If you are planning to visit the annual Hay Book Festival then Talgarth is an excellent place to stay.  It is no more than a 20 minute ride to the Festival site and the the Shuttle stops just outside the Castle Hotel .

But what about those days when the bustle of the Festival site and Hay town center just do not appeal? We checked out the local Tourist Information Center (manned by volunteers) and were delighted to learn that there are many longer and shorter walks in and around the town. The 20 minute walk to Pwll-y-Wrach waterfall and nature reserve is perhaps the finest amongst them.

A leaflet published by The Brecknock Wildlife Trust, who maintain the Reserve, is available from the Tourist Information Center and the following description is both useful and accurate:-

Pwll-y-Wrach (Witches’ Pool) is the Brecknock Wildlife Trust’s most visited nature reserve. Its 17.5 hectares of beautiful ancient woodland run along both banks of the River Enig. Near the eastern end of the reserve the river plunges over a spectacular waterfall into a dark pool below. The main access to the reserve is from the site’s main car park. From here an easy access path leads you in to the centre of the reserve and a small waterfall. Other paths within the reserve allow you to create a circular walk. All paths, except the easy access trail, are unsurfaced and can be very muddy and slippery at times. They can be narrow with an uneven surface and steps. Sturdy shoes or boots are recommended. The walk from the road to the main waterfall and back is about 1 mile.

The full text of the leaflet can be found here .

We elected to walk from Talgarth town center and enjoy the surrounding countryside (see photo album below). En route we passed the entrance to the Mid Wales Hospital (a former 'lunatic asylum'). This is a very creepy old place and there is no public access. It has, however, been visited by many 'urban explorers' and there are plenty of photos on this page

Once you enter the reserve the nature of your surroundings changes completely. You are enveloped by a leafy canopy of deciduous trees and accompanied by the sound of running water as the River Ennig (not much more than a stream here) flows lazily toward Talgarth a mile or so down the hill.

The waterfall itself is no Niagara Falls but it is an idyllic spot and a perfect place for relaxation, quiet contemplation or just 'staring vaguely into space'.

All in all this is the ideal location to 'decompress' after too many hectic days and beery nights at the Hay Festival.

Pwll-y-Wrach (Witches Pool)

 
Photos: 7

Bronllys Castle is no more than a 10-15 minute walk from any of the hotels in Talgarth. The scant remains of the former fortress have been painstakingly preserved by Cadw to provide access to the top of the 12th century keep. This is an excellent vantage point for panoramic shots and video of both Talgarth and the ramparts of the Brecon Beacons to the south.

From the Wikipedia Bronllys Castle :- "Bronllys castle is a motte and bailey fortress standing south of the village, towards Talgarth. The castle was founded in or soon after 1144 when the district was granted to Walter de Clifford by Roger Fitzmiles, 2nd Earl of Hereford. Walter seems to have been responsible for building the round tower on the motte for in 1165 it caught fire and a stone tumbling from the battlements killed Earl Roger's last surviving brother Mahel de Hereford"

Bronllys Castle

 
Photos: 10

1. Click HERE (or on the Top 50 page or from your profile page). You will need to be logged in to AmeriCymru to add a video. Be sure to add ONLY the YouTube id or the complete YouTube url.  (see screenshot below)

2. On your video page click the 'Update' icon (see screenshot below).

3. Set the category to 'Music' (if it isn't already) and you are good to go. Your video can be rated and promoted either from the video page or from the YouTube Welsh Music Video Top 50 page.

N.B. Please note that any videos posted should be in compliance with copyright law. If it is your own video, that's fine. If it is an official video posted by the artist that is also fine.

Writing On AmeriCymru

Vacancies for members on AmeriCymru!!! We are also looking for part time correspondents. Join the site with the link below and message me (Ceri Shaw) on the site if you are interested. https://americymru.net/user/signup

I suppose I should expand, expound and exposit a little on this because the initial post was a trifle ambiguous. What we are looking for is a group of writers who we will engage to write features for us from time to time. We will create a closed group on the site -The Bullpen, and members/correspondents can pitch us there on articles they would like to write. We will also suggest topics and invite members to bid on them ( yes these will be paid articles ). Of course we are going to prioritise invitations to site members who have been active for a while and have already made some contributions but nothing is written in stone.

