Seven of us set out from Wick on a very warm day. Fortunately the heat of the previous four days had largely dissipated. We drove to Llantrithyd and parked near the church. We firstly had a look at the ruins of Llantrithyd Place, once home to Thomas Basset, a member of the Basset family of Beaupre Castle. Thomas had inherited the Estate through his marriage to Ann whose grandfather had originally built the house in about 1440.
We clambered amongst the ruins marvelling at the lofty heights and beautiful stone work. Sadly the house was abandoned in the early part of the 1800’s when the owners moved to Boarstall Manor in Buckinghamshire. In 1832 the roof fell in and the house was allowed to fall into ruin.
Fortunately the door was open to the little old church of St. Illtyd’s, providing us with a wonderful opportunity to marvel at the extraordinary fine Basset tomb and wall monuments. The wall monuments above the tomb depict the kneeling figures of John Basset (died 1554) and his second wife Elizabeth. The figures on the coffin tomb are Antony Mansel in full armour alongside his wife Elizabeth with their seven children, the ‘weepers’ along the bottom of the tomb. Their daughter Mary inherited the Estate and married Sir Thomas Aubrey in 1586 whereupon the Estate remained in the Aubrey family until 1910.
Afterwards we looked at the ancient yew tree, reputed to be 3,000 years old, on the north side of the church before finally commencing our walk. We proceeded through the old gardens of the house and past it’s fish ponds and up the hill past where Llantrithyd Castle once stood. The first of many stiles took us out onto a narrow lane which soon joined the Bonvilston-Llancadle road.
Another overgrown stile took us into a large field of wheat but luckily there was a path through the middle. We dropped down into a dry stream bed and searched around for the stile which was well hidden. This took us out into two fields and eventually through a well laid out farm then down a steep bank to Llanvithyn Farm.
A sharp right turn took us over another stile and into a field where we sat down for our picnic. Now followed a particularly rickety stile then a couple more fields to the farm of Gowlog and an easy track to cross the Llancadle road and through a logging depot with landscaped areas all around. An overgrown path took us over two more interesting stiles and finally we dropped down through an old oak wood and across open fields, crossing the Nant Llantrithyd stream bringing us out onto the Llantrithyd-Llanmaes road at Tre Aubrey and up the road back to our cars at 2.30pm.
There was some discussion about the distance with conflicting apps, but the author used the old fashioned method of paper and pencil when he got home and came up with 5.4 kms or 3.6 miles. Although not a long walk the historical aspect and the ten different stiles made it into a very interesting and enjoyable walk.
wickwanderers.com 