Sweet Cardigan

Along the side of a low stone wall that runs along the River ²Teifi, are carved these words in Welsh.

 

Like a salt rain, like a cosy breeze, like homesick, like dawn and the sunset, there is a farewell and return together in this river.¹

 

The River Teifi is still tidal reach when passes through Cardigan town. A Norman castle (every town on the coast and close inland has one in Wales) was built in the late 11^th century. Its site was the place of the country’s first national Eisteddfod.

 

Cardigan is a welcoming place with car park ticket machines that work. The town was awash with people, in and out of shops along a busy and delightful main street. 

 

We enjoyed a drink in the Grosvenor Tavern by the bridge over the river. Whilst sitting outside in the sun we saw those words in the stone parapet. 

I asked the barman what the words meant in English; he didn’t know. However at the far end of the pub sat a man with his pint and he looked up from his book and provided me with the translation¹.

 

 

² The River Teifi (Welsh: Afon Teifi forms the boundary for most of its length between the counties of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, and for the final 3 miles (4.8 km) of its total length of 76 miles (122 km), the boundary between Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire. Its estuary is northwest of Cardigan. SOURCE WIKIPEDIA. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0