bending that ran across Wales from Shropshire to Pembrokeshire (Caledonian Folding). The arch rose above where the valley now lies, at an angle of about 80 degrees to the south. It descended at an equally steep angle to the south; the arch, being of relatively soft Silurian rock, was eroded away and the valley silts now rest on the older Ordovician strata.

2. The Ordovician marine environment was first defined in this part of Wales as representing an important provincial episode of evolution, which began with an acceleration of animal evolution. The Silurian period ended with the development of the first land plants. The Tywi Valley is an important site for the study of these fossils, the most famous of which are the trilobites and the first fish with jaws.

   Llanddeusant Hill is itself subdivided by minor folding. Penlan Park is at the highest point. The walk from the park takes you to Castle Hill up and down the various rock formations that have been folded by volcanic action and subsequently modified by rain, wind and ice.

3. Looking south over the bridge gives a panoramic view across the wide Tywi valley towards younger, higher and harder rocks that were laid down as sea-bottom sediments after the Silurian period. All of these rocks were affected by the second great earthquake period which profoundly influenced the geology of the British Isles (Hercynian Folding).

4. The geological trough of the weathered Silurian arch, was the path taken about 12,000 years ago by a glacier moving to the Irish Sea from its origin in the Cambrian Mountains to the north east of Llandeilo. The glacier ground out the rocks lying on either side of the trough to leave a wide U-shaped valley. This was subsequently silted up to form the flat river plain you now see below The glacier spilled over the slight depression on the horizon (the Loughor col), above the bridge, to gouge out the Loughor valley, running south to the Bristol Channel.

5. The southern rocks form three parallel ridges. The shelf or step, immediately above the valley in front of you, is the remains of the southern limb of the weathered and eroded Ordovician fold. This rises to the far left as the high ridge called Trichrug and is backed, on the horizon, by later deposits of Old Red Sandstone.

   The south-eastern horizon is the edge of a limestone plateau formed in the subsequent Carboniferous period. This is the first of several rock zones of Carboniferous times, the later ones extending south in parallel ridges, for about twenty miles, to the Bristol Channel Coast. This area contains the most westerly coal-bearing rocks of the South Wales Coalfield. The main strata of economic importance, containing anthracite, occur between Ammanford and Llanelli.

6. Colonization and communications

   People first entering the area, around 3,500 years ago and moved along the ridges, colonizing the crests in Bronze Age and Iron Age times. A large fort of the Iron Age can be seen on the far left horizon at Carn Goch.

   The general lie of the land, as a series of east-west ridges, impeded north to south movement. The Tywi valley was a particular obstacle to migration and trade since the river is relatively slow and meandering, too small for the glacial bed it occupies. The valley was essentially a marsh and the fact that it was exceptionally narrow below Penlan Hill made this one of the few points where a crossing could be attempted.

   The Romans connected their settlements at Carmarthen and Llandovery with a road that ran along the northern bank of the Tywi, behind Penlan Hill. This road is likely to have been a section of an early arterial migration route through South Wales, old even in Roman times. The earliest bridge at Llandeilo is recorded in a manuscript of the 13th century, and it was only after the river was bridged at Llandeilo and Carmarthen in the Middle Ages, that the southern route through Llandeilo was easier for people and horses. Until the northern turnpike roads were built in the early 19th century, most traffic from London to Carmarthen and the Pembrokeshire ports passed south over Llandeilo Bridge.

7. Llandeilo emerged as a focal settlement at this important meeting place of people. The association with St Teilo, a kinsman of St David, in the 6th century, is legendary, but the status of the town in the Middle Ages was certainly augmented by the cult of St Teilo and the saint's miraculous healing well. The smaller settlement of Ffairfach just beyond the bridge developed as a nineteenth century overspill from the main town. The present bridge was completed in 1848 and entailed building a viaduct on the southern approach.

   The railway reached Llandeilo in 1856, on the route which connected Llanelli and the mining valleys with mid-Wales and the Midlands, through Shrewsbury.

8. Being situated half-way up a steep slope, the site of Llandeilo was not defensible from the north and west. The war lords who commanded the river crossing and also the old hill road, which runs through a narrow pass in the hills just north-west of Penlan Hill, chose to fortify one of the hills to the west of the town. This site, Castle Hill, the focus of this walk has a natural sheer drop all round, except for a narrow approach ridge from the Llandeilo side. This is the site of Dinefwr Castle, the most distant point along the walk.

