Tomos Jones, PCNPA Community Archaeologist, led a group on a tour of Newport Castle, St Brynach’s Church, and Nevern Castle. Early Purple Orchid seen at the Castle today
Category: News
Pilgrimage conference
Alan represented Friends of Nevern Castle at the Pilgrimage Today conference in Enniscorthy, Co.Wexford in March 2023. The gathering celebrated the opening of the Wexford-Pembrokeshire Pilgrim Way from Ferns in SE Ireland across the sea to St Davids. The meeting, sponsored by the Ancient Connections project and British Pilgrimage Trust, was attended by about 80 people including artists, businesses and places of interest along the route, officers of Visit Pembrokeshire and Fáilte Ireland, together with academics studying tourism and pilgrimage. Alan was also there for his part as a software developer in Pererin Wyf, a project sponsored by Ancient Connections which links people of the Irish and Welsh diasporas worldwide. Some notes from the conference “Pilgrimage” for me recalls Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. But these days it’s the big trend in travel. A quick Google reveals heaps of articles, TV series, and personal accounts. Travel companies, tourist destinations and everyone that provides services along the way are talking about it. The conference in Enniscorthy was for those providing for travellers. We talked about what makes a good pilgrimage that people will enjoy, and perhaps encourage them to return. “Pilgrimage” is more than a hiking holiday, although it’s that too. There’s additionally… Continue reading Pilgrimage conference
School visit
Friends of Nevern Castle conducted a tour of the Castle for a group of 9-10 year olds from St Dogmaels Primary School on 14th November 2022. While walking around the site, we looked at mock-up pictures, talked about the characters of the time, and had great fun role-playing the coming and goings between Norman and Welsh control. And of course we talked about archaeology. The teachers said afterwards: (Photos: Miss Hughes, Ysgol Llandudoch.)
Wexford visit to Castle
Friends of Nevern Castle showed round a group of visitors from Ireland on Sunday 23/10/2022. The visit was a first trial of a guided tour round the castle. We told the story of the main characters in its 90-year history, while explaining the visible remains and showing artists’ impressions of what it looked like at the time. While there are commercial guided tours that come to the Castle, there is scope for us to guide smaller tours and school groups, as part of our aim of promoting knowledge and awareness of the castle. The Irish group were also shown around St Brynach’s Church and the Pilgrims’ Cross. During the weekend, they also visited Dyfed Shire Horses, Tafarn Sinc, Castell Henllys, and several sites around Aberystwyth. They visited Wales as part of the CUPHAT project run by Aberystwyth University, which aims to develop types of tourism that respect culture and heritage. It focuses on West Wales and County Wexford, areas with long traditional links across the Irish Sea. Part of the project takes people involved in places of cultural and heritage interest to visit each other’s sites, to compare notes and with a view to developing some resources in common.
Barbecue
About 50 people attended the barbecue in the bailey in the August bank holiday 2021. We’re looking to hold more events in the future.