Gwaith 5: Visiting Dinas Emrys (7 Oct 2016)

Helo Pawb

I am coming to the end of the first part of my 2016 residency at Stiwdio Maelor, so yesterday (Thursday, 6 Oct) I picked up a rental car, which I’ll be using for my five weeks of researching sites and visiting friends, after which I return for another 11 weeks at the residency. Before my departure, though, I decided to visit a favourite site and a new destination.

Dinas Emrys (fortress of Ambrosius), near Beddgelert, Gwynedd, is the site of the famous confrontation between a young Merlin and the tyrant Vortigen, as told in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain. This version is a modification of the story told in Nennius’s History of Britain, where the young child about to be sacrificed to stop Vortigen's tower foundations from disappearing is named Ambrosius. The site is famous because of its association with Merlin and, as I did last year, I decided to pay my respects to the myth.

Part of the path through the oak woods to Dina Emrys

View from the top of Dinas Emrys of Llyn Dinas and surrounding hills

One of the ruins on top of Dinas Emrys

View of dried out pool, with 'offering platform' on the right

Another view of the famous pool, showing part of the ridge around the hollow

Tower foundations and the small cave I meditated in last year

Fortification ruins

Another view from Dinas Emrys

Although I wanted to commune with the site, the constant chainsaw noise from the opposite valley wall and the giggling and chattering of various visitors, who obviously had no idea of the place they were tramping through, hampered my efforts. Eventually, I had enough peace and quiet to watch a wren flit around a nearby oak tree, which was smothered by green moss, then swoop across the hollow, from the pool that Merlin said contained the duelling Red and White Dragons, to the castle ruins at the other end, then out of sight. Later, the same bird, or maybe its mate, serenaded me for several minutes when I had just finished a meditation, after which the chainsaw gang started up again and I realised it was time for me to move on.

The men chainsawing and burning off

Waterfall and pool from the path back from Dinas Emrys

When I visited the site previously, I had no intention of using it for my novel. However, during this visit I came up with an idea of how to use the place, an idea that could possibly solve a problem I was having in the story. Such insights have happened unexpectedly at various sacred sites I’ve been visiting over the last few years and I am thankful for them.

I'll write about the second site visit for the day in my next blog post.

As always, any comments are appreciated.

Cofion Cynnes

Earl

P.S. The colour coding on the map at Crawflwyn Hall is misleading. The best route for getting to Dinas Emrys is to walk through the carpark to the road, turn right, follow the path to the Neuadd/Hall, walk between the two groups of buildings, go through the metal gate and follow the yellow trail (see map below), making sure to turn to the right (black trail on map) and follow it through some gates, over and along the river, over a stile and up through a wooded ridge to the summit.

Map of trails from Craflwyn (source, with detailed instructions)

Cyfaredd 10: Climbing Dinas Emrys

Haia Pawb

As I indicated in a previous post, in 2013 I climbed what I thought was Dinas Emrys. For those of you who don't know, Dinas Emrys is a mountaintop stronghold made famous in the Historia Brittonum and Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae as the place where Merlin (or Ambrosius Aurelianus) as a child confounded King Vortigern's advisors and uncovered the prophecy of the Red and White Dragons. Being quite interested in Merlin mythology, I decided to experience the place myself.

Dinas Emrys (photo from here)

However, as my post on Cader Idris indicates, I have a tendency to go off on my own and not (re)consult maps and the like. After I climbed the mountain and found what I thought was the pool under which the dragons had been 'discovered', I didn't know till I arrived back in Australia and started looking at other people's accounts that I hadn't climbed Dinas Emrys at all, but a mountain further down the road. Somehow, I had missed the real location and found a mountain with a similar profile but which was much bigger, hence the aching limbs and tiredness that prevented me from climbing Cader Idris the next day.

Dinas Emrys (diagram from here)

This time around, I was determined to climb the right mountain. I followed travel instructions I found online, arrived at the Craflwyn car park (one mile north of Beddgelert) and studied the map that detailed the various paths.

Map board at Craflwyn car park

Of course, as you can probably guess by now, my walk didn't go exactly to plan. The colours used on the map weren't the same as the colours used on the trail markers and I ended up going on a long hike before reaching the track that took me up Dinas Emrys. For those of you aware of The Hero's Journey, based on Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, you'll understand how I was starting to feel as if the landscape was acting as some sort of Threshold Guardian and testing if I was worthy enough to reach Merlin's mythological site.

The path up the ridge to Dinas Emrys

So, after two attempts and a long detour I arrived at the summit of Dinas Emrys, with its ramparts and remains of walls and foundations. The views from there were amazing, which is probably why it was chosen (apparently by Llewelyn the Last) as a castle stronghold to guard the mountain pass of Snowdon.

Remains of a tower

View of Llyn Dinas from the top of Dinas Emrys

View of surrounding mountains

I knew I had found the right mountain because finally I was able to see the famous pool and its platform, though apparently the platform is dated later than the accepted periods for Vortigern and Ambrosius.

Pool and platform

Fortifications

More fortifications and building remains

With the masonry, the pool, the trees budding with Spring growth, the green moss and dormant heather, the hidden birds chatting amongst themselves about the quiet intruder, and the wind tousling leaves and rippling across the open areas, the place felt both mysterious and familiar.

Brief video of trees, birds and wind

A touch of magic

After exploring the summit, I found a small cave that kept the wind out and ate my lunch, after which I closed my eyes to concentrate on any mythic whispers that might come out of the earth. Maybe an idea for a scene in my book or useful images. White-knuckle mountains. The new leaf of a hazel tree feeling like the skin of a baby. Rivers like sweat from the brow of Gofannon, the Celtic God of metalworking.

The cave

I spent almost two hours on the summit and was only been interrupted once, by a man and a woman asking for directions. Luckily for me, they showed no interest in the place itself, no awareness of its mythological importance. But after some time in the cave I felt the need to move on. Just in time, too, for a group of walkers, who seemed intent on exploration, came up the ridge as I started down. After the testing by the Threshold Guardian, I had been blessed with quiet and inspiration and so could continue my own explorations elsewhere.

A waterfall I passed on the way back

When I returned to my car, I continued along the A498 to find the mountain I had climbed in 2013.  It was about another mile down the road. I still don't know how I missed Dinas Emrys the first time. That Threshold Guardian, I suppose.

The mountain I climbed in 2013

Dinas Emrys, in 2015 (less than half the height)

I hope you all manage to move further along your own hero/heroine journeys.

Till next time.

Pob Hwyl
Earl