We will be looking for material that promotes Wales and/or Welsh writers, musicians, artists to an international audience.

I should stress that ALL correspondence on this topic MUST be carried on via the AmeriCymru site. Please no emails or FB messages. Join or login to AmeriCymru and message us here if you are interested.....diolch

Welsh writer and journalist Tim Hartley has travelled the world in an attempt to make sense of globalisation, international culture and politics, football and his own place in the modern world.

Kicking off in North Korea is a series of travel diaries that follow his adventures from herding reindeer with the last of the Sami people to watching football in a silent crowd of 50,000 in North Korea. Through his travelling, Tim casts a piercing and sometimes judgemental eye on the kaleidoscopic world around him.

‘I think the seed for my travel addiction may have been planted when I visited the former Yugoslavia in 1979.’ says Tim, ‘It was still a communist country, I was a politics student and while my family were happy to sit on the beaches of the Dalmatian coast I was peering into offices and government buildings looking for evidence of workers committees, red banners, hammers and sickles.’

‘The travel bug was there, in my head, and I think the aim was to find further, maybe more difficult places to go to.’ he continued.

‘Some of charity drives we did across Europe, to Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Macedonia were fascinating because the landscape and people changed every day. The shockwaves of the fall of the communist empire is still being felt in Eastern Europe.’ he explained.

‘The riots in Kiev, the blood feuds in Albania and the ethnic tensions across the former Yugoslavia are for real, but you don’t have a chance of understanding them without going there yourself and talking to those involved.’ he continued.

But it was not all plain sailing.

‘There have been some hairy moments like when we hitched a lift across the Jordanian desert at dusk with the driver asking us to spell ‘terrorist.’’ says Tim. ‘There have been checkpoints, North Korean minders and young Israelis with guns. But there’s a myth that foreign places are inherently dangerous.’

The travel diaries also tell the story of his developing relationship with his son, Chester, while they travel the world together.

‘It never crossed our minds that Chester would not be part of our travels.’ he says, ‘I have seen him grow in confidence and become thirsty for knowledge of other places, other people.’

Tim Hartley is a writer and journalist. He has worked for the BBC for 17 years and for the British Council and the United Nations Development Programme in Central Asia and Africa.

He is also a regular contributor on radio and television and has shared his obsessions on the BBC’s ‘From our own Correspondent’ and a number of newspapers and magazines including the Guardian, Golwg and the Western Mail.

‘You don’t have to travel to the ends of the world to get some great travelling experiences.’ concludes Tim. ‘North Wales may seem small on a map but every town has its own history and character.’

READ MORE HERE

Dale and Lucy are two students with an interest in the supernatural. One weekend, they travel to Sker House, South Wales, a private residence with a macabre history which has recently been converted into a seaside inn. They plan to write an article for the university magazine about a supposed haunting, but when they arrive, they meet a landlord who seems to have a lot to hide. Soon, it becomes apparent that all is not well at Sker House. An air of opression hangs over it, the true depth of the mystery going far beyond a mere historical haunting. This is a place where bad things happen, and evil lurks. Little by little Dale and Lucy fall under Sker's dark spell, and as they begin to unravel the secrets of the past, they realize they also have to do battle with the ghosts of the present.

Welcome to Sker House , a place where fact and fiction collide.

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REVIEW

On a recent work trip away in L.A. I took a day off and realised that I was confined to my motel room all day with nothing to read. Or so I thought. Checking my inbox I found a review copy of C.M. Saunders excellent 'Sker House'. I began reading and finished the same day!

It's addictive.... a real page turner. It will not scare the pants off you, although there are some eerie passages earlier on, but, it will keep you massively entertained throughout. Think 'ripping yarn' or 'H.P. Lovecraft meets Indiana Jones'.

The Indiana Jones connection is alluded to at one point in the narrative when the guests and staff of Sker House make their final stand against the other worldly horrors which infest the place:-

“This is beginning to turn into an Indiana Jones movie,” said Lucy, who seemed increasingly unimpressed with all the problem-solving.

“In that case, I hope it doesn't turn into the Last Crusade,” said Dale.

“Why? Does the hero die in that one? I haven't seen it,” said Lucy, feigning interest.

“No. It was just s**t.”

