Griff Rhys Jones is setting out on a personal odyssey to return to his home country of Wales. Born there but brought up just outside of London, he’s heading back to get to grips with the wonderful and magical country that is Wales, uncovering the country’s true spirit with plenty of adventures along the way.
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I’m setting out on a personal Odyssey you see I was born in Wales but brought up in Essex and now I’m coming back I want to get to grips with a wonderful a magical a remarkable country Wales to uncover the true Spirit of Wales and the Welsh I’m given some guidance by a
Hidden Hand your quest today is to find a Holy Grail with each new adventure I’m set a challenge to test my Celtic credentials this is my Puffin moment so today I’m exploring a perfect Paradise the Gower Peninsula once secluded and almost inaccessible it’s one of wales’s most unspoiled regions Thank you I’ve come from morning run on what must be the best place in the world for such a thing the Glorious Gower peninsula I’m starting my journey here on the spectacular Ross silly Beach it was voted the third best beach in Europe I’d like to see the other two
At three miles long there’s enough room for everyone well almost Griff your task is to prepare A Feast for a local rugby hero Here in South Wales with four of the biggest Rugby Union clubs on my doorstep I’m right at the center of Welsh rugby Heartland so finding a rugby hero shouldn’t be too difficult and because the Gower was once virtually self-sufficient in food production I should be able to rustle up a local
Feast I just need to find the right ingredients they say that Wales is like a continent in miniature it’s got every conceivable form of landscape and and the Gower is like a continent in microcosm because it’s got It’s got fantastic country lanes it’s got Moorland Hills it’s got
Caves and cliffs and marshes come with me let’s explore it with 30 miles of the most dramatic Coastline in Britain 50 glorious beaches 70 square miles of prime farm and common land the Gower is a unique territory one of the first things you notice are the wild Gower ponies there are between
Two and three hundred of them they’ve lived here for centuries and they’re able to survive on such slim pickings as brambles and course They make for some of the sturdiest riding ponies in the world so I’m going to Brave the saddle I don’t know an enormous amount about horses that’s right they’re easy going these horses yeah that’s what they always say all right thank you okay this is easier than said than done
Isn’t it okay all right good now Freddie that’s all right don’t get alarmed Freddie is just trying to work out whether I really know what I’m doing that’s what horses do they think does the person who’s sitting on me at the moment have any clue about horse riding
Pony trekking through the vast acreage of common land in the Gower is one of the great pleasures of this region but I have malteria motive for joining this group of locals I need some inside information I have to say I don’t know very much about horses but you you’ll be really
Surprised to find I know even less about rugby all right so when I was a child we were taken as children to watch the rugby that was in the days when you could click to touch from anywhere and it’s changed such a lot with a professional era when you think of the
Size of some of the centers and wings at the time when I was at school and the size of them now monsters and what’s the local team around here well cementally is the one opposite us here you can see from that even where you are what’s the Finesse team called the Scarlets the
Scarlets yes and then the team in Swansea the ospreys so competitive as the sport become that the average weight and height of a rugby union player has increased by anything up to 20 percent in the last 40 years I better get a bigger rucksack for my ingredients
I think that’s an interesting thing this one piece will make 52 layers watch on mobile devices or the big screen all for free no subscription required the Gower Peninsula is sandwiched between two of what were once the biggest industrial towns in the country to the West was famous for its tin
Production and to the east Swansea was once home of the biggest copper smelting works in the world it was nicknamed Copperopolis all right thank you faith that was great cheerio my pony track has brought me closer to my next destination more than 250 ships have come to grief along the treacherous Limestone Cliffs
Of the Gower peninsula they’re peppered with deep caves which don’t give up their secrets easily it was in one of these caves along this stretch of Cliff that the oldest buried human remains in Britain were discovered they were 34 000 years old it not a place to get lost in
Well there we are look at that a magnificent and slightly terrifying coast and I think the idea now is for me to get a little bit closer to it Worth foraging for if I want to go down yeah I lift this up you just pull it out to the side of you and leave it feed through right after a brief tutorial on the art of abseiling I’m off I can hold it with two hands the last time I did this it
Was nearly the last time I did anything start walking what am I looking for to put my feet on as it were just some nice flat Ledges there’s plenty there so Step Up Left Foot Down abseiling was invented in 1879 by a French Mountaineer Chalet to help him descend Montblanc
I suppose if there’s something to be said for this it’s a little bit more controlled and fully Okay I’ve come to a really interesting bit here because there’s a giant hole in the cliff beneath me well no God no um what Okay good I’m on for the last bit now all right Yes that was the now I joined local climber Andrew who’s going to take me the short distance to my real destination as we get to the edge here yeah it’s just around there this is called Culver hole and it’s anything up to 800 years old can we get in we can
Yeah it’s a bit of a trade squeeze them now I don’t want to end up like that 34 000 year old skeleton oh God Oh look at that good it is it was built as a dovecot an extraordinary place to build a dove cot in the medieval times what we call feral pigeons that were rocked up so they were kept in places like this so that people could easily get the birds or the eggs
To feed themselves and if you look right up there yeah you’ve got all these little roosting points this little holes well the engines will be kept so you can there’s little sort of nooks and crannies in the Rock and then they would have gone up and down pinching pigeons or baby
Pigeons or eggs or anything they needed to eat Culver Hall was a medieval Delicatessen specializing in Pigeon but it’s not what you’d call a convenience store in store sadly though there are no pigeons here today and nothing for me to add to my Feast not even edible seaweed As well as the beaches and the coast there’s this brilliant Ridge Mall and ridge that runs all the way along the top of the peninsula Kevin Brynn this is raw natural character And there’s nothing more raw than this yeah this is wonderfully mysterious this is Arthur’s Stone the legend is that King Arthur had a stone in his shoe and he threw it over here from flannel and it was so proud to have been in his shoe that it grew in size
Today it’s thought probable that it’s uh a burial site about four and a half thousand years old Foreign Rocky Cliffs and secret caves but the North Coast is the complete opposite endless flat marshlands that stretch as far as the eye can see in the days when Gower was virtually cut off from the rest of civilization because of poor roads and no Railway this stretch of Coast helped the locals remain
Self-sufficient I’ve been challenged to cook A Feast for a local rugby hero and I’m hoping that the cockle gatherers here at penncloud might provide me with some local ingredients Glenn Hindman whose family have worked these Shores for five generations is going to show me how it’s done in front of you
See Waters running out in front of you all the time you’re not going deep not deep just tick top tops of your face off I can feel caught was coming up and you can’t be down deeper enough because it’s got to breathe so okay the cockles hide just under the surface
Because the cockles here are spitting see there’s one there see spitting see them and you see them spitting they’re good and they’re feeding and they’re spinning out the water and that indicates to me that there are cockles from here cockroach for me to harvest This guy’s done it before good job Tom what do you think see there’s some boys been on it for about 30 years he’s still waiting now this is the depressing part you think you’re doing all right first until you shake the pan it’s not a bad effort
Come on dude that is one terrible effort you can hear him casting the background there cackling away is that’s as best excuse a mangled back and all for this Glenn tells me that the vast majority of cockles are now exported to France and Spain where there’s a huge market for them but 50 years or so ago cockles were an important part of the daily diet on the Gower back then they were gathered by women because the men would have been
Working down down the cockles were then transported across miles and miles of Mud Flats on Old donkey carts bowls are some taste I wondered how Glenn acquired it well put it this way when I when I was young but I went to my grannies yeah you’re either that cockles who starved
Suits up to you I couldn’t afford anything else I’ve yet actually tasted a pen class cockle myself so Glenn suggests we pop into the local chippy where they’ve perfected their own way of serving them excuse me about the cocktails already okay thanks They look great Hmm this is a really good way to do them because I’m not changing all that no fantastic hmm honestly my dad used to eat cockles a lot and he’d always have them in little little sort of bowls like that covered in vinegar it’s like sort of fishy chewing gum these are just
Delicious really delicious cockles aren’t the only food stuff that the North Coast of the Gower is known for the flat Marshland that dominates the coast around here provides some rather special grazing well there we are I’ve got my starter salt marshmallow that’s a good idea it’s up there with
Stilton cheese and vegetable oysters farmer Roland Pritchard has been grazing his sheep here for nearly half a century I’m curious to know what effect the Marshland has on them what is it that the these sheep are feeding on when they’re feeding out on the old dimash eating a lot a lot of the
Herbs the Sea comes in and covers it inside yeah the salt then won’t allow normal vegetation that you get in fields to grow so we don’t get the right grasses but we get a lot of herbs sand fire Sorrel Sea lavender and Thrift are just some of the aromatic herbs the sheep eat
But twice a day they have to leave their tasty pasture behind what’s gonna happen then this this is going to flood this is going to flood in an hour or so as they move this will be underwater Roland is here to make sure his flock of
1 400 sheep is gay Rising tide through a single Gateway and migrates to Higher Ground but because a stranger in a bright red jacket has appeared they’re reluctant to pass well you should better get a move on if you don’t want to float out into the Bristol Channel you’ve heard me
And then of course there are the ones who haven’t yet made up their mind thank you Roland pritchard’s Farm takes its name from Weebly Castle which looms over the marsh and before I leave I invest in a succulent leg of land all about make sure you enjoy that tracking down the
Best of the Region’s local food has taught me a lot about the way of life on Gower I’ve bagged my ingredients now it’s time to head for the kitchen Sean Reese’s head chef at saucepan insane as well all right we’ll do the sides as well good okay good how’s that that’s perfect good
I thought it was perfect that’s what I like to hear perfect I’ll be back with my rugby star if I can find him Terry day this was one of the great rugby Internationals of the 20th century he won 21 caps for Wales but this planetly born rugby hero began his career by doing what many locals thought was the unthinkable and playing for the other side we’re actually on the very grounds where
You first learned to play rugby that’s right yes and at 17 years of age an opportunity came Swansea asked me to play and you were committing treason if you left directly to go and believe you’re telling me you cross the bridge and yeah yeah people used to shouted you in the
