The Castles of Ogmore and Candleston

 It was off to the polling station first thing on Thursday ... 

... and then on to Cardiff, to drop The Northerner at work, not because of a strike this time, but because the Severn Tunnel is closed for repair/maintenance and Network Rail haven't seen fit to lay on any replacement coach services, so train journeys between the Welsh capital and Bristol are necessarily via Gloucester and several times longer than usual. 

Rather than shuttling between the two cities in the morning and then back again in the afternoon, Cwtch and I drove on to Ogmore. Cwtch got very excited as we turned into the lane that runs down to the castle; I swear she recognised it from our previous visit.  

This time I intended to walk to Candleston Castle and the back of Merthyr Mawr Warren, which I visited with Son the Younger and our old collie, Ted, back in 2019.  This meant braving the long line of stepping stones across the River Ewenny - no mean feat with a collie who doesn't care for water. 

I unclipped her retractable lead - I'm not a complete idiot - and started across them but Cwtch remained paw deep in water and didn't follow. So I went back to the beginning, encouraged her onto the first stone and set off again. This time she pushed past to lead the way; that is, until she got to a pair of stones with a slightly wider gap than the rest and stopped dead in her tracks. I went ahead at this point, and for the rest of the crossing, could feel her nose pressed against the back of my leg, so close was she. But she did it. Hooray for the brave little collie!

On the far side, further challenges for a small collie to contend with, though my inner seven-year-old was in heaven. Horses! 

Looking back across the River Ewenny to Ogmore Castle

Our next obstacle was the River Ogmore, crossed by a suspended footbridge, which was easier for Cwtch to contemplate than the stepping stones, but still wobbled disconcertingly. 

River Ogmore

We soon reached the picturesque village of Merthyr Mawr with its thatched cottages. 

Our route took us up over a couple of fields. At this point, the guide book said the track can get overgrown and  hard to follow. Actually, it was the directions that foxed me: a gate mentioned without being told whether you should go through it or not, a road described as a tree-lined path, etc. With time tight, I decided I couldn't keep making forays in different directions in the hope I'd find another waymark that proved we were heading in the right direction, so I reluctantly retraced our steps down the hill. 

pink hogweed

meadowsweet

a thrush egg

Back at the village I headed for the Church of St Teilo, which looked very neat in its very tidy churchyard - although a notice informed people who might think it not tidy enough that some nettles had been left uncut for Peacock, Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies.  

The current church building is Victorian, in the Gothic Revival style. It looks great but being comparatively modern, lacks much in the way of quirk ... 

... though this font dates from the 13th century ...

... and the preaching cross in the churchyard is also mediaeval. 

And then, on the north side of the churchyard, I found - what joy! - this hut housing a crowd of inscribed and carved early mediaeval pillars, slabs and crosses.

They were all found locally, and it's really good this is where they've stayed, but it would wonderful if they had more substantial housing, with user-friendly interpretation boards. Of course with a modern church, there's no spare chapel going begging, like the Galilee Chapel at St Illtyd's in Llantwit Major, which houses that church's collection of ancient Celtic crosses. 

On then, past barley fields fringed with Himalayan balsam and clumps of rough chervil, to the privately-run car park at Merthyr Mawr Warren, where we soon located Candleston Castle, despite the lack of maps and/or information boards there (apart from Have You Paid Your Parking Fee notices at every path leading out of it).

The castle - a fortified manor house - was built in the 14th century and fell into ruin in the 19th. Even in bright sunlight it was atmospheric.

We were now at the back of the dune system ...

... and the vegetation changed accordingly: here, restharrow and common stork's bill. 

I lacked the energy, though, to climb this dune - it's steeper than it looks - for a view of ... more dunes, probably, so we walked the mile or so back to the village and recrossed the River Ogmore via the footbridge.

The river is tidal here and the level lower than before, but even so, I decided asking Cwtch to cross a long stretch of stepping stones for a second time in one day might be pushing my luck, so we sought out the concrete footbridge that crosses the River Ewenny further upstream.

Hemlock Water Dropwort lining the banks 

Back at Ogmore Castle car park, we watched sand martins and one or two swallows dip and curve over the Ewenny before heading back to Cardiff, then Bristol and a long night watching Tory ministers - and one former Prime Minister - lose their seats. A good day!