Subject: Fwd: The River Rheidol
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:51:11 EDT
Dear Myron,
Please find below the latest page of Crystal Spheres.
     After graduating, Myron finally managed to get a place in a hall for his accommodation. The hall of residence which Myron was now to call home was Cwrt Mawr, which is situated at the top of Penglais Hill which rises up from Aberystwyth on the road leading away from the sea..  Cwrt Mawr offers breath taking views over Aberystwyth town and the sea beyond with the sea and town being well framed by Pen Dinas hill fort on the left and Constitution hill and golf course on the right and the sea rising up beyond the town to meet the sky in the distance. Myron much preferred the hall to his previous student digs and the location was ideal for his eight or ten mile road runs and track training over 3 and 6 miles (5 and 10 kilometres).      As a postgraduate Myron developed an interest in mountaineering, an interest he pursued on Plynlimon (Pumlumon) outside Aberystwyth, Snowdonia (Eryri) in North Wales and on the Mull and Glencoe in Scotland.        Myron visited Mull and Iona, and mountaineered on Snowdon and the Carneddau with Christie O’Donovan Rossa and Gareth Kelly. Christie was a Gaelic speaker from the West of Ireland and was noted for his flaming red hair and great intellect.  Christie was descended from the famous Irish Nationalist and Fennian Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa and from The O’Donovan, the clan chief. Remarkably, Christie would only speak Welsh to Myron to revel in the language that he learned it in only six months.      Myron wrote a sonnet describing how he and the geologist Graham Hall were once caught in a blizzard on Plynlimon, and found their way down by listening for a stream.  Both men had been beaten to the summit a century earlier by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and a friend who could see water all around them in the distance, but were suffering from a fearsome thirst on their way back down from the Summit to the coaching inn, The Duffryn Castell on the road below. Their predicament is remembered in Coleridge’s poem the Ancient Mariner with the lines, ‘Water water everywhere nor any drop to drink!’ which was published in 1798.           Plynlimon is one of the most notable mountains in Mid Wales and rises as the road leaves Aberystwyth Eastwards to the centre of Wales.  Around twelve miles inland near the mountain peak a small river passes under the road at Eisteddfod Gurig and this marks the border between the Counties of Ceridigion and Powys.  Also marking the border is a small group of rocks with the words Elvis painted on them and are widely known as Elvis Rock.  Nowadays it is assumed that the reference is to Elvis Presley, but initially it was part of advertising to get a local ‘Elvis’ elected to the council. The river passing under the road is infact the River Wye and its source is accessed by parking at that point and then walking through the nearby farm and following the hill to its top. At the top of Plynlimon is an ancient cairn and in the valley below is the wreckage of a World War II Lockheed Lightning which hit the mountain peak in mist while on a training mission. Plynlimon is the source of the River Severn, the River Wye and the River Rheidol which winds it way to Aberystwyth where it meets up with the River Ystwyth in the harbor before both rivers enter the sea.  Kerry
Many thanks Kerry! This brings back memories. The nearby George Burrow Hotel would be a great place for another TGA meeting or filming location for the second film.