Street saying oh you’re a traitor there is extraordinary rivalry between absolutely and then even more rivalry between Swansea and Cardiff yes yes it was a huge thing altogether now what I was wondering is I’ve been tasked with with creating a meal for a rugby hero
And you you are that hero can I cook a meal for you absolutely I’d be delighted to accept but I’ve got a task for you right I want you to kick a goal kick a goal yes I want you to kick this ball through the pulse okay
Now I did play rugby when I was at school but because I was little I was a scramble half not a kicker give me some tips what’s the secret as you approach the kick you shift your body you lean slightly forward and then the ball goes does it you lean slightly forward you
Lean slightly forward on that yeah and then the trajectory changes you start from here yeah and you go back one two on one to the side one or Adventure now rests entirely Yes only by following Terry’s brilliant coaching was I able to pull that one off now finally I get to cook him a feast from my Gower sourced goodies first the cockles okay marvelous the cockles are not deep fried this time but cooked in the French style onions wine herbs cream
Cockles Marine air absolutely gorgeous they yes brilliant I’m going to leave you to your cockles for a moment Terry because I’ve got to get on with the next course This is martial Marshland it’s been raised eating samphire and Marsh herbs which apparently very much affects The Taste now that looks cracking doesn’t it you’re as nearly as good cook as my mother first how’s the business gorgeous absolutely which is terrific I think I fulfilled my quest which was to cook
Dinner for a Welsh rugby hero coach through your life though with being a god amongst Welshman been very difficult has it oh absolutely well I hope you enjoy this meal some compensation Thank you I’m setting out on a personal Odyssey you see I was born in Wales but brought up in Essex and now I’m coming back I want to get to grips with a wonderful a magical a remarkable country Wales to uncover the true Spirit of Wales and the Welsh I’m given some guidance by a
Hidden Hand your quest today is to find a Holy Grail with each new adventure I’m set a challenge to test my Celtic credentials this is my Puffin moment today I’m going into pembrokeshire from rugged Cliffs to sheltered Coast the 186 miles of Coastline for the most breathtaking in Britain I’ve gone native I’m beginning my adventure on the rolling plains of strumble head howdy today I’m in Pembroke shark in the wild west of Wales a land of new age tourism and I should say Cowboys because I’m here to explore a place where dairy farming has always led the way
My mission is to find and walk a pembrokeshire koi a Pembroke Corgi well that’ll be a challenge and what makes it a pembrokeshire corgi I wonder Queen can help me rugged Cliffs sandy beaches wooded estuaries and wild in Land Hills these are the elements that Define the distinctive landscape of this superb County
Pembrokeshire is where the great rolling mountains of Wales finally dipped down to a long Plateau which stretches out into the sea and it’s productive and very beautiful farming country but it’s likely to be full of surprises in amongst this fertile landscape is some distinctly curious industrial archeology
The thing about a proper rural area is that nothing ever gets thrown away and how wonderful to find here just by the side of the road a proper rusting Morris Minor there were in fact over a million Morris minus in circulation by 1961 and it looks like
Quite a proportion of them have come here to die after a bit of rummaging around the bag I eventually Tracked Down the proprietor Jack Williams also goes by the name of Jack pontiago the name of this Village that’s quite a pinbrookshire thing so Jack I’ve got to ask you this what
Are all these Morris miners doing here well I’ve started collecting them I had the first one back in the 1950s some people have fought up to say do you want to buy a modest Miner and I couldn’t refuse you’ve got a a dog in your garden yes we
Have a publisher Corgi a Pembroke Chicago that is what I need to find can we go meet your dog yes of course what’s the name of the dog Max one of the things I’ve got to do Jack is take is take a corgi for a walk so will
Matson let me take him no you can’t put a call on you can’t put a collar on it how do you take him for a walk it seems that Maxson has rebelled against the collar since he was knee-high to a dachshund so now he gets his exercise from patrolling the front
Lawn and inviting the odd passerby to play Russian roulette with his teeth so all I can do with Max and is throw him a ball but I can’t possibly take him for a walk so near it so far no wonder this breed is on the endangered species list I
Think I may be next one of Jack’s many Morris minors still works just and he’s offered to give me a lift this tiny package of motorized bumblebee was designed by the same man who gave us the mini manufactured from 1948 to 1972 the Morris was no Racer the series one
Could barely make it to 60 miles an hour and even naught to 50 could take a good five minutes uphill Before he drops me off Jack suggests I make my way to Haverford West dog capital of pembrokeshire apparently but first i’m going to exchange one source of power for another this stream once drove an entire Factory back in the 18th century melon traguint was a corn Mill now it’s a busy textile mill
In the Middle Ages thousands of Flemish Weavers immigrated to this part of Wales and one of the things that they brought with them was their dogs they say it was weaving that introduced the Corgi to pembrokeshire nowadays all this Machinery is run by electricity but at one time water
Powered everything here and this is where our water wheel usually sits watch after that it’s been repaired at the moment it’s been restored yeah and the water would come through from the leaves here which would fill up the buckets in in the wheel oh I see over the top so
Effectively it turned it by gravity yes and in turn that would drive the shaft which runs underneath the floor here and turns all these wheels and pulleys which feed through into Mill which thankfully water power is destined to return here to Melinda gwent oh I asked Sophia to show me around the
Mill so this is the wolf is stand yeah so this is how we create the water the walks the walk safe threads that run through the clock so they run through the loom and then the wet is waving in and out all righty so the walk the one that goes across
That way let’s go right okay where do you do the actual weaving uh well these are our leaves we’ve got five looms here yeah so the ones coming through here and then the West is going across here with the radio yeah so in a day this machine will probably
Do between 40 and 60 meters if it’s running well Fashionable textiles are exported from this corner of pembrokeshire to America Road they Remain the legacy of the Flemish Weavers even if they’re dogs see to have gone Further down the coast is the capital of pembrokeshire Saint David’s hard to believe perhaps but this little pocket of urbanization was granted the status of a city as recently as 1994. and the reason for this was this impressive Cathedral William the Conqueror came here to pray
A thousand years ago and it is the final resting place of increase Patron Saint David with a population of just 1 800 people this is the smallest city in the United Kingdom by some way and now it seems to be largely given over to tourists and dogs I can’t see any corgis there
The people of Saint Davids weren’t satisfied with just achieving their City status they also asked if they could have a lord man and were told they couldn’t perhaps they didn’t have enough pompous Burgers to choose from plenty of barking but still no corgis Two miles west of Saint David’s is what has been described as one of the best tourist beaches not just in Wales but in the world and it’s not just the tourists that have found a use for the Golden Shores of White Sands Harry Potter Robin Hood the thief of Baghdad whatever Hollywood
Is needed a spectacular Beach it’s it’s come to Pembroke Shack and you can always find a bit for yourself because 186 miles of Coastline reaches out into the Atlantic wherever you are you’re only 10 miles away from the coast We’re about as far west as you can get from London here and you might think it’s remote but over there is one of the great spaghetti Junctions of seaways because the Vikings came down from the north the Romans came up from the south the Normans came the Phoenicians came
They were the huge docks of Pembroke Dock and Milford Haven Milford Haven Waterway is actually one of the deepest natural Harbors in the world it’s still peppered with what were known as the Palmerston forts erected in the late 19th century in response to the potential threat posed by the French
Navy these ghosty edifices have become the Alcatraz of pembrokeshire though the jagged Coastline itself had proved to Be an Effective enough defense against enemy shipping over the centuries so far from being a forgotten corner pembrokeshire is surprisingly well connected with the rest of the world in 1952 in recognition of pembroke’s
Spectacular Coastline a national park was created around the entirety of the County’s Coast the irony is that much of the cliffs and Seashore are actually completely inaccessible to most people but there is a way around this make nice and steady you know he made a big jump to anything I’ve joined
Professional kosteras John and Rachel to taste the perils and pleasures of this new sport the principle of co-steering is that you explore the tidal Zone on foot or by swimming but without the aid of boats or surfboards or air ambulances with any luck Rachel’s in first
I don’t like the look of it but they’re waiting for me so Well that’s broken the ice this is what it’s all about swim for a bit then Edge along the Rocks it’s actually mentally absorbing because you have to be planning your next move all the time although you have to watch out where that move might be well that looks nicely treacherous
Well we’ve calm about 100 yards along here to make sure rock climbing and Diving and chilling out literally steering goes back to the 1970s when it was simply called Sea Cliff climbing then in the 90s it really took off here in pembrokeshire but also in angle City Cornwall and even the highlands and
Islands of Scotland over the years I have walked the pembrokeshire path to Coastal Park and I’ve only ever looked down on these rocks but often there is no way down to the coast like this and yet when you get down here and you see everything from
The point of view of a have a jellyfish or a Shipwrecked Mariner you see them for what they are fantastic cultures made by the wind and the Sea and in former times the ice look at this one over here it’s like a pyramid co-steering is completely addictive
But it’s time that I got back onto dry land well I’m coming ashore here at the very spot where some David first arrived to bring Christianity to the Welsh and uh and I still haven’t found a corgi Dairy farming is a crucial part of pembrokesh’s economy but it’s not the
Cows or the farmer I’m after Morning I’ll see you here what I’m after is a lift and a quiet word with a local vet Andrew Clements I want to know more about the Corgi and its pembrokeshire Origins guess what he’s about going back yes they were the traditional Cattle Dog of the area you know used to
Bring cattle in as opposed to the colleague because you’d have thought looking at a corgi that it doesn’t look like a working dog at all looks like a lap dog it doesn’t look the most athletic of dogs but you know Collies are there for Speed and they were sort
Of run round sheep very quickly where I think corgis would just follow up the cattle and just sort of snap at their heels and just bring the cattle in that way they’re still quite a popular pet in Pembroke sure it’s a lot of pet corgis and show corgis but you don’t see as
Many working corgis after swapping notes as to where I might actually find a companionable corgi Andrew drops me off to meet somebody with precisely the breed of cattle a working dog would have once herded the Welsh black Dr Sarah bainan has become preoccupied with one particular aspect of the
Private lives of cattle like these one of these animals will produce about nine tons of dung in a year and that’s a lot of dung being produced and the issue is is that it’s not being broken down and the reason for that is that we’re using lock of chemicals to get rid of