9. Although the physical features before you tell the story of why the town of Llandeilo and the castle of Dinefwr developed, details of the primeval landscape are missing. The river has been managed to prevent flooding and the marshes have been drained. The apparently large area of woodland to the south east, gives some idea of what the hills on both sides of the valley used to look like. It is a deceptive view because most of the trees are in scattered clumps on land that is too wet or steep to cultivate and the upper ones represent hedgerows of small fields that have been allowed to grow above the level that is currently acceptable to most lowland farmers.

   Follow the path right to the iron swing gate at the far corner of the park and enter the reserve

10. The South Wood

    The woodland of the nature reserve occurs in three distinct areas: South Lodge Wood, Church Wood, and the woods around Dinefwr Castle. From the gate a path descends diagonally through South Lodge Wood, across the face of the hill. Most of the plants and animals found in other parts of the reserve occur in this part, and the track may be taken as a sampling line through the woodland. As such it offers a good opportunity to become familiar with the main trees, flowering plants and grasses characteristic of dry deciduous woodlands in this part of Wales. The best method of sampling is to stop approximately every ten paces. Look closely at the vegetation on either side of the path and listen for the songs of birds. Don't worry about making precise identifications, simply note similarities and differences that you find at each point on your descent to the church. Pay particular attention to the sizes of the trees, which vary widely in age.

    Only the trees will present a constant pattern throughout the year, the birds and flowers varying characteristically with the season. The obvious difference in the vegetation half-way down the path, which affects the pattern of flowering plants as well as trees, may be something to do with the spring of nutrient-rich alkaline water draining from a rock fault.

    Continue down the path to where it meets a wide lane

11. The lane was the southern approach-road from Llandeilo Bridge to Dinefwr Castle and also linked the outlying community of Llandyfeisant, just above the town bridge, with its parish church. Note the group of ornamental horse-chestnuts just before the churchyard. This species was introduced to Britain from south-eastern Europe in the 17th century for creating ornamental landscapes, because of its monumental shape and dramatic autumn coloration. From this time deliberate tree planting, particularly of alien species, began to change the character of the rural landscape throughout Britain.

    Turn right and enter the churchyard

12. Llandyfeisant Church

    Some authorities feel that this was the site of a pagan temple associated with peoples occupying Castle Hill to the west, which is now the site of Dinefwr Castle. It is said that Roman remains were found when the churchyard was levelled over a hundred years ago and that a hoard of coins of this period was discovered on the mound to the west of the church, but these were not documented or preserved. There is no doubt that the church, dedicated to St Teifi, served the early Christian community in the 5th century, a community which eventually developed into the old Welsh manor of Dinefwr, sited about a mile away on the ridge to the west, near the castle.

    The present building shows evidence of having undergone major additions and alterations. The southern part, with its blocked doorway facing south, represents the first stone building on the site. The northern part, with its unusual north porch which opened internally, immediately to the side of the altar, was an enlargement that had to be fitted, with difficulty, into a cramped steep site. From the Dinefwr Estate records these extensions were probably undertaken in the mid-19th century. The church is now an interpretation centre for the nature reserve and the castle.

13. Just below the church is a ruined building which was a gamekeeper's cottage at the beginning of the 19th century. There is no evidence for the existence of a village here, although the presence of a spring and shelter under the hill indicate that it would be a desirable spot for a settlement. On the other hand, there is very little dry, flat land available. The spring, situated at the top of the wood above the church, was once a major source of water for the old town of Llandeilo.

    Stand at the western gate and look out to the valley

14. Gwaith Go-bach

    Before improvements were made to prevent the Tywi flooding, the flat valley was a fresh water marsh. Glacial melt waters and the natural evolution of a meandering river have produced many undulations in the valley floor, some of which represent former river beds. The pool in front of you, to the left, and the surrounding boggy area, together with two other waterlogged sites below the castle, are now all that remain of the former extensive valley wetland. The great variety of animals still found here, particularly water fowl and wading birds (30 species) and dragonflies (15 species), gives some idea of the wealth of wildlife that the valley maintained before it was reclaimed. Drainage and the use of mineral fertilizers and herbicides have greatly reduced the diversity of the pool. It is now dependent upon run-off water and varies in area according to the amount of rainfall shed by the adjacent hill. A direct translation of the name Gwaith Go-bach is 'the work place of the little blacksmith'.

