There’s no room at the inn in Bethlehem, Carmarthenshire. Because there’s no inn. No shops. Only a former post office turned private residence. I can see a few barns, but there’s not much else in this tiny linear village. The official population is almost 200, though only a few dozen live in the centre. There’s a primary school that closed in 1999 and now serves as the village hall. Some people still come to post Christmas cards here to get the local postmark, organised by a small local group who stamp the envelopes that can then be posted in a little red postbox by the village hall.
I find the chapel, first built in 1800, down a side road, a couple of hundred yards to the south. The settlement was originally called Dyffryn Ceidrich (Ceidrich’s Valley), but after the chapel was baptised Bethlehem – a common enough name for a house of worship in Wales during its nonconformist heyday – it came to denote the area too. The stone building is tall and austere, with long, thin windows; it would have been the focal point of community life and – as any reader of Caradoc Evans’ My People will know – quite possibly a hotbed of sin, prejudice and hypocrisy. There are some weathered gravestones, with a smattering of Thomases, Davieses and Joneses, and in the morning mist it’s quite atmospheric.
Carmarthenshire is great for winter hiking. The walk from Llangadog (which can be reached by bus from Carmarthen or train from Swansea on the lovely Heart of Wales line) to Bethlehem takes around an hour. Using bridleways, paths, tracks and roads lined with species-rich hedgerows – holly and ivy abound – it’s an easy low-level rural ramble, taking in the ancient common of Carreg Sawdde. Another access walk, from the bus stop at Manordeilo, crosses the river Tywi, and uses green lanes and farmland paths. There were no cattle lowing when I tramped across the dank fields.
The surrounding hills offer more uplifting biblical experiences. Where the peaks at the eastern end of the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) national park draw hefty numbers of hikers, the western ridges and summits are overlooked. The area is known as the Fforest Fawr Geopark – one of more than 150 such geoparks worldwide, recognised by Unesco for their distinctive geology. Fforest Fawr’s mountains and valleys are the result of nearly 500 million years of seismic shifts and weather events, containing evidence of ancient seas, mountain building and the turbulent climate changes of past aeons. Curvaceous ridges huddle around small lakes and rocky outcrops offer a glimpse into the remote past; the north-west area is dominated by Ordovician and Silurian formations – the oldest in the region, dating from 419-485 million years ago.
A walk from Castell Carreg Cennen to Bethlehem – the concluding leg of the Beacons Way trail – is a fine way to see the geopark and make a Magi-like arrival in the holy hamlet. The castle is a handsome old ruin, probably built by Edward I’s loyal baron John Giffard at the end of the 13th century. It sits atop a magnificent limestone crag around 90 metres above the River Cennen. The route, through rough fields, via Carreglwyd Forest, takes in Garn Goch, a sandstone hill mantled with glacial till and topped by an iron-age hill fort with sweeping views over the Towy valley on one side and over to the high, smooth mountains of the Brecon range on the other. Its prominent position led to it being occupied since at least the bronze age.
Down below, the village looks even tinier than it actually is. When congregations gathered at the chapel to hear the pastor expound on the social and geopolitical insignificance of Jesus’s birthplace and the dangers of the world beyond, they would certainly have found it relatable.
The descent west passes through Gaer Fach (another hill fort) to come down to the village. It’s a 10-mile tramp, so you can easily be at a bus stop or train station by dusk.
But who’s in a hurry? Unlike the shepherds and kings, you can make time to contemplate the heavens. Since 2013, the national park has been recognised as an International Dark Sky Reserve, one of only 22 in the world. On a clear night here, you can see a memorably frothing Milky Way, all the major constellations, some nebulas and, when they’re around, meteor showers.
Carreg Cennen has one of the darkest skies in the park, with a limiting magnitude of 6.26 – which sounds technical, but basically means you can see all the stars in the night sky that were known before the invention of the telescope. On a good, cold night it’s like the Atacama desert on the tops of these old hills – all swirling star-clouds and dense clusters and bright white holes in the heavens.
Once you decide you do need an inn, there are two main options: Llangadog or Llandeilo. Slow Ways, the ever-evolving walking route planner, has two routes that link to these via Bethlehem. Y Castell and the Red Lion in Llangadog (named after St Cadoc, patron saint of famine, deafness and glandular disorders) are both well-used locals; Y Castell does evening meals and recently held a French-themed Beaujolais Nouveau evening.
The White Horse in Llandeilo is a Grade II-listed 16th-century coaching inn, with log-burners and live music on Sundays; a former Camra pub of the year, it has a range of local Evan Evans ales. There are also tearooms and coffee shops. Llandeilo is an ancient holy place and former royal capital. It’s also very pretty, with pastel-coloured Georgian houses climbing its gentle slopes, narrow streets with a surprising number of shops in the compact centre, and a beautiful single-arch stone bridge over the River Tywi.
There’s enough around Bethlehem, Carmarthenshire, to fill a weekend. If you have an entire holiday period to spare, there is another Bethlehem in Pembrokeshire that’s even smaller. There’s also a Nasareth [sic] in the Nantlle valley – not far from Nebo, as it happens – as well as several Jerusalem chapels, many Bethels and Carmels, a sizeable Bethesda near Snowdonia and a Sodom in Denbighshire. Dig a bit, and Christianity is lurking everywhere. There are at least three Soars – after Zoar, where Lot and his daughters hid. “Llan” means church. Who needs the actual Holy Land when you have all these sites of salvation, spirituality and sinfulness in Britain’s oldest Christian country?
What to do and see
Dinefwr, Llandeilo
Historic Newton House is surrounded by a National Nature Reserve and 18th-century landscape Deer Park. The Christmas calendar features Santa Sundays for kids, and the Mari Lwyd on 31 December and 3 January: a south Walian wassailing folk custom, which includes a ritual called pwnco that involves exchanging rude rhymes.
Aberglasney Gardens
Four hectares (10 acres) of gardens that range from sub-tropical and woodland to formal and modern.
National Botanic Gardens of Wales
The world’s largest single-span glasshouse, orchid-filled meadows, a National Nature Reserve, the British Bird of Prey Centre, children’s play areas and a Gruffalo Trail.
Where to eat
Y Polyn in Capel Dewi is a superb family-owned restaurant, serving the finest salt marsh lamb, Welsh beef and free-range, rare-breed pork.
Where to stay
Llwyncelyn is a large detached farmhouse that sleeps six near Bethlehem, with a hot tub, wood-burner, views of the Tywi valley from every bedroom, and donkeys. Dogs are accepted. Three nights from £473.