No fear of that! The final scenes, set in the catacombs beneath Sker House, combine comedy and drama with perfect pace to provide a satisfying and thrilling denoument to the creepy capers that precede it.

If you like your ghost stories with a generous side of humor then this book is definitely for you. Sker House landlord James Machen (an allusion, no doubt, to Welsh master of horror fiction, Arthur Machen) entertains us frequently with his wry observations. The alcoholic Welsh landlord, down on his luck and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, reveals the sad story of his associaton with Sker in a series of drunken soliloquies. At one point he asks himself:-

"What was it Richard Burton said? Show a Welshman a million exits and he'll always choose the path to self-destruction. Or was it Anthony Hopkins? Maybe they both said it. Whatever. It sounded about right."

All in all I have no hesitation in recommending Sker House to anyone who has a sense of humor and a taste for the supernatural. With summer vacation time looming this book is a perfect accompaniment for long plane or train journeys and ideal for a lazy day at the beach.

INTERVIEW

AmeriCymru: How would you describe your latest novel, 'Sker House'?

In a nutshell, it's a traditional haunted house story with a contemporary twist and a distinctly Welsh flavour. Sker House is an actual location, near Kenfig on the south Wales coast. When I was a kid I used to go on family holidays to Porthcawl and Sker was a regular haunt, excuse the pun. It was in ruins then – the house been refurbished since – and there was just something about the place. There are loads of local legends and ghost stories connected to it. I thought about it a lot over the years, and always toyed with the idea of writing a book about it. When I was living in China a few years ago I had some time on my hands and decided to tackle the project head-on. During the research phase, I found that the truth is even stranger than the fiction. Of all the historical sites in Wales, Sker House is probably the most deserving of having a fictionalized book written about it. It's also one of the lesser-known sites. One of my aims was to share the story of Sker with a wider audience.

AmeriCymru: You have written many horror shorts for magazines, anthologies etc. What attracts you as a writer you to the horror genre?

I don't really know. It probably comes from being a huge Stephen King fan and being addicted to TV shows like Tales From the Crypt and Outer Limits when I was a kid. If I sit down to write, what comes out is naturally dark. Most of it has a little injection of humour, which unfortunately goes over a lot of people's heads. Writing dark fiction is also a bit of a release. My day job is writing about sport and lifestyle for magazines. I love my job, and consider myself lucky to be able to do what I love for a living, but as with most day jobs, it gets a bit monotonous at times. There's a lot of ticking boxes, writing stuffy corporate stuff, and trying to make uninteresting things sound interesting. My style, and what I write about, is largely dictated by the client or the readers. When I write fiction, I don't write for an audience, I write for myself. That's one reason why I turned to indie publishing a couple of years ago. I like the creative freedom. I control everything from the content and the cover design to the pricing, which has been a big sticking point with publishers in the past who always insisted on pricing my books way too high.

AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about your 2003 title:- Into the Dragon's Lair: A Supernatural History of Wales?

That was the first book I ever had published. Having left school with no qualifications, I was working in a packing factory in Rhymney. After my shifts I'd go home, research and write about local myths and legends. Partly because I wanted to identify more with Wales, and partly because I was just interested in the subject matter. When people asked what I did in my spare time I'd tell them, but nobody ever thought it would lead to anything, least of all me. I dreamed about being able to leave that factory. After six or seven years work, I polished the manuscript up and sent it out to about a dozen publishers. Most never replied, and the ones that did turned it down. The very last name on the list was a small Welsh publisher called Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, who liked it and agreed to take it on. It caused quite a stir when it came out, there were newspaper and radio interviews for which I was wholly unprepared, but it won the attention of the Welsh Arts Council who got behind it and I ended up getting a grant to go to university as a mature student. Since then, I've had to pinch myself every day. I am living proof that if you put your heart and soul into something, you can achieve anything.

AmeriCymru: You are also a Cardiff City fan and you have written a history of the club. Care to tell us a little more about this?

That was something I started when I was in university, again as a kind of pet project just because I wanted to know more about the club. Their history is fascinating. They are the only club to ever take the FA Cup out of England, and remain the only football club in the world to ever hold the national cups of two different countries at the same time by winning the Welsh cup the same year (1927). There's a great old photo of the then-captain, Fred Keenor, with the FA Cup in one hand a fag in the other. How the game has changed!