15. The main area of woodland of the reserve occupies Castle Hill, in front of you across the wet pasture. The walk to the castle ruins may be taken as an opportunity to obtain an understanding of the way woods function as a biological system. It will also be possible to discern something of the history of the woodlands and the objectives of present management.

    Leave the churchyard by the iron gate and follow the 'badger footprints' to the steps into the small oak copse

16. Castle Woods
    The Oak Clump

    The steps rise up through a group of large trees on a grassy slope. This was formerly within the main body of the wood but has been cleared of undergrowth and managed as part of the hill pasture by encouraging agriculturally important grasses, mainly cocksfoot, that can grow in shady woods. The vegetation is greatly affected by the farm livestock, which use the copse as a shelter, trampling and manuring the ground. The trees in this open clump are the remnants of the second oldest woodland system on the estate. They are mostly oaks of even size, probably the remnants of the early 18th century plantation that forms the biological core of Castle Woods. They were probably preserved, because of their potential monetary value, when the ornamental park was divided up into commercial grazing lots. Compare the simple structure of this copse with the complex mixture of trees and associated vegetation across the boundary fence of the reserve at the top stile.

    Continue up through the copse, over the stile, and follow the edge of the woodland to where the estate road comes alongside the fence. In the distance to your right you will see the mansion called Newton House. The estate road leads directly to the ruined castle. On your left is a stile by which you can reach the castle through the plateau woodlands

17. Castle Plateau

    At the point of entry to woodland from the pasture, the slope, down to the glade on the left, gives an idea of the stratified nature of mature woodland. The backdrop of trees to this glade forms a vertical profile of a woodland habitat. The upper stratum consists of trees that reach a height of 100 feet or more and these species dominate the community by their shading effect. Below this there is a layer of smaller, shade-tolerant trees, and below these, growing only a few feet above the ground, is a layer of shrubs, with herbaceous plants (here mostly grasses and bracken) growing between them. In a self-sustaining woodland, saplings from either the dominant or under-storey tree species may appear in any of the lower strata, growing through on their developmental path to maturity. It is this botanical stratification which produces the high animal diversity of mature woodland. Birds and insects in particular have evolved to take up distinct vertical and horizontal positions, governed by differences in the availability of food, breeding sites and competition with other species. The bird species that variously require open glades for feeding, holes in old trees for nesting and thick ground cover are particularly well represented in these woods, both in species and numbers.

18. Here, on the relatively dry and slightly alkaline soil, the upper stratum consists of oak, ash, beech, elm and sycamore. The secondary trees are hawthorn, wild cherry, holly and apple. The shrub layer contains mainly spindle, hazel and elder. The presence of the relatively rare spindle tree and wild gooseberry in the ground flora indicates that the assembly of trees has some kind of continuity with the original wild-wood. The ground flora is dominated by bracken with bluebells and 'lords and ladies' in the spring.

19. In this reserve, the shrub layer has been augmented by plantings of rhododendron that occurs naturally in the shrub layer of Asiatic mountain forests. The other evergreen shrubs are box and privet. These species were encouraged, partly for their ornamental impact, but also to create a special habitat for shrub-dwelling game birds that were shot for sport. Apart from harbouring game birds, rhododendron, being alien to British wildlife, has a 'sterilizing effect' on the areas it occupies. The current management plan allows for its removal from places where it is particularly dominant.

20. The next section of the path through the woods to the castle was made in 1985 to extract elms killed by the Dutch elm bark- beetle. A very large proportion of the trees on Castle Hill were mature wych elms, the dominant native elm of western Britain. Dutch elm disease has had a devastating effect on the biology and structure of the woodland, and cleared areas have been replanted with a range of seedling species, grown in a special tree nursery in the garden of the old cottage near the church. The young trees are protected from grazing fallow deer by corrugated plastic tubes.

21. Note the large spread of roots of the overturned elm by the stile; there is as much biological stratification below the soil as above it!

