Laughrane and Castle Ruins

We drove into St. Clears and through the lower village. The road is so narrow that we have to stop over on the side and take turns when cars come up the other way. Everyone is very polite about it though and once you get used to it, its actually pretty easy to get used to.

As we drive slowly down the road, we pass a little pub called the Butcher's Arms and my mom says 'Oh my gosh, there it is! That's the pub where your dad and I first ate lunch!" and starts to cry. We pause for a moment and then mom points out our cousin Irene's house up the road. We keep on driving down to Laughrane and the car park near the castle ruins.

Seeing even the walls of a castle just STANDING there is pretty cool. The tide is out and the estuary it overlooks is almost all wet sand. Later I'm told that in high tides at autumn and early spring, the water will come in all the way up to the road and cover the car park and the grasslands and everything. But today is damp and cool and green and grey and there are just a few cars in the park.

We try to make some calls, but the phone is behaving terribly. Even though the woman at Verizon swore up and down that I would have service anywhere and that I could patch into any Euro network and I told her exactly where I was going- we will have service and a second later it is gone. We've actually only been able to make about 3 calls the entire time we've been in Wales.

We drive back to the B&B where we're spending the night. It's a really nice house and the husband has built on a second floor with guest rooms. For dinner we go to eat in Laugharne at the Portreeve and eat plaice and halibut and lots of veggies and talk to the lady who owns the resturant, who knows my mom's friend Noel and my cousin Irene (everyone in Laughrane and St. Clears knows everyone else - it's that kind of place) and have apple tart for dessert. While we're eating a couple comes in, obviously regulars, with two spaniel dogs. This is a fairly nice place, but the dogs lie down under the table ( being much better than my dogs would under the same circumstances) and no one pays any attention, so it must be cool.

They really seem to love dogs here. Also, St. Clears has ENORMOUS cats. Seriously, I have seen two cats here and they are just much bigger than all the cats I know. I love a big-headed cat, but these were just crazy large. But then I saw one normal size, so I guess they are not all mutants.


Next morning we are given a real Welsh breakfast with thick Welsh bacon which is more like what we call Canadian bacon, fresh oj, yogurt, eggs, tomatoes, toast and tea. Everything is terrific.We pack up for a day in Laughrane and go to the castle.

Laughrane Castle is mostly walls, but some of the inner tower sections remain. When we go in through the gate, my mom realizes that the lady working in the gift shop ( Sonja) is the same woman she talked to 14 years ago and they get on again like a house afire. William and I climb the inner tower to the top and the view out over the village and the estuary is amazing. You can picture the lord of the castle looking out over his fields or watching the tide for boats. Laughrane Castle was a residential castle, not a fortress, but it is still impressive.

After we climb CAREFULLY down the winding staircases, William and I walk in the chilly drizzle around the inside perimeter of the walls. Looking out over the ocean, small double doors open onto a little round room set into the wall with big curved windows looking out over the estuary and a little fireplace. A plaque tells us that this is Dylan Thomas' writing room. His boathouse, where he wrote Under Milkwood is up the lane from the castle, but he liked to come and sit here and wrote 'My Life As A Dog' in this room. If you picture it with a nice armchair and a table and maybe a blanket to put over your knees and a warm fire, it would be an amazing room to write or paint in or just to think in.

We walk through the grounds and collect my mom, who has traded more stories with Sonja, gotten names and email addresses from two other Welsh guys hanging out with Sonja ( I accuse her of picking up men the minute she's ditched W and I) and we go down to the car and drive out to the old farmstead where we'll be spending the week. We drive back through St. Clears and out into the countryside. After a bit, we turn down a curvy farm road with high hedgerows on either side and wildflowers and Queen Anne's Lace growing along either side.

When we finally turn in, we drive down a steep road and as we go through the meadows, a pheasant runs out in front of the car as if announcing our presence before flying off to the side. The old stone barn is 'proper Wlesh' - grey stone with painted trim and flowers and inside it is beautiful and totally rebult. Charlotte, our landlady is as charming as her house and barn are. She shows us around, takes William to see the chickens and promises us fresh eggs. She also offers to take William up into the woods in the evening to look for badgers and try out a swing they have there. She has also thoughtfully stocked the barn with TinTin books that used to belong to her own son.

We get settled in and then decide to go get groceries. I drive us all the way back to Caermarthan to the Tesco ( the M4 again AND roundabouts!) and get some food for a few days. Coming back to the stone barn feels like home. Later, ,mom's friend Noel comes over and brings us a bunch of brochures and a map he's marked up with good places to visit and stay. We have a good visit and make plans to meet up with our cousins tomorrow. For the first night, in the thick walls of the stone barn, we all sleep clear through the night.