From the Barkeep's Blog

Sunshine and mild this morning. A good excuse to get up and out with the dogs. Bed is still warm and inviting but the opportunity is there to brave the elements and explore a little more of the countryside under my nose.

And as many people put their thoughts to a new regime of Health and Fitness in January, I took the opportunity of visiting another relic of Llanelli's history, the Old Castle Exercise and Fitness track. I have walked around the Old Castle fields many times and recall times from the past when I had taken the opportunity of running around the track and using the equipment that was built, open and free, for any passer by to use. Try as I might, I cannot find any records on Google of the building, financing, or the later dereliction of the track - but parts are still there to be seen.

Early sunshine rising over Old Castle ponds. Another Llanelli Blogger Robert Lloyd informs me that the Pond is over 40 feet deep in places, a place full of danger in the icy weather.

Indeed, I recall from my early days as a constable in Llanelli, assisting in the recovery of a body from the water. Details are blurred now, but the general consensus was that the deceased had fallen in, possibly drunk, while trying to climb around the metal railings that used to separate the grounds. It was a regular short cut from one end of town to the other. But the fencing required a little athletics to swing around over the water.

once there was a sign here

This one has lost one of its struts, but it is almost at ground level. I recall them as being in a zig-zag, having to walk from one to the next - but there is little sign of this any more.

Here I think was a joint between two sets of balance bars - but only an empty pop bottle adorns the place now.

So - with one last look from the cycle track back onto the exercise fields -

I return under Sandy bridge the way I came. Certainly no fitter than when I arrived this morning, but having captured one more little part of Llanelli before it disappears entirely.