It's not always enjoyable, but supporting Cardiff is never boring. The first game I ever saw was a 1-1 draw with Barnet in the old Fourth Division in 1992 (I think), and I went down to Ninian Park quite regularly until I moved away in 2003. I finished the book in 2007, but couldn't find a publisher for it at the time. Then, when the club won promotion to the Premier League in 2012/13, I had another go and lo and behld, there was more interest this time around.

AmeriCymru: What's next for C.M. Saunders. Any new titles in the works?

I took a huge leap recently and scaled down my day job to pursue fiction. Not 100% of the time, but now I do about half and half. I thought if I don't do it now, I never will. I have a new novella coming out in the summer called No Man's Land, a horror story set in the trenches of World War I. It's the centeniery of the Battle of the Somme, so I'm planning on giving the proceeds to a veteran's charity. My main project at the moment is an adventure series for young adults about a character called Joshua Wyrdd, who finds a magic amulet in a rock pool in Anglesey which transports him through time. I've always been a history buff. The books are written in such a way that they aren't just adventure stories, but are also at least partially historically accurate, so they can be used as educational tools for kids. The first book is about the Roman invasion of Angelsey and the Final Battle they had there with the Celts and the druids, while the second is about pirates and sea monsters and the third will be about the witch trials.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

The bond Welsh people have, wherever in the world they travel, is something that never ceases to amaze me. If I ever see a Welsh jersey in a random bar in Hong Kong, or anywhere else, I know I'm looking at a friend. We just seem to have an affinity with each other, and that is something to be cherished. I'd also like to thank Americymru, and it's members, for all their support. It truly means everything. Diolch!

The nation lost a giant of a man who had a devoting passion for Wales and the Welsh language when Meredydd ‘Merêd’ Evans died on the 21st of February 2015.

Now, in Merêd: Dyn ar Dân , the enormous contribution Merêd made to Welsh culture and politics is remembered -  as well as the man himself - the loving figure who had a deep love for his square mile. 

The diversity of the contributors found in the volume is a testament to the popularity Merêd had amongst people of all ages. Authors include Angharad Tomos, Gai Toms, Lyn Ebenezer and Cynog Dafis - each paying tribute to Merêd, to his genius and his tenacity, his vision and his affection.

There is also an article by the late Professor Gwyn Thomas, who died on the 13th of April this year.

There are also many poems paying tribute to Merêd, and the last poem written by Merêd himself, along with a host of pictures from all of the periods in his life.

'One of the greatest tributes of this volume is unwritten – that is to say that it features authors ranging from their twenties to their nineties have all contributed. Each, in their own area of expertise and each in their own style want to acknowlede their gratitude to Merêd,' said Rocet Arwel Jones.

The volume acknowledges Merêd’s contribution as a broadcaster, philosopher, performer, researcher, and educator; to the establishment of community newspapers, S4C and the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, among many other things. He made large and lasting contributions to Wales during a life that spanned nearly a century.

‘He was an activist in everything he did – from earning a living as a lecturer and television product to campaigns in education, broadcasting and language acts’ added Rocet Arwel.

The volume has been edited by Eluned Evans, Merêd’s daughter, assisted Rocet Arwel Jones.

'He was a man of national and international platforms, yet nothing was more important to him than his square mile. Tanygrisiau was always there with him as he travelled to Bangor, Cardiff, America and eventually to Cwmystwyth, where he planted deep roots’ said Rocet Arwel Jones.

Rocet Arwel Jones was born in Rhos-y-bol, Anglesey and was educated at the Young Farmers Club in Rhos-y-bol, Amlwch Secondary School and the University of Wales in Aberystwyth. He has already published two books about his experiences in a humorous tour of Africa and Kenya, a volume of interviews with Emyr Humphreys and a book of oral history at the turn of the millennium. He is a familiar voice on Radio Cymru and S4C and has published poems and essays in Taliesin, Tu Chwith, Barn, Golwg, Y Traethodydd and on the internet. He is married to Sharon and is the father of three boys.

A Merêd memorial concert to celebrate the Welsh folk singing tradition will be held at Pontrhydfendigaid Pavilion on Sunday May 1st.

Merêd: Dyn ar Dân (£9.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.