Their internal parasites they get shot straight out into the dung and they’re toxic to the organisms that should be breaking the dung down so if we’re not careful whales could become one fast dung Heap but Sarah believe she has the answer the common or garden dung beetle
And she’s setting traps to catch them this looks fascinating here we have a pile of Welsh black cattle done and the dung beetles will then fly in towards that dung but they can’t quite get to it so they’ll walk towards it fall down the funnel and be trapped in the pot underneath
What does a dung beetle set out to do then dung Beetle’s absolutely vital to us as humans they are the bin men of the world and they will go towards the dung Pat they will then feed on the Dunn if it wasn’t for the dung beetles an area
Double the size of London would be covered in dung each year and that would just sit there well an area the size of pembrokeshow Sarah is Keen to introduce me personally to her dung beetles not only that she wants to experiment on me the angry model right yeah so put your other hand
On top yeah and just try and hold them don’t squash them but try and hold them there in your hand yeah ah right and what are they doing are they trying to push through they are indeed e except by occasionally indica They’re some of the strongest animals on the planet and so if you scaled a Dumb Beetle up to human size yes they would be able to push three and a half double decker buses full of people that’s how strong they are it’s no use I can’t hold them any longer
And besides I don’t know where they’ve been the dung Beetle’s super strength and general lack of fussiness when it comes to their diet means that they could be the savior of the pembrokesha dairy industry but I’m still after the little dogs that once kept it in order Well here I am in Haverford West a fine Old Market town and it apparently translates as the forward of the fat heifer come here in search of dogs and I think I found them every conceivable dog is here making the local community Hall’s weekly training session it’s a canine Noah’s Ark
Spotted some corgis Sue bail and her husband Steve have been breeding corgis for many years I’m told that just 241 pembrokeshire corgis were registered this year which makes the breed an endangered species in Britain for the first time 2 and Steve had better get to work
Yes Sue’s come here to get their show dog Porsche assessed by one of the judges and so I’m looking for nice clean eyes nice pigmentation on the nose and I look at the teeth I’m looking for a nice scissor bite all in all a nice dog if I wanted to buy
Myself a corgi a pedigree coffee a poor shirt would cost you she cost us about two Grands two grand because she came in from America really and we had to wait seven months for it to come in for the rabies right I’m going to be careful
With you Porsche you’re worth a lot of money worth a lot of money we call her Posh Porsche Posh Porsche yeah now I found my Corgi I need some tips on how to walk it I’ve got to walk a corgi and I realize that walking a dog is not just something
That you know like I used to walk the dog just around the lamp it’s obviously walking a dog is something with a certain skill and quality indeed yes clearly these owners are going to spend hours learning how to control the gate and Poise of their dogs not to mention
How not to trip over them so this is it I’m all set to fulfill my challenge little did I know however how difficult the walking part would be on top of that Sue bail has substituted mischievous Merlin for Posh Porsche he can smell my inexperience Stan look
At me Trina Joan Evans will pass judgment on my performance thank you okay come on come on Molly come on walk with me walk with me we’ve got to show you show you yes we have that’s it good walk walk around we come come on
Round round no no come on come on man that’s it And round we go again and go and run now stand come on look at me look at me how’s that not too good I’m afraid the dog was okay but you need a bit more practice right well there we are I’m afraid I utterly failed to walk accordion but I suppose I
I did walk pen butcher I’m setting out on a personal Odyssey you see I was born in Wales but brought up in Essex and now I’m coming back I want to get some grips with a wonderful a magical a remarkable country Wales to uncover the true Spirit of Wales and the Welsh I’m given some guidance by a
Hidden Hand your quest today is to find a Holy Grail with each new adventure I’m set a challenge to test my Celtic credentials today I’m going into Anglesey wales’s largest island it’s rich in Fertile landscape earned it the nickname the Bread Basket of Wales Starting my adventure is in the menai strait this fast-moving channel of water separates Anglesey from the mainland and right in the middle is a tiny Island it may seem an odd place to spend the night let alone actually live but when it comes to catching fish the island once provided a constant Harvest The whole house is like a boat but it’s a boat that never goes anywhere morning Peter good morning Griff this is the fish trap is it this is it I was expecting some sort of little sort of net well it’s it’s a big structure how does it work there’s a narrow bit at
The back yeah and the fish all get swept in on the tide right and there are slats at the back when the fish come over those they can’t get back out again long has this fish track been in this place then it’s been here about 400 years the first license was issued by
The bishop of anger in 1590. but what sort of tonnage of fish do you catch in here on good day then um it has caught on its day it’s 30 000 herrings in one tide 30 000 herrings in one tide I can’t help notice it actually that you’ve caught something else in
Your fish trap down here do you get a lot of messages in bottles not too many yeah all right I got it yeah here we are about to put that down have a look here good morning Griff don’t leave here without enjoying the most heartwarming sight in Wales your quest today is to
Find a puffin Find a puffin it’s a Pity it’s not an oyster catcher they breed here a few feet from the kitchen door my search for a puffing is likely to lead me around much of anglesey’s spectacular 125 miles of Coastline I can’t wait I mustn’t wait morning Graf
Peter thank you very much hey I’m on my way to find a puffy you’re going to Puff in Ireland oh yes good Anglesey is one of only two places in the world where there’s a puffing Island the others in Iceland where the Puffin is regarded as the delicacy although that might not be
Entirely appropriate Puffin island is on the tourist Trail so I’m joining an Excursion boat to take a trip around the bay opened in 1826 Thomas telford’s menai Bridge was built as part of the road linking London with dumpling Anglesey was simply a stepping stone to Island via the ferry but the locals were
Rewarded with a fabulous Bridge it was one of the earliest suspension bridges ever built large suspension fridges ever built and was the patent which is used in New York and all over the world and that Golden Gate Bridge is a really important historic Bridge a fantastic day The Northern end of the menai strait is almost five miles wide lying off the easternmost tip is what we’ve come to All the island is uninhabited by monks anyway it seems I’m the only one on the boat who has any interest in puffins I assume Puffin are quite small one a very small well on the ledge yeah just up there um well again what’s today the black birds up there no no no they’re
Cormorants they’re cornrows yes I can see they’re called oh those ones yeah on the left yes they’re gillymocks the one flying across in front of us that’s a razor build it’s a bit darker there we are and it’s got a little white streak a little red legs
What sort of an island is it to call itself Puffin Island and not have a puffin on it it’s got every other conceivable form of seabird has congregated here but not a puppet Charles The Boatman tells me that actually thousands of puffins used to live here but at the end of the 19th
Century a colony of Shipwrecked brown rats came ashore and ate the lot perhaps they were on passage from Iceland retreating back down the menai straight we come to beaumaris it was built as one of the Iron Ring of castles around North Wales by the English Monarch Edward the
First to control those pesky Welsh with its ingenious and perfectly symmetrical concentric Walls Within Walls design but Maris has been called the most technically perfect Castle in Britain and the town looks the kind of place I might find out more about local Puffin sightings do you have any books on bird
Watching or anything like that tractor and machinery very attempting third down here we are but and look what’s on the cover this is a very tourist area I keep calling it bone Maris in the French way do you speak Welsh yes I do so I can do the only Welsh I ever heard
Really was Bach because when I was very naughty my father would say oh Griffith Bach man darling you see that sounds small does it right yeah okay oh small Griffith and what do you mean by that Beau Maris sorry bumaris is a delightful place for sure but it’s devoid of puffin’s big
My bird magazine has told me I might find it with South stack it’s on the coast but around the other side of the island so I need to get on apparently the puffins are only there for four months of the year for men Eyes straight has some of the
Freshest saltiest seawater you’ll find in the British Isles it’s flushed twice daily by the Gulf Stream and that’s the reason this man David Lee Wilson has stood knee-deep in it you’re testing the water are you I’m actually using a very simple handheld device to see how much salt there is in
The sea water every day David checks the salt content of the menai straight and that’s because it happens to be his raw material he runs Helen Moon one of the smallest but most highly regarded salt makers in the country you can see the water is clean it’s pure
This is it’s just beautiful and you take the water yep out of here somewhere up here yep in fact do you want to come and see salt manufacturer is one of the oldest occupations on the planet it can be traced back to 6050 BC exactly the number of health and safety restrictions
That now apply to its manufacture I’m just following William to look at the salt and see how it’s made and uh this isn’t a hair net it’s a beard snood to stop bits of Life beard falling into the salt because the salt has to be very pure that’s the whole idea
It’s like a Giant’s chemistry set salt water comes in from the sea it gets boiled and boiled until the salt content gets so high that then it’s time to collect the pure and perfect sea salt let’s have a look at what you get wow I won’t touch him because I know
That there are Purity issues here but what you’re talking about is fantastic pure like snow it’s snow and ice Extraordinary Chris change hands for more than 30 times the cost of standard salt but the texture of the white flakes and the intensity of the flavor are such that condiment connoisseurs don’t the extra
Oh in exchange for my becoming a salt snob David Lee Wilson offers me a nift as long as he can introduce me to the fact the fat Flora and Fauna of the angle sea etch Rose you’re here at a great time of year the cow passes just beginning to
Come up and we’ve got lots of early purple orchids in the lanes around here and you can appreciate them at this speed Angle seat has such a rich and diverse range of wildlife that there are no less than 62 sites of special scientific interest spread around this island the average Hedgerow is a sweet shop of Botanical goodies but it’s puff I’m looking for not flowers Well I could be in the middle of the American Midwest but I’m not I’m in Anglesey and I couldn’t resist a peek at one of the most eccentric attractions on the island Clear tide is a nostalgic Wonderland of barely remembered logos seductive curves stylish grills and truly distinctive rear ends and rather scarily spot something from my own youth my father’s car but all this Fades away in my rear view mirror when I mount the stairs track to heaven
How are you there is nothing proprietor Arvin Williams doesn’t know about tractors now as it happens I have a confession to make I bought myself a Massey Ferguson a long time ago and this is the one I think in this one is it about 1956 57 all
