DISCOVER Tregaron
Strike out on the trail of a Cambrian cavern that once provided shelter to a 16th century Welsh folk hero – and discover a wealth of adventure amid the rugged landscape of Ceredigion.
‘WHERE ON EARTH did he sleep?”, I ask Tom the photographer. The whole cave seems to be a series of collapsed slabs, one of which we’ve just crawled under to reach the upper chamber. A hole far above our heads lets in just enough light to see the centuries of graffiti carved into the walls.
High up an imposing boulder-strewn hillside, we cling to walls cold enough to have never felt a ray of sunlight, to prevent ourselves from slipping on the damp angled rock beneath our feet. This would have been a terrific hiding spot, but a terrible place to call home. And what seems most remarkable is that the man who’s said to have hidden here is thought to have been 77 years old at the time.
It’s not clear whether Welsh folk hero Twm Siôn Cati hid in this cave to evade capture, or whether the reason instead lay in a farmhouse less than half a mile to the east. Out of sight, but certainly not out of mind, was Lady Joan Williams, the wealthy widow of the former High Sheriff of Cardigan. All his life, Twm had been a highwayman, a trickster, a menace to the establishment. And here was a chance to flip his own existence on its head and become a member of the same ruling class he’d outwitted since he was a boy.
It’s hard to hear tales of an outlaw evading capture from a local sheriff while armed with a bow, arrow and more than his fair share of cunning, without thinking of a certain resident of Sherwood Forest. Indeed, many call Twm Siôn Cati the Welsh Robin Hood. But one senses the locals are less fond of that nickname, not least because, unlike his English counterpart, the Welsh legend is based on a real person, and we begin our two-day walk where he started life, 15 miles north-west of that unforgiving cave, in the Ceredigion town of Tregaron.
Tregaron is situated at the foot of the Cambrian Mountains. Several roads meet there, but only a wiggly single track road continues into the hills. By lacking a proper through-road the town gains a pleasantly peaceful feel, added to by the soothing pastel colours of the houses. In the square is a huge sculpture – not to our mischievous hero – but rather to a nonconformist minister and MP, Henry Richard, who was internationally known for his opposition to war.Across the street, however, is a much more subtle wooden sculpture of a masked man hiding behind a tree. It’s fun, it’s cheeky, and is so understated as to almost hide in plain sight – attributes that people in these parts associate fondly with the man it portrays.
