Recent Articles
Wales
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Tyn Y Llwyn – an Idyllic Country Retreat Near Abergavenny in Wales
Staying at Tyn Y Llwyn is a great experience that starts with the opening of a genuine five-bar gate and driving up a track to a sixteenth century farmyard. The two storey converted stable is cosy, comfortable and enchanting. All I could see for miles around was the agricultural landscape of the Brecon Beacons – the perfect country retreat.
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Exploring Abervagenny Beneath the Brecon Beacons
In this age of re-cycling the market town of Abergavenny close to the Welsh/English border is doing a good job converting its historic buildings for new uses. A nineteenth century hunting lodge is now home to a museum, the visitor centre occupies an eleventh century tithe barn and the cinema is based in a nineteenth century army drill hall. Situated in the beautiful Usk valley and a starting point for some great walks in the Brecon Beacons Abergavenny is a great place for truly getting away from it all.
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The Wild and Wonderful St David’s Peninsula in Pembrokeshire, Wales
St David's Peninsula in Pembrokeshire Wales is a glorious mixture of wild countryside and interesting cultural sites. It encompasses two national treasures, the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. I had already walked small sections of the latter during previous sojourns in Newport, St David’s City and Tenby …
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Newport in Pembrokeshire, Wales - a Holiday Haven
Newport in Pembrokeshire, Wales stretches along the estuary of the Nevern River that goes down to the Irish Sea in Newport Bay. I started my walk around the town at the Iron Bridge and followed a very easy stretch of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path that runs alongside the Nevern Estuary. The path is lined with trees on both sides with occasional glimpses of the estuary beyond them. As always in Pembrokeshire my walk was enhanced with the friendly greetings of passers-by ...
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A Day Out in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales
It was a very mixed group that gathered on by the tractor on Tenby beach as instructed. Old and young, able and not so able. There was no sign of a boat. Waves crashed on to the beach behind us as we all looked uncertainly at each other. There was no sign of a boat nor of anyone in authority. We all cheered up when a young man arrived, jumped into the tractor and reversed it and the jetty attached to it to the water’s edge. A few minutes later a boat arrived. As the boat nudged the end of the jetty each passenger was handed carefully aboard ...
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St David’s, a Welsh Village that became a Charming City
St David’s on the ruggedly splendid Pembrokeshire coast in Wales is utterly charming. When I checked into the excellent Twr y Felin Hotel I had no sense at all of being in a city, albeit the smallest city in the UK. Close to my hotel, at the top of the High Street I found Oriel y Parc the visitor centre for the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park which was designated as such in 1952 and incorporates St David’s Peninsula. The National Park was created to protect the environment and sets a fine example with its own visitor centre ...
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Panoramas and Portraits at the Excellent Twr y Felin Hotel in St David's Pembrokeshire
It was with great and justified pride that Emma showed me to my suite when I checked into the Twr y Felin Hotel in St David’s, Pembrokeshire in Wales. The Tyddewi (Windmill Tower) Suite occupies the three floors of the original windmill that was built here in 1806. This windmill had a chequered history being damaged several times in terrible storms and on two occasions its wings and paddles were blown off. Despite these misadventures the windmill ground corn intermittently for nearly a century until it ceased operations in 1904. New buildings were added and the windmill was first converted into a hotel ...