Right now well mine’s a diesel 1963. you’ve got a Mastery Ferguson 35 okay yeah well I stand corrected is this the series one over here this region is actually famous for another off-road vehicle the Land Rover was conceived here in Anglesey in 1947 and Arvin has
One of the very first models ever built so how many of these original series one did they make oh my God isn’t it plus I think 90 percent of them are still going around the world it’s reliable it’s a bone checker it’s drafty but it’s a Landover is this some does this want
This one goes does it because it is Okay based on the American Jeep the Land Rover owes its systems to the rugged landscape of Anglesey good I don’t seem to have a mirror so I’m gonna look behind me whoa for an indicator is there an indicator oh there is oh good now the only
Downside to the Old Land Rover is that it actually doesn’t go very fast when the overtaken while bicycle now 60 years on and more than four million Vehicles later the Land Rover is one of the most successful modes of Transport ever designed but I’ve come to see one of the most
Extraordinary sites on Anglesey since koivan’s church is at least 800 years old and the fact that it’s still standing is its most notable feature when it was first built it was on the mainland of Anglesey it’s a short distance from ABBA Frau then the bustling medieval capital of North Wales
Over the centuries the capital moved elsewhere but so did the land the shore eroded so badly that by the end of the 19th century all that was left was a little oval Island and on that the church so up went a rugged sea wall to prevent the land and the graves and
The church from being washed away by the 20th Century Modern conservationists decided that the best way to protect this ancient building was an ancient technique they lime washed the walls that’s me joining the decorating team I’m his weird and dangerous hence the health and safety Limewash would almost certainly protected when they were first built eight centuries ago this church has come full circle ‘s ancient walls are a monument to a modern Anglesey and demonstrate the previous times here Mars valued as present ones I’m still almost 20 miles from South State where I hope to spot a puffin but I’ve joined up with a local cycling team who are heading in that general direction just left aberframe I’m on my way to Plantation and I’m going there to visit a mill now because
Because Anglesey was is known as mam comere the mother of wealth a bread basket and whales and this whole great stretch of Farmland here was once responsible for providing all the wheat and corn that fed the whole of North Wales oh there were once more than 50 windmills scattered over anglesey’s Higher Ground
Now there’s only one in working order in the whole of Wales Mill was built in 1775 for the sum of 550 pounds in those days there was a lot of bread to make bread and a reminder of the importance placed in the simple Act of Milling wheat into flour
Floyd Jones the Miller has promised to take me on the final grind to South stag but first I’ve got to help him secure the mill for the night one of our important tasks is to tie up the sails otherwise the mill might start turning again and cause damage
So you stand further back yeah and give it a good swing all right I can see this as a knack isn’t it that’s it it’s the Millers now Miller’s neck yeah one two three yeah Yeah back in 1820 there were anything up to 10 000 windmills across Britain we think wind power is a modern invention Oh I get that idea Yes yes having finally and rather unconvincingly passed my initiation test I’m invited to share the view from the top of the mill I’ve heard that you can see South stack from here we’re that close all right good so you’re looking at Anglesey now in his best really so you
Can see all the Anglesey right so you can just see all he had there we want to go just the other side of that and that’s where the puffins are and you think we’ll see profit we’ll see perfect yes angle C is the fifth windiest place in
The United Kingdom and I suspect Lloyd’s Mill is the windiest sport in Anglesey because over on the next Hill is the liveliest Wind Farm I’ve ever seen I’m not sure that the modern wind turbine is a patch on their 18th century cousins though give me a proper windmill anytime South stack is actually an island off the easternmost tip of an island for ships sailing from Dublin to angle see through fog the treacherous rocks beneath South stack could spell disaster which is why in 1809 a 91-foot lighthouse was built 412 steps take you down to the bottom of the cliff until 1828 when they built the bridge the only means of Crossing to the island was in a basket suspended on a cable in a state of abject Terror there are supposedly 4 000 nesting Birds on these Cliffs Floyd tells me just
Eight puffins have been spotted this year so where are they do you know I don’t really care if I don’t see a puffin this is incredible this is like being in the Galapagos Islands goals just sitting on eggs all around me Keepers manned this Lighthouse until 1984 then it went automatic now it’s controlled by a computer in Heritage 360 miles away is this an entirely fruitless Journey luckily there’s a tour guide to light my way hello there hello pleased to meet you nice to meet you my name is
Martin Martin nice to meet you now you know the reason I’ve come here is to find a puffin a puffin I’ll be looking all day unsuccessfully well I’m afraid you won’t find them on the island but if you make your way back when you’re ascending the steps to the first Bend there where
The large rock is that’s where we have our puffins [Applause] This must be the place in sheer desperation I managed to persuade someone to lend me a pair of binoculars but when I see anything it’s just sat down you couldn’t oh gracious wait I’m looking at one of the only eight identified puffins this season here on Thursday that is daily duties sweet
This is my Puffin moment Thank you Foreign Ty you see I was born in Wales but brought up in Essex and now I’m coming back I want to get some grips with a wonderful a magical a remarkable country Wales to uncover the true Spirit of Wales and the Welsh I’m given some guidance by a Hidden Hand
Your challenge is to swim wild in a mountain lake with each new adventure I’m set a challenge to test my Celtic credentials I found it the Snowden Lily Today I’m going into mid Wales it’s a land of Meandering River estuaries and Stark coastlines alive with myths and legends But my day begins deep in the woods It might look peaceful but the dawn chorus in these parts is enough to awaken the dead even an itinerant exiled Welshman isn’t this a fantastic place a tree house for June rent as a holiday Cottage it’s got everything you need a sort of sleeping pod here and decking well you’d
Have to have decking otherwise you’d sort of fall 25 feet down on the forest floor but somewhere to sit out here and eat and admire The View look at this you see every modern convenience what does that say Griff your quest today is to find the Holy Grail
Every week to get closer to my Welsh Roots but really only time to think about that The Holy Grail was the cup that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper two thousand years ago it’s reputed to have miraculous powers and it’s none other than the world’s number one missing object but people from more dedicated and virtuous than me have been searching for
It for a thousand years or more and most of them perished this region has one of the lowest population densities in the whole of the Country Limited Road and rail connections mean that it’s also one of the most inaccessible parts of Wales and it’s these factors that lend this area a
Certain other world in US it’s a place of Wonders and Mysteries dramatic Landscapes secret valleys but the Holy Grail mid Wales has a reputation for harboring secrets gold has been mined in various parts of the region for three thousand years when it ran out when venith it was said that
In a search for any remaining traces they even combed the roads and the locals are still enjoying the proceeds that these Road works Foreign s is an expert in Welsh gold and he’s hoping to prove to me that the scene is not entirely worked out Down below us is the river malvach where the first Nuggets of gold were discovered by laboriously sifting through the gravel on the river bed a process called panning so Ben is this a gold-bearing river very much you’ll find pandas in a lot of these kind of rivers it’s called the Louisville gold where
The gold gets forced to the bottom of the riverbed so pan has come up with all sorts of inventive ways to force the Rocks up and dig where no one has dug for thousands of years small-scale River panning led to a proper gold rush in the 1860s grinvinath became the Klondike of Wales
This is a ghost town this mine was active until 1998 when the price of gold no longer made mining worthwhile since the 1860s more than 200 000 ounces of pure Welsh gold have been produced from The Ore extracted from this single mine tunnel at today’s prices that comes out at around
156 million pounds and how far into the hill does this working go there is apparently about eight miles of tunnels eight miles indeed yeah a lot of them are underwater with the mine closed at least for the foreseeable future the only hope of finding Fresh Gold is to sift through the alluvial deposits
Washed out of the ancient Rock by the pounding Waters of the river malva so we could get close to the river down there if we go on Ben’s going to teach me how to look for gold the old-fashioned way and he wets my appetite by showing me the kind of thing that I might find that was discovered in a river yeah you can tell just by the extremities which are quite polished that will be alluvial
Gold stuff that’s found at the bond of a river that’s been rolling and Polished for thousands of years or Millions even I’d say it’s probably worth a thousand pounds you could probably make that into a ring because Welsh gold is so much rarer than ordinary gold it commands as much as
Three times the price The fact that it’s the medal of choice for the Royal Family’s marriage bands makes it even more marketable I mean I can see something gleaming yeah tell me I’m not making a mistake I mean that’s something gleaming there no yeah that will be gold very small but yet all the gold that is
An actual gold that is rare Welsh gold that’s astonishing just as I’m beginning to enjoy myself Ben sounds a warning Bell when it comes to Gold it seems finders are not necessarily keepers uh you have to have a license these days to actually pan on the river
I have to throw it back yeah this is a catch and release scheme I think today Chris okay well there it goes Gold may be a fantasy for the people of mid Wales but that’s not the only thing to have fired their imaginations myths and legends permeate The Ether here And to help me unravel the legend of the Holy Grail I’ve come to see Jeff Hill whose Cinema the Magic Lantern is just one of his modern myth-making Enterprises we’re watching a film about his favorite River a couple of years Jeff won the unusual category in the daily telegraph’s shed
Of the Year competition shared on a raft in the middle of the Duffy that’s me hi Jeff looks the sort of Chap and won’t laugh when I explain my quest somebody has asked me to look for the Holy Grail yes yeah okay that doesn’t surprise you
The Holy Grail not in the least not in the least no this is a place of Legend isn’t it they like stories and legends around here don’t they it’s has Legends and stories going back into the Mists of time you can’t lift up a stone move a tree stump around here
Without coming across a legend story or a tale from Years Gone by Jeff has a Boatyard on the river Davy and he’s invited me over to see it the river is where North Wales meets South Wales there are only two Road bridges over its entire 23 Mile Memphis
Jeff’s yard owes something to the spirit Bang Bang this is the Performing clock which looks if it’s going to go off in about three minutes it started steaming then the clock was once attached to a theater ship there’s a rather unexpected way of marking the Alice I salute you sir how fantastic Giles The Boatman has been ordered to take me out to Jeff raft but without Jeff and I’m glad to see that he’s doing it and not mean to be briefly honest uh I certainly wouldn’t want to bounce up and down on it extremely dangerous and the chances
Of getting wet are really quite High Jeff’s most recent addition to his raft on the river dovey is a trampoline Are you ready for this dude It’s entertaining if you’re five or six and uh logically disagreeable if you’re 59 oppose the next step for Jeff and his one Daft using UCL River would be to install a swimming pool in one if Jeff could suddenly produce what he claimed was the Holy Grail from behind his back I think I