    Cross over the stile and walk to the pines

22. It is said that Scots pines were first planted on the deer park in 1745, to commemorate the Scottish Jacobite rising. These specimens may have arisen from these first trees by self-seeding. Did you notice the change in the ground vegetation from bracken at the stile to stinging nettle here?

23. Previous Land Use

    The summit of Castle Hill is really a narrow plateau with the castle sited slightly off-centre to the west. The ground vegetation at the eastern end of the plateau is dominated by bracken but, as the castle is approached, bracken is replaced by massed stinging nettles. Both species colonize deep, dry, potentially fertile soils. Nettles have an exceptionally high level of the element phosphorus in their leaves and are limited in their distribution by the availability of phosphate minerals in the soil. Their dominance in woods is taken to mean that the soil has been heavily fertilized with either livestock manures, human sewage or food wastes. Soil phosphates from human waste disposal are very persistent in the soil. The nettles around the castle indicate that parts of the flatter areas were fields used to provision the garrison in medieval times and point to the possible site of the castle manor. In the early 14th century there was a small community of thirteen houses around the castle, which operated a mill and a salmon fishery. Also, we know that the garrison of the castle was always substantial and would require an encampment, for both men and horses, outside the curtain walls. For example, there were 200 troops at Dinefwr in 1282 and this garrison was quadrupled the following year.

24. The accommodation of large numbers of the military and their horses, the need to maintain a clear all-round field of fire from the castle walls and the great demand for fuel make it unlikely that these woods are older than the 15th century, the last period when the castle had a military use. In this respect, ideas of commercial forestry first took hold in the early 18th century, the likely germination date of the largest trees around you.

25. Badgers and Deer

    Although it is unlikely that you will see them, badgers and wild fallow deer inhabit this section of the woods, the badgers having several underground setts along the top of the ridge. You may find the footprints of both animals and see part of the maze of tracks that they maintain by their habitual movements. Droppings of deer, pointed at one end, may be found in groups; those produced by does are round, and those of bucks cylindrical. They browse on trees but in the open park they compete with sheep and cattle for agricultural grasses.

    Continue to where the path joins the estate road to the Castle

26. The Castle

    The main approach to the castle was along this road from your left, the ground on the other sides falling away steeply as a natural barrier. The main weight of the defences was therefore in this direction. Proceeding up the road, you first cross the outermost line of protection, a dry ditch cut into the rock. This runs left out to the top of an almost sheer drop to the valley floor. It was utilized to gain access to the outer cliff face when a cliff walk was developed in the late 18th century, the castle then being used as the focus of a 'wild' pleasure garden for Newton House.

    Turn left along the estate road to the first 'ditch'

27. According to some authorities the ditch originated as a late Iron Age construction to fortify the western end of the ridge as a promontory fort, a northern counterpart of Cam Goch on the southern bank of the river, and Grongar hill fort to the west. The first castle may have been constructed during the territorial conflicts of Dark Age Britain when the 'kingdoms' of Wales were being created. Some Welsh historians believe that Dinefwr was one of the early royal centres and in the 10th century it became the seat of Hywel Dda, the most famous of the kings of Wales. After his death, his kingdom of Deheubarth fell to the Normans, and from this time Dinefwr was at the centre of Welsh resistance to the Normans, particularly under Lord Rhys in the 12th century.

    Move on to the second defensive moat

28. Documentation of the castle's history only begins in the latter part of the 12th century, when it appears to have been a long-established, powerful fortress. From 1277 there was an English Royal Castle here. It was still being maintained by the Crown in 1409, but was a ruin in 1523. By the end of the 17th century the top of the main tower had been reconstructed and roofed.

    There are a number of castles in Wales with similar massive circular curtain towers, which all date from the 13th century. Complete with its stone curtain wall, the defensive barmkin wall, angled to the main gateway and its outer ward, it was, by Welsh standards, a castle of the first rank. Its presence no doubt contributed to maintaining the country around Llandeilo as a 'front line' against the Norman advance into Wales throughout the 13th century.

29. The best panoramic view across the valley is obtained from the castle-ramparts but most of the important landscape features can be seen from here.

    The Castle Hill Panorama

    From the castle courtyard a broad flight of stone steps is set against the southern curtain wall. This was a 17th century construction to gain access to the rampart walk and the restored upper floor of the great tower. From the top of these steps there is a magnificent view across the valley to the south and along it to the west.

