Country Life

Two go wild in Wales

GREY-SLATE ruins rose up on the hillside across the valley, the arches like spectacles sitting on the bridge of the hill’s nose. Against the blue sky and the hubs of the hills, Castell Dinas Brân was a dramatic welcome to an expedition based on George Borrow’s classic book Wild Wales . My father and I may not be Victorian gentleman explorers quite like Borrow, who literally walked the talk, but we decided to be the 21st-century, driving version of him. Travelling from Scotland home to Herefordshire, down the traffic-choked M6, we branched off on the ultimate scenic detour—Wales from north to south, in Borrow’s footsteps of 145 years ago. Is Wales, we wondered, still wild?

‘Few places have such untouched natural beauty and power as the Devil’s Bridge’

The castle rules North Wales’s Dee Valley and the artisan town of Llangollen below, home to the International Eisteddfod and, also, the best gluten-free pork

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Country Life

Country Life4 min read
Stashed Away
GEORGE WITHERS (1946–2023) must have been one of the world’s greatest hoarders. Every now and again, we hear of someone who has made their house impenetrable with a lifetime of accumulations, but usually the trove turns out to consist of rotting news
Country Life2 min read
The Legacy Sir John Soane And His Museum
EXASPERATED and despairing at the provocative behaviour of his sons, Sir John Soane (1753–1837) decided towards the end of his life to make the British public his heir. His eldest son, John—whom he had hoped would follow him as an architect, but who
Country Life6 min read
Where The Wild Things Are
WILDLIFE painting fills an important space in the human heart. Unlike other genres that are often regarded as superior, it has no overt message; not religious or revolutionary, political or patriotic, not angst-ridden, fashionable or sophisticated. H

Related Books & Audiobooks