Might actually believe him I’ve reached the massive Estuary at the end of the river Delhi I’m looking for the legendary Holy Grail it’s famously been missing these last two thousand years I’m sure I’ll find it somewhere Legend has it that there was once another land that filled the massive cardigan Bay called
Long since sunk beneath the waves this was the Welsh Atlantis the legend has it that this was once the most fertile of secret countries but there was a gatekeeper who had to keep the sluice Gates of the sea wall shut and one night during a storm he was at a
Party in aberystwyth and unfortunately as he’s off on the way in aberyst with parties he drank a bit too much and he didn’t notice the storm forgot to shut those loose Gates and the whole place was drowned all the villages sometimes at night you can hear the sound
Of the Bells in the drowned churches reading When the tide comes in that clanger gets knocked against the Bell ingeniously and it echoes the sound of the Disappeared churches maybe the legendary Holy Grail found its way into the legendary land of country waylord which is why nobody can find it nestling deep beneath the waves with
Only the sound of toning bells for company thanks to well I’m now on the way to the other side of the Estuary to have a look at another thing that kept this Legend going I’m Keen to find out if the legends of this region connect together and if so
Whether or not they might lead me anywhere south of the dovey the coastline continues with a long broad shingle Beach of an area once voted the best in Wales to live this Shoreline is part of the coast path and 870 mile walk that takes you around the entire coast of Wales
But there’s more to this section of the coast than meets the eye particularly When the tide is low so if I just casually glanced at this I I don’t want to thought it was a wreck or the remains of a boat sticking out but when you look at it more closely
You can see that these are trees There’s a whole root system sticking out here and this must be the peach that they grew in this is a a forest that was inundated by the Sea some 4 000 years ago at the end of the Ice Age it’s not difficult to see how people coming across these things would would
Think that there must be a a legend to explain it and you must you can see why they thought that there was another country which had been drowned by the sea and in fact there were people living here they know that because a little while ago they exposed one area of this
Peat and they found human Footprints in it These Footprints could be between three and four thousand years old I’m heading south to aberystwyth the uncrowned capital of mid Wales and the only Town any size for almost 70 miles I’m in desperate need of information and I’ve come to the right place high up on the hill is the biggest repository of
Knowledge in the entire principality the National Library of Wales is home to 6 million books but it’s What Lies Beneath all that shelving that interests me what is not generally known is that beneath the great treasury of the library here in aberystwyth is another treasury a set of secret caves that have
Been locked up for the last 80 years my thinking is if there is anywhere that there might be a Holy Grail around here that will be the price so I’m gonna get them unlawed there we are this is it and I’ve got Russell and Alan here to help me open it up foreign Crept across Europe there was a feeling that Britain’s National Treasures were vulnerable so they got them together and they brought them to this purpose-built malt And eventually they had paintings by Michelangelo and Rembrandt Turner and they had Magna Carta autographed works by Shakespeare and Chaucer and they kept them safe throughout the war from up above nobody least of all the occasional passing measure Smith would have guessed that this was here
The remoteness of this part of Wales was what kept Britain’s greatest treasures safe during its Darkest Hour there was ever a place where you might hope to find the Holy Grail I guess I guess this is it but it’s completely empty thank you Everest with his home to one of wales’s
Biggest universities its population almost doubles during term time after miles of remote Countryside I rather need a street and a Bookshop and now I think I’ve stumbled across a major breakthrough in my quest that’s interesting because apparently there is a connection between this part of Wales and the Holy Grail because the
Holy Grail was was taken to Glastonbury and from Glastonbury to a place called strata Florida which is just south of here and then from Strata Florida it went to a house called and Tails it is near Everest with in fact man tails is less than five
Miles away so I opt for the quickest cheapest and most aerobic fall Trump in the past this out of the way region of Wales had a bit of a reputation fell out of their heads people hippies artists rock and roll musicians whatever and I think they may have left their mark all these towels used to be just gray
Pebble Dash against a gray gray sea and then somebody got out the paint box and they’ve gone green and yellow and Violet hey man The nanteos estate once covered 31 000 acres of land and this included most of Everest with built in the mid-18th century and Tail’s house was created for the powerful Powell family Goes back a long way into history it sounds like I’m on to something how extraordinary this is where Margaret Powell who is the lady we see above the fireplace here she was the last owner of the mansion and she had the cup oh yes the legend
Was that if you took a sip of water from the cup and in some cases some took a nibble from the cup but it would cure you of your ills and nibbling the cup I’ll be surprised if there’s anything left of it but there clearly was a cup or Holy
Grail here after all whether it was the real one or not is another matter of course this is where Margaret Powell would bring the guests having entertained them in the morning room and she would come through to hear and present the cup which would be on this
Table here you don’t by any chance have the cup it didn’t come with the contents of the house unfortunately not many things did but not the cup yeah where is it now I am aware of where it is but I’m not allowed to divulge that can you tell
What was it like what did it look like well fortunately we do have a picture of the cup here nibbled this hardly anything left I forsooth I’ve failed my quest but I’ve traveled from Treehouse to luxury hotel via the Beautiful the dramatic landscape of mid Wales and like many nights of old
It’s it’s not the actual finding of the Holy Grail that’s so important I think is the actual as the actual looking for it and quite honestly when you you see this this is what it is you you can see what they meant Thank you I’m setting out on a personal Odyssey you see I was born in Wales but brought up in Essex and now I’m coming back I want to get to grips with a wonderful a magical a remarkable country Wales to uncover the true Spirit of Wales and
The Welsh I’m given some guidance by a Hidden Hand your challenge is to swim wild in a mountain lake with each new adventure I’m set a challenge to test my Celtic credentials today I’m going into Conway County from the foothills of snowdonia Glorious flandigno Riviera this is a land of contrast I’m on great om head in a lighthouse well it used to be a lighthouse now it’s a bed and breakfast so you can wake up with this you ornery view of the shipping lanes if you take the cap off well that’s my quest for today I’ve got to find myself a Welsh dresser Why a Welsh dressing well is he this is very personal but I know that Welsh people don’t inherit money they don’t really inherit houses what they inherit is furniture when my uncle was fading my my aunties gathered around and said Griff you’ve got to have the Prince of Wales cupboard
This sort of stuff is handed down by Welsh people traditionally from family to family and so it’s at the core of what being Welsh is about Furniture the question is am I Really Gonna find a Welsh dresser here by the seaside great warm is a gigantic clump of
Limestone stretching into the Irish sea and I’m at the very end of it to get back to civilization and start my search I’m going to take the local bus The local bus is actually the great orm vintage bus tour popular people come back time and time again even though the script rarely changes what’s the secret I wonder we’ve always said that this bus sells the tour peoples could recognize the bus they remember oh we used to go to school on
The buses like this Nostalgia is a big part of the attraction of the Welsh Seaside which landed now has been described as the Naples of the north coming into town and before we all get off this bus and head off to the Capri of prestatin I want to see if there’s anybody aboard who can
Help me there’s an antique shop in sunroof that sells well stressed is if you’re interested no well that’s what I thought I am interested I’m under instruction to try and find a Welsh dresser that’s what I’ve got to do because it’s considered obviously um to be one of those things that the
Welsh are quite Keen I think they’re probably sold them to the Americans for a lot of money that’s the problem people who come to flanded know love these old Seaside Resorts but don’t have any passion left for old furniture nor I fear how the local shopkeepers gonna
Help me much yeah what a magnificent trip all that was lacking was the sing song here is the Glorious Promenade developed in the 1860s and 70s for the middle classes of nearby Liverpool and Manchester which llandudno is a classic Victorian seaside resort because most of it is private loaned and governed by a
Single family the mostins clendidno has consciously resisted the worst ravages of commercialism but it has somehowed the seductions of the deck chair yes sir can I hire a deck check certainly sir that’ll be one pound fifty you’re still just before five if you could return it to me here we’d be grateful Is one of the great remaining challenges of the British Seaside holiday it’s a bit weird okay I’m joining the population of Clan didn’t know in sitting facing away from the sea which has been for one reason or another turned into a wind farm the traditional view that way except if we sit this way we can watch the population uh parade back and forth
On the Promenade which is what a Promenade was designed for landed no took the title Queen of the Welsh Resorts back in 1864 to mark it out from all the less Majestic Resorts along the North Coast and it seems to have worked because it’s now the largest Seaside town in all of Wales
Now I’ve managed to get myself a little book all about the Welsh stressor that’s a North Wales dresser there highly decorated one called a Christmas tree dresser because it has extra inlays bits of wood but here this is a typical Welsh dresser from this area itself you see well stressors were originally
Bought for Welsh farm houses where they were a major Welsh investment often made to order they tended to stay in the same family for Generations they were designed for a practical and essentially rural existence or becomes abundantly clears I’m not going to find it under any circumstances because landed though
Wasn’t even in existence when this dresser was made it’s obvious I’ve got to get out into the sticks motorbikes are popular around here and it’s easy to see why Conway has wonderful Switchback roller coaster roads and you don’t need it to ride from the pleasure beaches on the North
Coast to The Verdant fields of the Interior Conway is a surf and turf County I’m on the lookout for a typical Country Village and this fits the bill perfectly Han gurnu has a picturesque Pub pretty Cottages an ancient church and yes an antique shop that I’m hoping an old family might have decided to sell off some of its heirlooms I’m intrigued by the local names on the
Faces of these clocks these are very small Townsend almost Villages yes but both of them had a cabinet maker who could make a clock like this they had a clockmaker in this Village which is even a smaller Village and we’ve had several clocks made in this Village as well I’m just noticing
That I can’t see any dresses do you have any dresses not today I’m sorry no when we first started here over 30 years ago dresses would turn up quite regularly but now they don’t um I think the families are holding on to them are they quite often the days when you could pick
