Guided walk about On Nos Olau Lleuad

I looked at the weather forecast, changed into quick-dry trousers, and set off to the starting point of the guided walk about celebrated Welsh book Un Nos Olau Leuad. We would gather rather high up in the village, and I assumed we would walk down from there. The evening would end in a pub near me. 

It was only raining mildly. I figured that I was the first one! You could either go straight to the beginning, or hitch a ride with the local electrical van, and I had chosen to walk. I figured the van would first wait for stragglers, and be a bit later. And soon another slightly bedraggled lady ended up at the same address. I approached her asking if she was there for the same purpose, and she was! And then more appeared. Two of them I recognised from an earlier guided walk; that had been archaeology and ecology in the Carneddau. We had a nice chat.

After a while we decided to check the junction nearby, and we found the van and everybody belonging with it. They hadn't bothered to look around the corner to the actual address where they had told us to meet. But now we were complete, and it could start. 

The first thing the guide, Ieuan Wyn, did was if a bit of an introduction. He reminded people of when the book was written and published, and what the circumstances were of the author. He also touched on the form of the narrative; it’s childhood memories from an adult man. Even though that is a bit weird; when you read the book, it really has a childlike perspective, where things that happen are taken as given, and not reflected on. Adults looking back tend to do that differently, but hey ho. 

He then proceeded to mention a lot of locations that were mentioned in the book, and explained what their real names were. Quite a lot of them are slightly altered, and some I thought I recognised, but wasn't sure of. Braich-> Braichmelyn, Pont Stabla -> Pont Twr (the most plausible bridge), etc. Some locations I really couldn't place, like an auntie’s house which turned out to be in Deiniolen, and the house where the protagonist lives. And that was the house where we had gathered. 

The street and house where both author and protagonist lived

Ieuan Wyn explain the various locations where the author had lived, which were all quite nearby. And took us to the house that is the location of a nasty eviction at the very start of the book. But then the rain was hammering down! It was decided that we will try to do some of the talking inside the bus. We could still see the locations from the inside. And after we had seen these locations higher up in the village, we went to the church. The protagonist is a churchgoer, not a chapel goer. I had never been in there! It had been built by Penrhyn Estate (of course) and there are several scenes that are set inside it. It was nice to see the details all matching up.

To the church 

Inside

After church we went to the little parking space next to my house, as that plays a role as well. Not as a parking lot, obviously. But although there were probably about 20 pubs in the town at the time where the novel is set, there is only mention of one (now closed), and that his back entrance where is now the parking lot. So some of the scenes were really set nearby! And the guide also spoke a bit about the two various locations where there had been holding cells; I blogged about the older ones earlier, and now I also know where the newer ones, in use at the time of the book, are. I think had actually found out before, but forgotten again. 

After that we went to the pub. I was glad! I was hoping for something hot. The communications about this event had been that a light meal would be served. Coming in we noticed it wasn't hot at all, but at least we could get a hot cup of tea or coffee with it. That helped!

I chatted a bit more with some of the other participants, but I did not stay long. And even then it was after nine when I left. And the next day was going to be a long one. But I was glad I had gone. It really lives more in your head if you know where all these scenes are set! So that was an evening well spent. And I was also glad I had managed to read almost the entire book beforehand. The guide read out scenes that related to the locations where we were, and I recognised all of them from recently having read them. Even finishing the book would not have given me more relevant locations. So both the re-reading and the walk were a success! I am now a better informed reader and Bethesda resident…

Visit by my dad

My dad is a train nut. And he sometimes goes on holiday with other train nuts, to look at trains. And this summer, he would visit Liverpool in that context. And that’s not far from Wales! So he figured he might drop by. And we made it happen. 

Organising the logistics was not straightforward, but we had sorted it out the previous time I was in the Netherlands. So on the day I knew which train I had to pick him up from. I thought. I was a bit early and decided to go to the platform. And who was there? My dad! He had decided to take an earlier train, and, being 86, he hadn’t thought it was the obvious thing to do to send me a message to let me know. 

We got home and had lunch. In the garden! He had been looking forward a lot to sitting in the garden. But after lunch he thought it was a bit chilly. When we had a drink later on we did it in the conservatory. At least you can see the garden from there. 

The cat had my dad wrapped around her paw as well; she often held on to the comfy chair

We also went the cheese shop between lunch and drinks. It would be nice to be able to offer him local cheese. And for my once indefatigable dad, that was enough of a walk! He feels his age. And I went for a run; I wanted to keep that routine up. I want to feel my age as little as possible.

The Friday would have good gardening weather, but we seemed to get distracted. My dad, who is an unstoppable DIY-er, spotted that the toilet seat wobbles, and wanted to do something about it. Together we managed. 

I also hauled him up to a local event of which I had slightly misinterpreted the content. Oh well! He now knows of a community initiative. We didn’t stay long and it was only 200m away, so not much was lost. And he did see a chance to cut the grass (his offer) while I went for a run. It was sweet that the neighbour’s dog tried his bark-for-cuddles routine on him and it worked! 

The Saturday was supposed to be rainy, but in practice it wasn’t bad at all. We got some good work done in the garden! And we mucked out the gutter of the conservatory. And when I say ‘we’ I mean my dad. 

Some good ladder skills at 86

We also sat down with his phone! I knew he would get himself a smartphone, because I had heard him ask my sister if she could advise him on that. So now he had one, but he didn’t know how it worked. And it was a Samsung (I don’t like them!) so I wasn’t very familiar with it either, but a combination of trial and error and googling on my iPhone got us far. By the evening he was actively texting relatives and acquaintances! A keen student. And if he took long over composing a text I used the opportunity to make progress in my book I wanted to finish that weekend. 

We also properly installed the new cat flap. After the cat demolished the old one, I had only managed to half install the new one. If I fully installed it the flap wouldn’t move freely in the frame. And it was mysterious why! But we sorted it. 

We also of course spent plenty of time having tea or wine or suchlike and chewing the fat; unfortunately, rarely in the garden. And with all that, the last evening passed.

The next morning was not very relaxed; when I got up I checked my dad’s trains. His Eurostar seemed to be running as normal, but his direct train to London was cancelled due to personnel shortages. (Last time I travelled, it had been floods.) So he had to take an earlier, indirect one. But we found out on time. And soon I waved his train goodbye. 

There he goes

Re-reading Un Nos Olau Leuad

Before I had the faintest idea I would ever live in Bethesda I had read this book, which is by many considered to be the best book written in Welsh ever, and it’s both set in the town, and written by a man who was from there. I didn't really recognise any of the places mentioned in the book. It is cleared at a lot of places are not referred to as modern inhabitants do. Back in the early 20th century, the A5 was not known as the A5, for instance! 

Moving to Bethesda I became more curious where everything would have taken place, but I didn't really act on that curiosity. Until I saw advertised a guided walk in the area in the theme of the book. It would both involve locations that had been important in the life of the writer, and locations that feature in the book. That sounded enlightening! I signed up.

That meant that now I needed to really quickly reread the book. I wanted to have it fresh in my memory when I would join the tour!