30. The Southern Hill Country

    All of the hill country in front of Castle Hill used to be the focus of the estate of Golden Grove which, in its hey-day, covered 60,000 acres of South Wales. From its peak in the hands of the Vaughan family in the late 18th century, when it included 27 manorial lordships and six castles, it passed to the Earls of Cawdor. The Cawdor estate at this time also held the living of Llandyfeisant Church, and part of the Vaughan inheritance included most of the town of Llandeilo. This partition of the land around Llandeilo between the Vaughans of Golden Grove and the Rices of Dinefwr reflects the original ecclesiastical church control of Llandeilo parish on the one hand, and the military occupation of the Dinefwr hills on the other. The grey stone mansion, built by the Cawdors in 1832, can be seen across the river to the right, half-way up the hill, with conifer plantations behind. The house is now used as an agricultural college. The grounds immediately surrounding the house have been organized as a country park by Dyfed County Council and an exhibition telling the story of the Vaughans and Cawdors has been set up in the house.

31. Llandyfeisant Parish

    The Tywi is the southern boundary of Llandyfeisant. However, at the loop in front of you, the boundary runs south of the river behind the farm Glanyravon, indicating that the river used to follow a straighter course to the south. It is probable that the parish boundary more or less coincides with the territorial limits of the ancient Dinefwr manor.

32. Dryslwyn Castle

    The ruined castle of Dryslwyn can be seen to the west on the same bank of the river as Dinefwr. It is sited dramatically on a high but small natural outlier of Silurian limestone. There is evidence that this hill was occupied in the Iron Age. The first record of a Welsh castle there is said to be dated 1138 and it is first referred to by name in 1216. The fortress held a key position in the Anglo-Welsh wars, second only to Dinefwr. It was eventually taken by the English after a three-week siege in 1277. The last written record of the castle on a war footing was in 1402.

33. Paxton's Tower

    The tower on the far right southern horizon was built in 1810 by William Paxton who owned the estate of Middleton Hall to the west of Golden Grove. It is an observation tower built in memory of Lord Nelson, and is now owned by the National Trust. A good panoramic view of the northern banks of the Tywi may be obtained from the hill on which it stands.

    Although Middleton Hall was destroyed by fire in 1931, part of the pleasure garden Paxton designed, with walks and a waterfall, has been restored and is open to the public.

34. Grongar Hill and John Dyer

    Nearer than Dryslwyn and about twice as high as the castle is Grongar Hill, rising west of the village of Llangathen. It is crowned with an Iron Age fort and the Romans built a marching camp here.

35. At the beginning of the 18th century British art was beginning to concentrate on the beauties of Nature. Rural landscapes were becoming the subjects of art and literature, and one of the earliest of these romantic works describing a real place was written about Grongar Hill by John Dyer who was born at Llangathen, at the foot of the hill, in 1699. Dyer was carried along with the new tide of nature appreciation. He was obsessed by the hills of Carmarthenshire just as Wordsworth was later influenced by the mountains of the English Lake District.

    It was this same 'landscape movement' that later motivated the owners of Newton House to incorporate the castle ruins into a landscaped park.

    Walk in the moat, below the round tower

36. Rocky Outcrop Flora

    The path through the inner ditch to the rear of the castle passes a steep bank on which the large round curtain tower has been constructed. In summer this is the most botanically diverse site for its size on the reserve. The thin covering of soil has prevented the growth of trees, and the natural assembly of grasses and herbs is characteristic of upland sites with similar physical properties.

    Continue round the castle to the point just beyond the reserve boundary notice

37. The Deer Park

    The northern gully, immediately below the castle, has some of the oldest and largest secondary woodland trees on the reserve. The main species are hawthorn, hazel and elder with four wild cherry trees. They appear to have been left after the primary timber trees were removed, maybe several hundred years ago. One of the cherry trees has a girth of 3.5 metres and there can be few larger than this in the whole of Britain.

