Welsh Weekend

It was a crisp and bright weekend on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast

We were stopping in a little hamlet on the coast, Gilston, twix Cardiff and Porthcawl. Stayed in a tiny cottage, The Hay Loft, just about big enough to swing a cat, with a mezzanine king size bed













the shower room had been done out, by hand, with local smooth black pebbles - must have taken some patience 


and some interesting concrete garden furniture

Main reason for the trip was to see The Ronnie Scott Story. It was on in the amazingly converted Tithe Barn which is St Donats Art Center 

on the campus of the equally amazing Atlantic College

St Donats has a long and chequered history from the days it was known as 'the place where rescuers gather, to its naming as St Dunwydd mapped in 1877 to St Donats - a saint better known on the continent than in Britain. The castle there was restored in the 19th century by the Carne family and again in the early 1900's by Morgan Williams. Its most famouse incarnation, though, was the fortune spent on it by William Randolf Hurst ("Citizen Kane") in the 1920's which also brought piped water,electricity and the telephone to St Donats - G.B. Shaw was moved to comment "This is what God would have built if he had had the money". It was established as the Atlantic College by the United World Colleges movement in 1962 and remains so to this day.

The current resident Ronnie Scott's Quintet were truly amazing. The musicians were outa this world. The tenner sax, R.S's original, and the supreme trumpet player in perfect sync, amazin piano n bass players and the drummer who did one of the best "Buddy Rich" drum solos I've heard - interspersed with tales n jokes from the life of the lad himself and an amusing vid clip from Ginger Baker.

The remainder of the weekend was spent touring the coast, towns and hamlets in the area.

Cowbridge

Known as the Capital of the rural Vale has many fashionable shops, inns, bars and restaurants - but also some stunning architecture.

the grammar school, until the Wars
owned and run by Jesus College Oxford

and a most unusual church

the Physic Garden a fine
example of its kind

Dunraven Bay

With its unusual display of rock formations

A walk up the far hill takes you to the extensive walled garden of Dunraven Estate

Nash Point

Wonderful walk along the cliff road to the Monk Nash lighthouse 

now that's what I call a foghorn

and this is what makes

a foghorn work!

Llantwit Major

Home of St IIItud's Church, known as "The Cathedral of the Vale, was established in 500 AD. The original monastery included a school and is considered by some to be  Britain's earliest center of learning. The newly refurbished Galilee Chapel is home to a fine collection of Celtic stones

Some of the overwash has been removed from the inner walls of St IIItud's to reveal some amazing artwork

Returning via Penarth with its restored pier, sizable marina and views across to Cardiff Bay

and the remarkable hedge topiary in the park

and, all too soon, leaving Wales across the 1st Severn Bridge, which had been opened by the then Minister of Transport Barbara Castle, and was later dedicated a 'Peace Bridge'.