Up a Welsh dresser in a little country antique shop are clearly gone I’m going to turn my attention the raw material of the dresser and to the farmers who earned them as You Follow The Valleys up into the countryside it’s like going back in time and that’s because this is mixed farming
Around here on the tops you’ve got the Sheep Down by the Riverside you’ve got the dairy cattle and all around you they’re growing crops still a mixture of everything and it’s verdant and soothing and very beautiful 300 years ago land-owning farmers were amongst the wealthiest people in Wales
These were the people for whom the Welsh dresser was originally made the fact is that farmers would have always been plentiful in Conway it should be the perfect place to track down a dresser Welsh Furniture means Welsh Oak but periods of drought here in the shadow of snowdonia have taken their toll
That tree drinks 80 gallons of water a day and this tree probably isn’t getting enough and that’s one of the reasons why it’s got these bare branches you think of what’s called Oak dieback as being something new but of course it’s not because Shakespeare talks about stag-headed Oaks
And when it doesn’t get enough water it gets weak and disease gets in this oak tree is another victim of drought maker of Timber buildings and a master of furniture Simon bellfield has had his eye on this potential source of planks for quite a while so what’s happened to this tree Simon
This tree is died several years ago primarily because of the um the fungus that’s got at it that’s induced by stress in drought conditions let’s get back a bit that’s it we all need to get back before you can all get back that’s it [Applause]
Simon is about to give me a master class in tree felling first he cuts away a number of buttresses from around the tree’s massive trunk this reduces the girth and it enables him to gain access to slice through the central core of the tree once that’s done a wedge is driven into place
It’s the beginning of the end you can see the branches quivering one final tweak from Simon and the job is done [Applause] there are over 15 million trees in Wales and that doesn’t even include the forests wood is big business here you realize what a massive thing it is when it falls and what you as somebody who who builds Green Oak buildings Timber buildings this is timber here
This is this is really really good Oak inside here and just because it’s dead it doesn’t matter it hasn’t rotted through or anything’s absolutely solid Simon can’t resist showing off his chainsaw skills needless to say this isn’t something I recommend you do in your front room
Or anywhere else in the house come to that my throne it is I’ll take this little bit away here look and that’s what we’re left with sweet and little archbishop’s chair that is my first bit of Welsh furniture magnificent it’s not a dresser though I’m always talking about the wonders of Wales but here in San Diego’s new churchyard there’s something that I’d go a long way to see I’m on a quest to find a Welsh dresser and some of the finest examples are made from the wood of this type of tree
Although not this one in particular because this one is very particular it’s a yew tree and they sent some expert and they calculated that it’s about 4 000 years old but other experts disputed this and they finally settled on it being 4 500 years old in other words it started
Growing around the time that Stonehenge was built this is the oldest living thing in Europe And it really sets on the back of your neck to think about it perhaps one of the reasons the U has such a long and unhindered life is that nobody tends to go near it and for good reason Extremely poisonous so it should have every chance of surviving for another four and a half thousand years for you is one of the oldest trees in Wales this is one of the newest a recent import and a vigorous one this is a plantation of Douglas fir M and it’s about 50 years old
And it was planted here in order to provide pit props for the mining industry foreign of North America the Douglas fir is in fact an alien and one that has already become the tallest tree in Wales when these trees were planted as an emergency measure 50 years ago the Welsh
Mining industry was still thriving like most emergency measures though by the time the trees had grown the emergency had passed today instead of supporting mine shafts these trees are supporting a new generation of thrill-seeking tourists let go of the rope and make your way across big boys course remember Jason is
My own personal drill sergeant here on the high anxiety training course at Treetop Adventure what’s the record you’re not breaking it don’t worry really America the Douglas fir produces more Timber than any other species of tree it’s named after Scottish botanist and Explorer David Douglas who introduced it
To Britain in 1827. little did he know what heinous use is it will be put to I can’t have two at once course is designed to get harder and harder the further you go and you can’t turn back either your feet will follow where your eyes are looking
I can’t that’s it I can’t do it yep let’s look ahead just look ahead that’s it that’s it now the right hand and then bring your foot over that’s it now Lean Forward no don’t walk your feet I can’t let your body go first that’s it I’ve realized now why people hug tree I’m returned to the coast in my search for a Welsh stressor after they put me down I needed a pick-me-up good afternoon what a fantastic Tea Bar thank you yes certainly it’s a stronger coffee John Hughes is bringing coffee Nirvana to North Wales something I wholeheartedly
Endorse so this is the uh Ethiopian yoga chef savoring my Ethiopian yoga chef and helping him close up for the day he kindly offers me a lift in a Citron van the French called or Pig’s nose and suddenly I could be on the sun-baked shores and the French Mediterranean without the Sun
So this is the Cornish basically the literal that runs along the log and this road runs all the way along the front It’s the Welsh Riviera is just like the French River you’ve got this very crowded and sophisticated little and then you leave and you’ve got you go up into the hills yeah having failed to find a Welsh dresser in the countryside I’ve come to the county town of Conway perched on the Western
Bank of the river coin the castle is the town’s centerpiece Wales once had as many as 600 castles a hundred of which are still standing from a distance it looks like something out of fairy tale up close the reality has been daunting terrifying isn’t it it was built by Edward the first
About 750 years ago and was just one of a stream of castles that he put all around the coast here to finally put us Welsh in our place by the end of a 13th century Edward the First’s troops completely dominated the principality of Wales having established a ring of castles to sustain his
Occupation and with the first English Interlopers took up permanent residence in these impenetrable fortresses Conway still has this remarkable almost complete set of medieval Town walls and for 200 years this was just like a wild West Town only English people were allowed to live in there until Henry VII
Put a stop to it largely because because of re-welsh do seem to be obsessed with our clocks really be what I think it is it’s a Welsh dresser oh hello is this a local dresser yes this is a Welsh dresser from North Wales yes this is a Georgian dresser somewhere in the
Region of about 1750 1760. today they they’re on your showpiece but in them days it was a working dresser you had it in the kitchen and people would use them every day what is this here well I believe it’s where the little dog used to sit in there that’s that’s a dog
Kennel I believe so yes so so the farmer would come in yes and he’d actually settle down for his tea and then and the dog would have to go sit in there yes in the warm yeah unfortunately my dog died so he loved I don’t think I’d have got him in
There though I could have pointed to it all day in there get off the sofa get in there and what’s the highest price that’s been paid for a dresser in your experience there’s one that went in uh I didn’t hear respondents I think in Chester for 45 000 45
000 and that was about five six years ago and so that leads me to the to the million dollar question how much do you want for this dress let’s just say it’s not cheap the connoisseurship of the chattering classes has elevated genuine 18th century Welsh dressers like this one to
The status of Ming vases and if Roberts has a cracker here well there we are a well stressor and not only a Welsh stressor but a locally made North Whaley and Welsh stressed a symbol of the farmers that created the landscape that makes this area so brilliant but not at that price I’m setting out on a personal Odyssey you see I was born in Wales but brought up in Essex and now I’m coming back I want to get to grips with a wonderful a magical a remarkable country Wales to uncover the true Spirit of Wales and the Welsh I’m given some guidance by a
Hidden Hand your quest today is to find a Holy Grail with each new adventure I’m set a challenge to test my Celtic credentials this is my Puffin moment Today I’m going into border country with one of the most beautiful rivers in Britain and a culture very different to the rest of Wales I’m beginning my journey in England just 12 miles from Bristol old passage House was built centuries ago to accommodate Travelers waiting to take the ferry Crossing to Wales dating back to the Roman era the lasted into the 20th century and in 1926 it was replaced by a car ferry All That
Remains of the terminal now are these ruined buildings and Derek but given that the horse car ferry more than half the journey distance between Bristol and Cardiff it was seen as the height of modernity this was how the Rich and Famous got into Wales in the old days it said that the little
Boys from the village used to run down here because from time to time they’d see limousines with pop stars in them but the Beatles or Tom Jones or Bob Dylan but that all stopped because in 1966 they opened that Seven Bridge three and a half designed to last for 120 years since then 300 million cars have crossed to get into Wales I’m going to try and go on foot hello yes I think this must be my challenge today Griff you must learn and perform the Welsh national anthem my hen flawed
The Nadine yep I’ve got a way to go but learning about the Welsh language and getting to grips with Welsh identity is what the temperature is clearly going to be all about I never learned Welsh I was brought up in Epping but there wasn’t a lot of call
For it but where I’m going now useful first though I’m hoping to get a sneak preview of the old country from the top of one of the towers of the Seven Bridge there are 445 feet hot so the view should be good maintenance man Paul Lane has invited me up wow
Wow so if you follow me this way yes with this this is the Welsh side you can immediately see the change in landscape the thing that makes Wales what it is the up and the down of it the hills and the valleys you can see Cardiff from up here
That’s where I was born this is a suspension bridge which means that the whole structure is supported by two cables slung between the two steel Towers these Hefty cables are made from 8322 five millimeter wires and every so often they need to be checked hence the maintenance men one of the things that
We do is we regularly walk the cables so we do it off on those cables that’s right and we have to walk it it’s the only way to get close enough to see what we need you can guess the rest I’m sure well they claim to be a bit short
Staffed you know this is worse than skydiving because skydiving you’re supposed to fall out that’s it place your hand on there and then gradually feed your body up through yes I have and stand vertical are you okay [Laughter] I finally understand the true meaning of the word vertigo I’m now standing on the
Cables that are holding up the bridge they’re sealed inside a protective metal sheath and that sheath is a tube and that feels very weird very weird and round what’s underneath me and I get this terrible feeling that any missed step would take me somewhere where I wouldn’t necessarily want to go yes
Come in yeah what we’re gonna do we’re going to be checking these boats here are we wow I tell you what you guys you really are steeplejax the Seven Bridge actually crosses Two Rivers the broader river is the seven but the smaller is the why and it’s the
