Mynydd Y Betws Wind Farm

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Farewell Twmbarlwm, (well, kinda...)

My imagination literally amok during the few hours I spent exploring Twmbarlm. It's a place I had not even heard of until the morning I decided to look for somewhere new in South Wales to explore. But its a place that will linger in my mind for a long time to come...

Locally known as 'Twmp', this mystic tumulus is also more widely nicknamed 'The Nipple' given the hill's appearance to a breast, and is, in fact, an Iron Age hillfort, constructed by the Celtic Silues tribe [more info here].

Twmbarlwm Summit, aka 'The Nipple'

It would have been amiss of me not to climb Twmbarlwm's 419m summit and share a few images from its height, so here they are: 

One of the defensive ditches on Twmbarlwm

The place is stepped in folklore, much of which I still haven't ha the opportunity to study (I will leave a few links here if you are thirsty for this info right now.

http://www.twmbarlwm.co.uk/category/legend/

https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/2986/twmbarlwm.html#folklore

I will leave Twmbarlwm there, for now. But I will be returning to the place - maybe not physically, but creatively very, very soon :)

Twmbarlwm ~ Into the Woods

The woodland looked more than enticing from the summit of Twmbarlwm. So much so that it would have been impolite to ignore the invite:

Twmbarlwm Summit, view from the woodland

A growing carpet of shamrocks

My walk through the wood was dominated by a solitary tree, which lay uprooted by some previous gale. The tree appeared like a fallen leviathan of the beast and my hungry camera devoured the scene with real gusto:

I spent quite a while investigating the fallen beast, and completed my exploration with a look at it large root system, which had been upended in whatever foe of a gale had toppled the large tree. There, snuggled in the gloom of the earth and tangled roots, I found this beauty of a fungi had found itself a new home:

I ran into a bit of trouble leaving Twmbarlwm Woods - a bit of a tricky situation with locals filling the entrance/exit to the woodland with dozens of bin bags, which they ceremoniously set alight. I luckily made my escape at the onset of the fire, squeezing past the growing flames into the entrance clearing, where I found myself amongst some youth mass gathering. They had obviously decided to make this their meeting place for their evening enjoyment, and they seemed genuinely shocked to see me emerging from their humungous camp fire and appearing amongst their midst. There was no further trouble and they were all apologetic and I moved swiftly on...

Twmbarlwm Magic

 I love the iconic magical shape formed between these two conjoined trees in Twmbarlwm.

Scooby Doo Trees ~ Twmbarlwm

En route up to 'The Twmb', a row of trees that appeared to have been imported from a Scooby Doo cartoon or a movie retelling of Sleepy Hollow pulled me briefly off course. I nearly used the word grotesque to describe their appearance, but on closer inspection, the moss-softened trees seemed more sensual than that term relays. Recent scientific evidence seems to support the idea that trees communicate with one another and can actually help look after one another in times of need. Here, in Twmbarlwm, these trees appeared like kindred spirits, enjoying each others company both emotionally and physically:

Twmbarlwm ~ tis the season

At certain times of the year, around about this time, in fact, the field behind this fence offers keys to the world of faery. Despite seeing numerous excited travellers step across this threshold, I kept their anonymity intact by keeping the lens of my camera focused elsewhere. After-all, it is not as though photographic opportunities are in short supply in Twmbarlwm...