When I first walked this way in 1960, the road between Painscastle and Rhulen was a rough track. It’s been metalled for years now, and climbs steeply from the Bach Howey valley to emerge among bracken and mawn pools on the crest of Llanbedr Hill.
I love this Radnorshire landscape, nestled into the crook of Afon Gwy (the River Wye). It’s as lovely as any part of Wales. The years I worked here were happy ones. I often return, and did so this week to seek in the tormentil-starred greensward, faint traces of a stone chicken shed. It was in that shed in remote Cwm Ceilo that Reverend John Price – “the Solitary” – lived for decades before his death in March 1895.
