Machynlleth and Dog Exploration Days
- Apr 14
- 5 min read
Welshie Big Adventure in Wales
A Visit to Machynlleth
The weather in Wales is predictably unpredictable, as we discovered on our drive to Machynlleth yesterday. We experienced sun, rain, hail and potentially gale-force winds all in about 40 minutes. Brian is an excellent and careful driver so I felt secure on each twisty turn of the road.
The town of Machynlleth is much larger than Tregaron and it was bustling with activity. I was told that the best day to visit the town is on Market Day (Wednesday) but Saturday seemed to suit us. My primary objective for the visit was to see the Wales Museum of Modern Art (‘MOMA’).
Wales MOMA
As we entered the building, the lady at the desk said we only had ten minutes before it closed! I explained we had come from the U.S. to see this museum and that this was our only day in town. She smiled broadly and said we could have a quick look around.
Fortunately, the Welsh MOMA is a small museum, so the limited time was sufficient for a quick tour. Thankfully, she did allow us to spend more than ten minutes.
The Wales MOMA is very different from other modern art museums I have visited. Instead of artists from around the world, this museum concentrates on artists from Wales. The museum closed early on Saturday to prepare for a new exhibit.
We saw a wolf and a lamb sculpture, several pastoral paintings, and a trio of works constructed of geometric shapes. By far the most moving was the room with floor-to-ceiling banners decorated with black ink designs and words based on a Welsh poem.
It stopped both of us in our tracks, as we read the poem, and then gazed at the various interpretations of the words.
Food
Trying new food is always part of a travel adventure and lunch at the Wynnstay Arms was no exception.
We dined on olives and sharp Welsh cheddar cheese, Venison pasta, and a good locally sourced beef hamburger. Since it was almost two in the afternoon, we had the place to ourselves to chat about what we saw.
After lunch we each stopped at a cafe and had a very rich hot chocolate.
Literary Cat, Laura Ashley and Church
I highly recommend visiting the tiny Literary Cat book shop. Though it is small, it is crammed from floor to ceiling with a variety of books. For the cat lovers out there, they have several shelves of cat related books including several by some of my favorite Japanese authors.
Of course, I bought a selection of books to read at night and promise to review them here later.
Before meeting the owner of The Literary Cat, I had no idea that one of my favorite clothing designers from my youth was born in Wales. If you grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, and are female, you may remember Laura Ashley. Ashley was born in southern Wales.
Machynlleth happens to be the first Welsh town where Laura Ashley had a shop. She lived in the house next door. Ahh, nostalgic memories from my youth of floral skirts and blouses. And, while the home and shop are not open to visit, I was able to snap a picture to share with some of my friends back home who shared my love of her clothing.
Brian and I enjoy visiting churches when we are abroad, so we decided to stop and see St. Peter's in Machynlleth. If you enjoy Medieval churches and lovely stained glass windows then St. Peter's will be worth your time.
St. Peter's is part of the National Churches Trust and is open during the day. I found it charming to see a mixture of historic antiquities and current activity side-by-side. In the back of church is a small table and chairs with toys for children to play with during the service. I would have loved bringing my daughters to this church when they were little.
Dog Exploration Days
Since this is a shared vacation, the dogs get to have special adventures too. This past week, we took Maisie and Winston to see several castles. Wales has many beautiful castle ruins to explore that are open to dogs on leads so it was just a matter of picking two that were near each other.
I decided to choose two sites, Llansteffan castle and Laugharne castle, that are in Southern Carmarthenshire. Llansteffan is on the Tywi estuary and sits majestically atop a hill. We parked our car at the foot near the estuary and watched the sand swirling all around us due to the gusty conditions. But, the sun was shining, and a little wind has never deterred us before.
To get to Llansteffan, you must hike up a moderately steep hill to the entrance. Once there, visitors can explore the ruins of this Norman era castle built between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries.
Grass covers much of the old ruins, so our dogs had a ball sniffing and exploring. There were other dogs present during our stay and I was very proud of both Winston and Maisie for maintaining their composure and not causing a scene. The other dogs were not as well behaved!
If you do come here with your dogs they have a couple of takeaway shops on the beach for lunch or an ice cream and you can sit outside. It was too windy to sit outside so the poor pups had to suffer through smelling our fish and chips as we ate hungrily.
We then took the dogs to Laugharne just down the road. Sadly, I misread the castle’s opening times and it was closed, but the town was worth exploring.
The poet Dylan Thomas lived part of his life in the town of Laugharne. The cheery yellow house with the tidy gardens was closed by the time we arrived.
Maisie and Winston didn’t care about seeing a poet’s house. No, they cared about sniffing smells and hearing sounds. A glorious thing about an unstructured vacation day is that you can take the time to sniff the grasses. So, we found a walking path and set out to sniff and explore.
Dogs are popular in Wales and people enjoy taking their pets on long rambles. Not only did our two smell new dog smells, but they also discovered new wildlife scents, and many new bird sounds. Slowing down for them meant that I too slowed down and could just look and listen to the world around me.
On another day we met up with Caroline, from the pub, and she took us to her favorite walk across from Aberystwyth University where she works. The bluebells are blooming right now and we saw swaths of bluebells that looked just like a carpet.
Caroline has three Springer Spaniels of her own so, as we walked along the path admiring the flowers, we talked about Crufts dog show and shared a little about our lives. When I needed to stop and grab a photo, she would take Winston’s leash and chat with him until I was finished.
All in all it was an excellent week in Wales for the two and four legged members of our family. With both a visit to Machynlleth and a couple dog exploration days it met all of our expectations.
These are so fun to read! Definitely want to go to the Literary Cat Cafe!
“Excellent and careful” are not the first two words I would’ve used to describe my fathers driving. Glad you’re having a good time. Love and miss you both xo
So interesting! Thank you for sharing your adventures. The beautiful photos and narrative make the reader feel as though they are traveling along with you. It looks like Maisie and Winston are enjoying the new sights and smells. I do remember Laura Ashley and was also a huge fan back in the 80's.