dia 10

Day 10

PEMBROKE

Rainy morning in Cardiff, pack my things and went to the train station. Destination: Pembroke, about 160 kms west of Cardiff. The train rout goes via Swansea, stops at Caerfyddin, and then Pembroke and it takes about three hours.

I had a big problem with (apparently) fleas the day before, so I carefully washed all my clothes, but been itching all day long. It was a scary feeling, cause I don't know where did I get it, or if the flea or fleas are still with me. Fleas are parasites, but the human fleas mainly stay in places, or in the clothes. so I checked carefully my bags and hoped for the best.

Pembrokeshire in southwest Wales is one of the greenish counties of the country, with lots of areas of protection, including its coastlines and islands.

Pembroke

the city seem from the castle

When I get there I started looking for a place to stay and found a B&B quite nice. It is the best bed I got since Penzance. The reason I came to Pembroke was not the bed anyway.

There’s at least two Neolithic Quoits nearby, and some other Bronze and Iron age monuments around. So tomorrow will be the day to go after them.

As it was raining and I had some arrangements to do with the B&B, I decided to stay in the city and visit the massive Norman castle in the higher area of the city. The castle was owned to the Tudor family and the King Henry VII was born there. This king brought stability to England in the XIII century and stayed in the power for 24 years.

Henry VII

The castle is in ruins but there’s a lot to see there and its stone architecture was very inspiring to me. Not a surprise that flint tools were found in a cavern under the castle and it is possible that the site was an older fortress, due to its strategic site. it is considered home of the earliest inhabitants of Pembrokeshire.

model of the castle in ancient times

outside the castle

inside the castle

In fact mostly of the medieval castles I’ve been so far had been ancient fortress or villages, and it can be on account that the ancient people living there knew very well the places of the country, and when displaced – whatever the reason for this- left the best places for the ones that came after. This can be a bit disturbing too, as it leave space for almost everything get included in a possible Ley line theory. And that’s not all, if we take in mind that the waters in Europe arouse almost 40 meter in the last 6.000 years, and probably much of the achievements of an older civilization living here were lost.

the entrance of cave beneath the Pembroke castle

Close to there were found some vestigies of human presence in othe cavern called the Catshole Cave that were excaveted and were estimated that humans lived there around 10.000 tears ago. There is another cave called Cathole, close to Swansea, tthat shows evidence of much earlier human presence.

the lost specimen of Cardiff Museum

Around the city there is some intriguing engineering systems including some water mills that would use the force of the tidal from the sea, some miles from here. They have been in use since the 11th century until the 20th, and use the water stocked after hours of the waters have lowered. The irregularity of the tide made it impracticable for the industrial production.
There is an industrial city close to Pembroke called Pembroke Dock. I haven’t been there yet, but is a place that suffered a lot with unemployment as some of the biggest companies of the area have closed.

I haven't entered, actually I was very busy then...