Course of this River I’m going to follow as I head on into the country but there’s something else I want to see first Now here on the banks of the seven I’m just trying to discover something which is sort of defined Wales for over a thousand years should be too difficult because it is the biggest Earthworks in northern Europe it offers Dyke and the extraordinary thing about it is that
Nobody really knows what it was built for office Dyke stretches from where I am now on the 7 Estuary all the way up to the river D in the North it was the ancient border that divided England from Wales but who was keeping out who Jin Saunders has spent half his life
Studying office Dyke given that it was built more than 1 200 years ago most of the dike has long since crumbled to nothing this small section here is one of the best preserved but what exactly is it there’s a bank of Earth and there’s a ditch and the ditch is normally on the
Welsh side which suggests that its function was to stop people climbing over it but Jim we can see that this is the ditch over here yep and this is the rampart although or the wall and they use the Earth to build this massive Rampart apparently yes it’s at work
Of gigantic effort I mean much bigger than the pyramids it’s a huge undertaking and the path goes on for 177 miles the dike is named after King Offa who was king of Mercia which is basically what we know as England now and there is some debate about whether
It was a it was a defense mechanism I don’t think it was Defensive if you know where would you get the the manpower to patrol it and a comparison that occurs to me sometimes is if you think of president charcheska in Romania who built huge palaces all over the country
I mean he didn’t need huge palaces all over the country why did he do it fantasy you know to show that he was Top Dog so it might have been just a a huge Earthworks because the king could yeah exactly yeah I’m going to leave the ancient border
Now and cross the modern border which is marked here by the river y EP thank you very much okay enjoy the rest area offers Dyke is a reminder that England and Wales have always been distinctly different from one another particularly when it comes to language once I passed the halfway point on this
Bridge I’m in Wales as with most towns and Villages the county of monmouthshire also has a Welsh name which is I’m in the Gateway town of chepster or cars gwent in Welsh I’ve been challenged to learn the national anthem so I’m going to join a local adult Welsh language classes
Too late jahelwyn Williams looks like she relishes a challenge which is good because she’s definitely got one in me I suggest you start with yes now I need an uh wait a minute wait wait wait wait that just sounds like only slightly different you need it’s like an L put your tongue
At the top of your mouth as if you’re saying now blow gently out through the sides so you could now say that’s it the most Welsh thing about me is my name can I say it correctly the farmer said to me said oh Griff he said don’t you
Just hate it when they pronounce your name wrong and I said what Rhys and he said you’re doing it now and then he said it’s RIS yeah the Welsh language is almost 2 000 years old back in the 6th Century almost everyone in Britain spoke nothing else hey blood
Since 2000 the teaching of Welsh in schools has been made compulsory so adult classes like these are gaining in popularity especially here in the borders finally we get to the national anthem people who live here and speak no Welsh at all know the words to this I need to start learning it foreign
Foreign Well I suppose I’ve made some hesitant steps towards learning the words it’s like a sort of tongue twister the whole thing but I’m a million miles away from actually performing it the region is dominated by the river y the lower half of which forms the boundary with England
But this River was also once the main transport artery of the area I’m hoping to use it to paddle my way in land into monmouthshire so out and I’ll put my buoyancy on the outside of it you’re going to put your voice here on the outside of that yeah
The Y has one of the highest tidal ranges in the world a difference of 13 meters between the height of high tide and low tide the water is now flowing back Upstream at a furious rate but not for much longer up over the wall phone yep we’ve capsized already and we’re not
Even on the water don’t get doing anything silly no I won’t of course not I’m joining an experienced group of canoeists we’re going to panel up River with the help of the rising tide carefully we better set off and here I come ready or not now see that submerged boy out in
There yeah stay away from it if you get hooked up on that Griffin labview over and you’ll be in I bet all right we’ll keep a distance we’ve barely an hour before the tide turns if we don’t get to where we’re going soon we’ll all be sweat back Downstream and out to sea Once under the bridge an out of the media danger wherein the shadow of chepstow Castle ordered by William the Conqueror as part of the Norman invasion of Wales in 1067. this was the origin of chepster situated on a bend in the river and exploiting the full length of a high Limestone
Ridge the castle occupied a location of supreme strategic importance having complete control over what was once the busiest and most important navigable river in Wales the Y is 134 miles long and until the 1850s provided the main transport route between chepstow to Monmouth it’s a lot quieter now compute Rural seclusion except for us nowadays the Y is one of the most natural untouched and unpolluted rivers in Britain probably looked much the same a thousand years ago this River is is popular with canoas isn’t it oh yeah I mean it’s it’s it’s probably the best canoeing river
Certainly in this country probably in Europe and people come from Italy and Spain and America and all over the world of Adelaide seeing anything so the beautiful so so gorgeous and provided entirely by Nature Of limestone cliffs totally overgrown all the way around with the most magnificent trees This is precisely how early tourists would have first seen one of the most famous ruins in Wales Tinton Abbey dating back almost a thousand years Tinton was built for an order of cistercian monks but like most monasteries it was virtually destroyed by Henry VIII in the early 16th century
For hundreds of years it stood untended and loved and largely unseen but in the 18th and 19th centuries it was rediscovered by the first wave of so-called romantic tourists seeking out picturesque Landscapes to enthuse about Tinton fitted the bill perfectly Gilpin and Wordsworth wrote about it then the great painter Turner immortalized it
200 years later The Poets and the artists are still coming but so now I’ll coach loads of tourists from all over the world I mean the trouble is with all these places as the more popular they become the more they tend to attract things which you as a painting because you
Really don’t really want like there’s a big car park in the front there yep is the car park going to feature I think we might grow some shrubs there in front of it oh actually you’re getting the Japanese knotweed there to grow up just a little bit just so that it hides the
Car park Don Lavelle is doing what every artist since Turner has done that’s to portray The Abbey in a Timeless romantic Dreamscape devoid of the trappings of modern tourism which I’ll know the reality I take advantage of the open Countryside to do a bit of rehearsal some fine tuning to do I think you’ll agree but I’m getting there the question is where and to whom I’m going to perform my version of the Welsh national anthem like a lot of towns on the Y there’s a
Good book shop to be found a guidebook might give me some ideas thank you there seems to be every single guide book ever written to Wales here I can take my pick whales the shaping of a Nation blender of whales I like the sound of that studies in the geography of Wales
History of the port of Cardiff Welsh country characters whales the Sheep humanation while I’m digging out a bit more research on henlad vinhadai I get talking to Ruth’s sweet Ruth I discovered is the leader of a rather unusual musical group yes on hearing of my need to perform something
Myself she invites me to join their rehearsals but I think I could help you with that you could help me with it yes before I know it we’re speeding into monster it’s very green and very glorious we’re in the most incredibly beautiful rolling Countryside rural Britain really oh it is definitely
Yes yes my father always used to refer to it as God’s country and it is then beyond us over there there’s a sort of ridge of mountains what are they well in the very middle you’ve got the Sugarloaf to the right you’ve got the skirt and you can’t see it at the moment
But the left-hand side you’d have the blurringe Ruth leads a group of hand belt ringers it started 15 years ago when a set of old handbells was discovered in her local church a group of like-minded ladies learned how to play well enough to ring in the New Millennium and now Millennium Chimes
Are one of the most accomplished handbell groups in Wales you hold it up as you don’t want to spill your glasses yes and then you go forward like a rugby ball shape and you flick at the end and you can stop it on there oh after Crossing Borders old and new
Learning a few words of the language and navigating the beautiful River Why I’m ready to sing and indeed perform henlad vinhadai And then you wait and stop it We’re off [Applause] There we are there we are see I sang the national anthem in Welsh and if I know I really think that I can Master this I’ve just given them five or six years and I’ll be on top of it just a minute [Laughter] I’m setting out on a personal Odyssey you see I was born in Wales but brought up in Essex and now I’m coming back I want to get to grips with a wonderful a magical a remarkable country to uncover the true spirit by a Hidden Hand your quest today is to
Find a Holy Grail with each new adventure I’m set a challenge to test my Celtic credentials this is my Puffin moment today I’m going into the Brecken beacons stretching over Seven Counties this is the least known but most distinctive National Park in Wales Wales But I’m starting my day here in hey on why I love this town there are 30 bookshops in the center it’s the second hand book capital of Britain and it’s right on the edge of the Brecken Beacon so there’s a battle between the armchair and the walking boot
And I wonder which will win today over the last 25 years hey has hosted a major literary festival and this has transformed this sleepy Market down into a wide awake tourist Resort attracting more than half a million visitors a year and this is where the book capital of Britain was born
Richard Boo’s Bookshop opened more than 50 years ago sadly it’s no longer the biggest second-hand Bookshop in the world but it’s certainly the biggest in Wales you know I’ve been to Hay many times but I’ve never ever bought a book and that’s because when you’re here you are completely spoiled for choice
You start with one book before you know it you’ll end up with hundreds and Griff your challenge is to swim wild in a mountain lake Wild in a mountain lake oh they’re freezing you see every week I’m giving this Mission and of course it’s totally appropriate because around here the legs
Are full of Legends the rivers are full of fish clouds are full of rain but freezing cold lake I’ve got to get some kit Center of this list finally my spotted gentleman’s Outfitters I’m looking for swimming trunks but I think I might need something more all-encompassing rain is forecast like a poncho Cape with a hood on it it looks as if I’m heading for the North Sea yeah it’s a it’s a pretty durable
Heavyweight sort of gear it’s not like something you get at a theme park I’ve got one last question yeah again yeah a few people come down so do you sell swimming costumes we do yes yeah we do I try on every pair of swimming trunks in goals were these gentlemen’s Outfitters bad
They didn’t have my size it happens that I’ve arrived in Hay on rather an auspicious day because it’s the 75th but the very man who opened Hayes first second-hand Bookshop and who began this book Madness ladies and gentlemen I’ve come out of retirement because the town is just