38. Through the gap in the trees across the valley can be seen the hillside of the deer park. The lower slope is covered with bracken and the higher parts have a species-rich sward, with a dense scattering of anthills, indicative of very old grazing pasture which has not been harrowed. The park is surrounded by a high, wire mesh, deer fence, enclosing about a fifth of the parish. It is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) mainly on account of the large number of very old oak trees it contains, which have rare mosses and lichens growing on their bark. The habitat is probably derived directly from an ancient wood pasture, which was a medieval art of producing timber in the presence of grazing animals. Cattle and sheep were allowed access to an open canopied woodland, consisting of large scattered oaks, to eat the woodland grasses (herbage) and pigs were fattened on the shallow roots and acorns (pannage).

39. Deer parks were a special development of wood pasture for meat and sport. Dinefwr Park contains a herd of white cattle that was said to be descended from the original European wild cattle.

    The ancient Welsh nobility measured each other's status by the numbers of cattle owned. Now the park contains fallow deer (a Norman import), varying in colour from a sandy brown with spots, to black.

    Now retrace your steps along the estate road to where there is a large ash tree to the right of a small opening

40. In front of the ash tree is a large hawthorn. This area gives some idea of the relative sizes of the oldest trees in a mature, three-layered, natural woodland or 'high-forest'.

41. Just beyond the path junction, the roadway turns to the left and passes through two plantations, the first devoted to beech and the second to larch. In the spring the ground flora below the conifers is dominated by bluebells, an indication that the land was formerly a natural deciduous woodland. Bluebells require light below a leafless woodland canopy during their early spring growth phase. Larch, although an alien coniferous timber tree, is deciduous like the native trees.

    Continue down the road, into the parkland and stop at the large oak just outside the gate

42. Newton

    This oak is one of the largest on the estate, and also one of the few really old oaks in the British Isles. It probably dates from the early 17th century and a time when most of the western half of the parish, north of the castle, was wood pasture.

43. It is now possible to view the mansion of Newton House. The house and its outbuildings occupy the site of a new town founded in 1298 by Edward I as part of his policy to anglicise Wales. The new manor was a deliberate attempt by the Crown to develop a new urban centre to supplant the old Welsh demesne of Dinefwr, adjacent to the castle. Thirty burgesses were settled there, the majority having non-Welsh names.

    The new settlement came to be called the New Town (Y Drenewydd) of Dinefwr. The borough was enfranchised in 1363, giving the burgesses a right to hold their own courts, to have two annual fairs and a weekly market. The old and new settlements of Dinefwr continued to exist side by side, but Newton did not thrive. By the early 15th century there was little to tell them apart.

44. In 1439, Gruffydd ap Nicholas, a Deputy Constable of the castle, obtained a lease on the castle, town and demesne. His descendents, who took the surname Rhys or Rice, were to hold this land, broadly coinciding with the southern portion of the present parish of Llandyfeisant, until modern times, becoming Barons Dynevor in 1780. The balance of population gravitated to serve the family estate which became centred on Newton House and its home-farm to the north.

45. The first building that we know about was a 15th century manor house. The present building is substantially a mid-17th century house, with later additions and embellishments made in the 18th and 19th centuries. There are no visible signs of either the medieval Edwardian township, thought to have been laid out to the east of the house, or the older Welsh manor which was probably closer to the old castle.

46. The house nearer to you is called the 'gamekeeper's cottage', and is a typical estate house of the late Victorian period.

47. The roadway provides views across an open landscape deliberately beautified by tree plantings arranged in belts and clumps. This landscaped park was created out of the eastern portion of the former deer park. The famous English landscape gardener 'Capability' Brown was invited to Dinefwr in 1775 to consult on the new art of 'landscape gardening'. The present appearance of the park is, in part at least, a fulfilment of his ideas of how a mansion was to be viewed clearly from a tree-girt, grazed pasture. The two beech clumps on Penlan Hill are said to be a direct result of his advice. The white 'gravestones' behind the house are the protective plastic tree sheaths of a large, new plantation.

48. Many references have been made by visitors to the exceptional beauty of the Dinefwr landscape. One seasoned traveller in the early 19th century described Newton as being "without exception, one of the finest inland places I ever saw". Despite the loss of many of its trees, it is still one of the finest British parklands to survive in the Brownian style.

