{"id":20385,"date":"2022-10-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=20385"},"modified":"2022-10-27T15:47:08","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T13:47:08","slug":"between-two-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/2022\/10\/13\/between-two-rivers\/","title":{"rendered":"Between two rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
DAY OUT: <\/strong>Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire <\/span><\/h5>\n\n

Between two rivers<\/h2>\n\n

Julie Brominicks <\/strong>revisits a historic maritime village on the southern coast of Wales, where cockle pickers have foraged the mudflats for hundreds of years \u2013 and still do today <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
\u00a0It\u2019s thought Norman invaders first raised the walls of dramatically placed Llansteffan Castle around 1100, on the site of an Iron Age fort <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

B<\/span>eyond Afon Tywi and a strip of bright sand is a string of colourful buildings and a wooded headland on which sits a broken castle. My first glimpse of Llansteffan from Glanyfferi was 10 years ago, when you had to walk another 17 miles to reach it via the first crossing of Afon Twyi at Caerfyrddin (Carmarthen). <\/p>\n\n

The walk was green and interesting, but I regretted the disappearance of the ferry, which travellers of old had used. But now, the ferry is back. It is the <\/em>way to arrive. <\/p>\n\n

Llansteffan, after all, situated on the spit between the Tywi and T\u00e2f rivers, is maritime in spirit. But it is also sylvan, with its woodland known as The Sticks. A place where both cockle shells and beechnuts crunch underfoot. <\/p>\n\n

ESTUARINE BEAUTY <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

The village is charismatic, too. Although the local shop no longer boasts a post office, it now sells a darn good pizza instead. The Pound \u2013 acircular building once used for rounding up cattle \u2013 is a gallery these days, the pubs serve up banter and beer, and the silence within the thick walls of Sant Steffan\u2019s Church is as rich as ever. <\/p>\n\n

We buy brownies from Kevin, whose Coastal Delights shack overlooks the beach. \u201cMy wife is Llansteffan born and bred,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I\u2019m an import. I used to work in Swansea, but we thought we\u2019d give it a go \u2019yere, and I love it.\u201d The saltmarsh is blowsy with aging flowers, sea rocket still clings to the sand. From up at the wrecked castle, the vistas are one glorious estuarine swirl. You can see the cockle pickers from here, and their boats, just dots. <\/p>\n\n

The Sticks are bronzing. Sycamore, ash, beech and oak make vignettes of the sand. We walk on to it, over mud slicks and shells to where the cockle pickers are busy with rakes, riddles and net sacks, as they have been for hundreds of years, or at least since July. They\u2019re a cheery bunch. \u201cYou know you\u2019re fit,\u201d one tells us, \u201cdoing this. If you weren\u2019t you\u2019d just fall down flat.\u201d He grins. <\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Julie Brominicks is a landscape writer who lives in Wales.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

Photos: Celtic Routes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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