About to win the greatest battle for democracy ever fall [Applause] as always Richard is in expect ing yet another political victory for his beloved town I want everybody to have better cake if possible back in 1977 he proclaimed hey as an independent Kingdom with himself as the king and his
Then horse as the Prime Minister it’s been a long time since I talked to Richard so I thought I’d quiz him again on the reason behind his love of bookshops oh I’ve opened book towns in California and Scotland and in France that I’ve always said I have a new definition of a
Second hand book it’s an object not sold in a supermarket he told me that it wasn’t because he loved books so much as because he hated supermarkets and what they were doing to the High Street and now you look around there are loads and loads of people the
Place is thriving and I suppose you could do it with almost anything you could have a town which was dedicated entirely to old pictures or old sofas or something that people wanted like like a swimming costume there are still no supermarkets of any size in the ancient Market town of hail
And why website Richard booth has succeeded in his mission it’s time I got to work on my challenge to reach the Brecken beacons from hay I must climb the substantial slopes of hey Bluff of course if I want to go and swim in a mountain lake then I’ve got to go
Up into the mountains and I’ve chosen to go in this beautiful bright red scoutone and effectively disturb everybody in the area The Brecken beacons are a range of smooth steep-sided flat topped red Sandstone Peaks the tallest of which any van is the highest mountain in South Wales when the Romans came to Wales in 43 A.D they stationed more than 600 soldiers here today the region is still an important military training ground
The whole can Beacon Beacon National Park but it’s not as well known as many of the others it’s the sort of overlooked National Park beautiful quiet shooting there are more Buddhists living here than in any other part of Wales [Applause] I can only hope my temporary presence here doesn’t result in the mass
Migration of a local religious community this scooter only sounds noisy because usually it’s so quiet lake slangors is the largest natural lake in the break beacons an obvious choice for a bit of wild swimming No swimming the blue green algae apparently blue or green not something you’ll die that on you or in you but I’m not leaving without taking a peek at this vast body of water what’s remarkable is the way that this whole landscape is formed by water most meat originally carved out by huge lumps
Of ice drifting on down South the Ice Age dug out these valleys and smoothed out these Hills and ever since then a constant downpour of Welsh rain has smoothed it off and added gorgeous Green carpet Just as well I didn’t Plunge in really like Loch Ness clangors Lake is blessed with its own monster or plank as we Welsh call it the last sighting was in 1999 when something took a bite out of a water skier may have been a big Pike or a small monster or me
In Wales rain is not uncommon but today is a little bit disappointing because I’m booked to get up into the sky in search of my Mountain Lake Norwegian pilot Beau Nielsen runs the black mountains gliding club I’m hoping he’s going to take me up but right now
He’s not sure but we can’t go at the moment exactly we can’t go at the moment as you can see the cloud is very very low we have no sort of space to fly and we can’t even tow high at the moment we can see a slight clearing looking to the
West so there’s hope things aren’t looking too promising the weather here in the black mountains Climbing Club is improving it looks like we might get to see the Brecken beacons from the air after all really for the shape of the seats Bo is running me through the safety drill the only time
You might actually need the parachute is in a mid-air Collision we’re going to put it on just like a backpack if I tell you to jump you pull that red knob back you open that up you pull the pin out of the straps and you get out
Just get out I assume getting out is quicker than getting in Jump gently down down okay and if you jiggle sit back as far as you can jiggle your bum all the way back so sit more upright that’s good a glider has no power of its own so we
Need some assistance to get off the ground the glider is attached to the toe plane by cable and I was starting to fly you can feel we’re flying take off is quite astonishing because it’s so very low-tech the experience is your guts you fly by your stomach How does he know when to release it I will release from him so I’m gonna do that now so here we go okay that’s it we’re on our own no turning back the silence is very loud indeed this is the most spectacular View I’ve heard of Wales in my entire journey through Wales
Look how beautiful the hillsides are with this low Sun not the afternoon pouring gold under these Hills is that why you do it absolutely yes to look at the landscape really is The brecon beacons are supposedly named after the ancient practice of lighting signal fires or beacons or mountain tops to warn of attack from from our vantage point you can see how that works the hills roll away to the West now Griff do you want to do a little bit of flying
Yes okay so if you come on the controls I say this reluctantly you understand particularly as Beau is about to pull a rather scary trick I will do a little exercise like I usually do with everybody if you clap it clap your hands now clap clap clap your hands and can
You hear me clapping my hands at the same time yes it flies actually very well on its own so we just help it and guide it towards where we want to go okay so if you want to go straight ahead you have control relax your hand forward as well gliding
Actually has a very good safety record I just hope I’m not about to change that first of all look out is it safe look straight ahead and turn right okay I’m getting my okay I’m dipping too much am I sorry wonderful right I can go to sleep now you do the rest
Thankfully I convinced Beau to Take Back Control for landing we’ve had a great flight but from the point of view of a buzzard on an updraft I can see that in order to find my Lake I’m gonna have to venture further afield Well I’m very sorry to be back down it’s a completely unique sensation gliding very distinctive but at all like other forms of flying and you do feel like a bird but you also hear get some sensation of the relief map of the breckins you get a strong urge to go
Further and explore more Here in the Brecken beacons it’s everywhere you look and everywhere you can’t look too in other words deep underground so gift just be careful here just um keep right up to this side here okay to discover more about the Subterranean wonders of the region I’ve met up with Gary Evans
So Gary this is the cave we have come to see indeed it is streams pour out of cave openings like this one throughout the region but what is it about the geology of the area that creates the landscape well this is limestone where we are now and it’s basically been formed 330
Million years ago in a tropical sea somewhere around the equator at that time the Seas were teeming with life like we can’t imagine now and so as those creatures died and fell to the bottom and corals clapsed and died that’s what formed the line to them how
This create caves when the rain falls it picks up carbon from the air and from the soil and it forms a weak acid a carbonic acid and that is able to dissolve the Limestone and that’s how it makes the caves and some of the caves here are world-class caves already in terms of
Their length in terms of the sport involved in it and in terms of what you can see in them how big are the case of the cage that you find here so this cave is about a kilometer in length but it’s small compared to other caves in the
Area which can be up to 85 kilometers long huge huge and difficult to navigate in unless you’ve got a map potholes go up and down and caves go sideways and daring Sportsmen explore both in what is claimed to be the biggest cave system in the whole of Europe gushing waterfalls vast Lakes torrential
Rivers make for a colossal underground water supply that takes years to filter through the Limestone when it does it makes for some of the finest and purest mineral water in the country this is the story of Brecken carrig the biggest mineral water business in Wales which started at this Cottage 35 years ago
The water takes its name from the nearby ruins of Castle cannon on the edge of the Brecken beacons it’s time for a tour of the bottling plant the water is pumped through the pipe here the small one Jess takes me through the then directly into the bowl and it goes
Into this machine what does that do well this this machine fills the bottle and then puts the cap on it might be the easiest manufacturing process in the world water comes out from a spring deep underground it’s filtered then goes straight into a bottle and how many bottles can you do in an
Hour then this machine will do 20 000 volts an hour at 50 CL and does that well ever run dry it never runs dry plenty of rain in in Wales after the rain has fallen onto the mountain how long before it gets to your well we regularly takes about 15 years but
Before when the rain hits the ground that it filter Through The Rock what’s so good about it then the Purity the taste and of course it’s Welsh but am I a mineral water columnist sir can I tell my calcium from my sodium I asked Jess if I can have an official
Tasting okay good It’s soft easy on the palate flavorless water refreshing refreshing refreshing yes of course yeah but it is still it is still where it’s still water Yeah raining again every year between four and five feet of rain and fall on whales let me tell you this Scotland is winter Justin I’m in the town of Brecken extreme weather means extreme Poncho I’ve come to meet wild swimming expert Daniel start who I hope is going to in
The direction of my Mountain Lake OH come out of the rain oh do you know Brecken at all well yeah I have been here a number of times usually to warm up after a Cold Mountain swim actually what is what is the definition of wild swimming well it’s something that’s been
Going on for hundreds of years of course our grandparents would have learned to swim in rivers lakes and Mountain Streams but then I think you know we had these indoor pools and we got a bit uh a bit soft isn’t there somewhere Daniel In your experience near here that you would
Recommend to me is a place I could go and plunge into an egg I mean I could recommend a lot of waterfalls and rivers but for a secret Little Mountain Lake which I think would suit you is this rather magical Lake yes it’s pretty private uh it’s quite High
You probably won’t be icy but it will be cool There it is my appointment with Destiny well is this aren’t frozen over I’m joined by a herd of Welsh Mountain ponies one of the few truly indigenous residents in Brecken beacons this semi-wild breed goes back 3 000 years today there are only about 500 ponies in
Total so I’m lucky to be in their company I’m not sure they feel the same the whole point of a proper wild swim is that we’re talking about skinny dippy dipping soap the most important thing is for you to look very hard into my eyes there will be nothing to see here I have absolutely no idea why this would make me more Welsh I’m sure that 99.99 Welsh people have never done this but nonetheless this is my refrigerated baptism ah well there we are okay doubters I’m swimming in a Welsh Mountain Lake and I have to say not as bad as I thought just
Much much worse Thank you
12 Comments
Amazing upload greetings happy new year from México 🍀👍
Thank you for this lovely look into this part of Wales. There is some Welsh ancestry somewhere in my grandfather's heritage, as well as mostly English. His name was Byron Stratton. ❤
WHALES IS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL PLACE. <> 🐳 🐳 🐳 <>
Spectacular documentary! We think it was the best Tracks video yet. Griff was fantastic, funny, entertaining!
Grandpapa was the Last Great prince of Wales, 0ver 800 years ago. Handsome too, I think.
Gret to find out about my Welsh ancestors. Thanks!
We are very excited and really like your creative ideas, made it enjoyable to watch and keep watching, hope you continue this great idea forever.
Wales is absolutely lovely!!❤
Cymru Rydd 🏴
extra ordenarery
Heartfelt thanks for the most interesting, beautifully filmed and very inspiring documentary! Those lovely and green landscapes of Wales! Griff is such a wonderful and outstanding presenter 😍Warm greetings from the currently snowy and frosty Finland ❄
So it's a Puffin McGuffin.