RHATTAL-MAWR, Lledred, Ceredigion 2013

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Notes on RHATTAL-MAWR, Lledred, Ceredigion 2013

Between Lledrod and Bronnant; instead of following the footpath, which would have meant a mile of walking along a busy road – it wasn’t the danger that concerned me just the curious prying eyes! – I decided upon a cross-country route. A heard of cows watched curiously and began to follow me from a field away. I crossed the stream ‘Afon Wyre’ and joined the footpath – no stiles over fences, no obvious footpath, no user-friendly way – and up to the house. As you can see it’s a longhouse and I’d say laid empty for ten to twenty years. The barns are still in agricultural use but the house was damp and unfriendly and I saw no reason to climb through the window and enter – as ever I left my courage at home. Besides there was no treasure here to be found, the treasure was on the exterior; such pleasures longhouses give me!

I made a few brief exposures and then left. The walk back was slow and wet. Never did that matter. The sheets of film had been exposed and I thought the walk back to the car would be a pleasurable one. From a field away a farmer passed on his quad bike and moved from cow to cow. For some reason I ducked down and hid behind some low lying branches. I sat on a fallen log and watched. I do not know if he had seen me but I stayed where I was motionless until he passed by and disappeared over the brow of the hill and I heard a metal gate open and close and the motor from the quad bike fade.

I would have felt a complete idiot if he had come in my direction and found me hiding behind some branches. I wasn’t strictly trespassing, I was a few metres from a footpath but inexplicably I decided to hide; there was the fact that although the O/S map said there was a footpath I still felt like an intruder. I’m not sure what my point is here. Perhaps my own method of visiting these ruins is flawed.

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