Wednesday 9th June 2010 - Llanddeusant

It was only a short distance to our next stop at Black Mountain Camping and Caravan Park in Llanddeusant and we had a number of options of places to stop on the way. In the end we opted to go via Llandeilo with the option of visiting the National Trust Dinefwr with its house, park and ruined castle. The weather was not at all promising and we knew that we would be lucky to escape without any rain.
We tried to park in the main car park in the centre of Llandeilo but it was busy and there weren't any spaces suitable for motorhomes. We returned to the Coop that we had passed on the way in and were able to fit in a space with the back end over some grass. After a big shop in the Coop we returned to the town centre and started to follow the route on the Town Trail leaflet that Jane picked up from the Fishguard Tourist Information Office. It was a pleasant walk, the highlight of which was the visit to the church of St. Teilo with its interactive display of the Llandeilo Fawr Gospels. The 8th century illustrated gospels are closely related to the famous Lindisfarne Gospels, beautifully illustrated and containing the oldest known written Welsh. The original is in Litchfield Cathedral but excellent PC software allowed us to view high definition images, turn the pages, magnify any parts that we wanted to and read about the history of the gospels. An intriguing aspect of the gospels was its use as a place to record contracts, literally sworn on the bible.
We timed a very late lunch well by having tea and cakes in a café close to the church. The cakes were very good, the service very slow but this allowed us to watch the rain falling almost the whole time that we were there, stopping just as we left.
We were able to buy some more of that lovely Welsh Spring Lamb from one of the real butchers in the town before we returned to Henrietta.
Twenty minutes later we arrived at Llanddeusant to find that the pub next to the campsite had been closed and replaced by the Red Kite Centre Café. We sat outside the van watching the Red Kites circling above us before threatening skies forced us inside. It wasn't long before the heavy rain started and thunder rumbled all around us.
Photos: This intriguing house in Llandeilo is a conversion of the old St. Paul's church; The Red Kite Centre Café.