Tal-y-llyn Lake, also known as Talyllyn Lake, Llyn Mwyngil or Llyn Myngul is a large glacial ribbon lake formed by a post-glacial massive landslip damming up the glaciated valley
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How deep is the Mawddach Estuary?
According to my tame geology expert, the Mawddach estuary is not an estuary at all but a fjord carved out by the glacier and then filled with sand and sea as the ice melted and retreated.
But how deep is this estuary/fjord?
I certainly can’t say, but perhaps the prospectors of rich minerals who have drilled here over the years could tell us….
So where do you stand on the rhododendron?
So big news today.
Rhododendrum ponticum is back in the media and back in the frame.
Not only is this exotic shrub bad news in the short term for its knack of muscling in on other woodland flora but also bad in the long term with its existential threat to the micro-biome. Not everybody would agree with this view, but Victorian industrialists who wanted quick results in prettying up their newly acquired baronial demesnes probably didn’t foresee the long term consequences of introducing it.
But if you really want to know, ask Stuart Holtam, Headmaster and Warden of Farchynys. Or read all about his personal War against the Rhodies in Marians on the Mawddach:
“Bleary eyed, we returned to Hades and the fires of Hell – We came, we sawed, we got tired.”
From the Farchynys Timeline #10
2008
Railway Walks, Episode 2 was broadcast on 9th October. The wonderful Julia Bradbury introduced a whole new generation to the Mawddach, that mystery caught up in an enigma.
From the Farchynys Timeline #8
1973
The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) was opened on the site of Llwyngwern slate quarry near Machynlleth
Coach House Cuisine
Memories of food at Farchynys
Friday was the dangerous day: tea came with us on wheels,
Our minibus smelling of boys and batter and non-standard tomato sauce;
Perhaps not exactly Mrs. Watkins’s Taste the Difference fish
Was stored precariously under seats in scratched Aluminum and threatened,
As we climbed the heights of Dinas.
Saturday often brought surprises after long fresh-air days
Like Geoffrey’s Boeuf Stroganoff and the dark brown slush of
Poires au vin du Bourgogne,
The sight of which tested the saporific nerve of even Alpha boys
But nevertheless soon passed our eager invigilation and was gone.
On Sunday, the reward for finding long lost Roman roads
Was JAD’s Brithdir Roast: a great golden bird
Displayed with squadrons of spuds and roots
And plattered to fill us up and lift our hearts for
The journey back to Mocks.
The Kitchen spick once more,
The light falls in the Dayroom,
Refectory tables are stacked,
The Coach House stands empty
Yet full of the aromas of our histories.
From the Farchynys Timeline #6
1795 Cors y Gedol hotel opens in Barmouth and the first bathing machines arrive on the Mawddach
John Hassell’s painting of the beach at Aberystwyth with bathing machine, 1796
From the Farchynys Timeline #3
485 mya Ordovician period –the rocks of Cader Idris deposited
The Two Marians of The Mawddach
Steve B and I have been friends for fifty years. Our first meeting was in short trousers at QMGS in September 1967.
We are both tremendous Farchynys enthusiasts and recently enjoyed re-introducing our wives to wonders of a weekend of active service on the Mawddach.
We decided however that a resumption of the search for the Lost Roman road at Brithdir was an amuse bouche of nostalgia too far….
Marians on The Mawddach 