49. The parkland is now divided amongst several tenants who graze it with cattle and sheep. In this lot, the small patch of bracken beneath the oak, with bluebells in the spring, is all that remains of the original woodland flora. Elsewhere the pasture is a semi-natural mixture of grasses, with a relatively low nutrient value, suitable for the maintenance of ewes and the fattening of beef-cattle. This kind of old pasture, whilst not of high biological diversity, is becoming rare. The trend is to maintain the more nutritious and rapidly growing rye grass as an arable crop. This involves intermittent ploughing and re-seeding to prevent the sward becoming dominated, as this one is, by grasses and herbs of lower nutrient value.

    Continue down the road, above the copse of old oaks to your left to where the badger footprints take you back towards the church. Stop at the second stile

50. Hedges

    The group of willows to the left has seeded and grown up during the past 40 years in the wetland around a disused sewage works, built to meet the needs of the army personnel occupying Newton House as a hospital during the Second World War.

51. Returning across the low-lying pasture to the church, observe the hedgerow to the right. It is remarkable in being the only free-standing hedge on the estate. It follows the line of an old drainage ditch and does not appear to have been managed to make it stock-proof. Where hedges have been allowed to develop in this way, by neglect, the number of tree species bears a direct relationship with the time that has elapsed since the boundary was created, and the increasing chance opportunities for seedlings to become developed. It has been established that every species of tree or shrub in a 30 yard stretch of hedgerow represents approximately a century of ecological development. How old is this boundary?

    Go back into the churchyard

52. Epilogue
    The People

    The present boundaries of Llandyfeisant do not include any part of the town of Llandeilo, which has a separate parochial status. In the past, however, the boundaries of Llandyfeisant extended further east and a hundred years ago the houses just above the Tywi Bridge were included within the parish. This arrangement is probably a legacy from the days when it was strategically important for the castle and the garrison town of Dinefwr to have command of the bridgehead. This may also be taken as evidence that the manor of Llandyfeisant is older than Llandeilo. There is also a substantial detached portion of the parish, amounting to about a quarter of the total parish area of 1,200 acres, situated five miles north of Llandeilo. This demonstrates the way in which the formation of parish boundaries sometimes fossilized very ancient estates with scattered lands. These were the pre-Norman lordships upon which the early parish divisions were based.

53. During the last hundred years there has been a drop in the population of Llandyfeisant associated with the decline in the social importance of Newton House, the enlargement of farms and the mechanisation of agriculture. In 1851 Dinefwr Farm Estate occupied a thousand acres and employed 26 agricultural labourers. There were 9 other farms in the parish, the smallest being 9 acres and the largest 100 acres. Thirty years later these peripheral farms had been reduced to 7, ranging in size from 16 to 200 acres. Now there are only 3 farms and much of the grazing land is let to tenants from other parishes. Lord Dynevor no longer owns land in the parish. The main land managers are now the National Trust, the Department of the Environment and the West Wales Naturalist Trust.

54. Reading the tombstones will reveal the old social structure of this small parish: tradesmen from Bridge Street (now part of Llandeilo town), farmers, lords, emigrants to the colonies and European refugees. They also tell of the uncertainties of life, particularly poignant for the Thomas family, a hundred years ago, whose story can be read from the inscriptions on their monolith, on the left, just before you leave the churchyard.

55. The Landscape

    You have now walked through a diverse landscape that is entirely man-made, reading it first as part of the earth's history, then as part of human history. The Dinefwr landscape is the outcome of medieval politics influenced by geological diversity. The various ecological elements have all been created over the centuries by a succession of landowners and their tenants. They have all left their mark on the present use of land according to their individual values, both aesthetic and commercial.

    Very few parts of the earth have not been modified by the human race and an understanding of our environment, including those special parts we call nature reserves, requires a very broad view, drawing information from a range of subject areas. This is the importance of landscape history, a relatively new subject. It brings together the many specialists, who each have a part in the environmental jigsaw. The Dinefwr walk has featured many specialist topics. Only when all the specialists get together can we tell the full story of any particular area of the countryside, and manage it in accordance with the geological, biological and historical heritage it represents, with the minimum of conflict between the various users.

Produced by Professor David Bellamy, Cardiff University and Ian S. Watt, Dyfed Wildlife Trust, Llandeilo, 1986. Deposited in Llandeilo Library. If you want a copy for a walk through Llandeilo you can print it off from this screen.