Consider the Source
Winding southwards along the coastal roads, I visit the Hotel Maes-y-Neuadd, where portions of the main structure date back to the 14th century. Once again, gardens are a prevailing feature. These gardens, however, provide organic fruits, herbs, and vegetables to the dining room of this country house estate. Peter Jackson, Maes-y-Neuadd’s award-winning head chef and co-owner, along with his wife Lynn, serves as the manager of the Welsh National Culinary Team. Jackson consults daily with head gardener Andrew Jones to select fresh produce for the menu, and when I question him about his dedication to healthy, locally produced foods, he is adamant in his reply – telling me in no uncertain terms, “It’s all about knowing the source.” (Maes-y-Neuadd Country House Hotel, Talsarnau, Harlech; www.neuadd.com)
I spend the afternoon visiting the Centre for Alternative Technology, where the public response to the need for renewable energy development seems to be far more enthusiastic than at home in the US. (www.cat.org.uk) Further along the coast, I meet up with healer Rachel Whitehead, who is in the midst of building a straw bale house utilizing solar energy, recycled materials, and hydropower. I follow a steep, winding footpath to where her house rests, high on a slope overlooking the ruins of an ancient abbey. Nearly finished, the house features a new, renewable insulation material made from sheep’s wool.
Whitehead is the proprietress of Gwalia Essences, a line of flower and gem essences handcrafted in her workshop from plants gathered in her own gardens and in the nearby Welsh hills. Over a cup of tea, she tells me how the knowledge of creating healing essences was handed down to her through her grandmother and mother, a holistic masseur. The location of Whitehead’s home and gardens was once a retreat site for the monks of the long-ago abbey, and she hopes to organize holistic retreats here in the future. “There’s good earth here,” she tells me. “The monks planted herbs all along the beach. If you listen, you can find them.” (gwaliaessences@hotmail.com)
Still No Sheep
I spend the next few nights at Conrah Country House Hotel in Aberystwyth, wandering the hillsides overlooking the sea in the faint hope that one of the multitude of resident lambs might allow me to pet it, a-la an episode of the old BBC show, All Creatures Great and Small. No such luck, so I content myself with jam cake and tea in one of the hotel’s sumptuous drawing rooms, followed that evening with lemon sole for dinner. The attentive staff at beautiful Conrah, as if sensing my disappointment over my failed attempt at a sheep-related encounter, are all warmth and friendliness, and send me off in the morning with an assurance that the lambs aren’t nearly as cuddly as I believe them to be. (Conrah Country House Hotel, Aberystwyth; www.conrah.co.uk)
Today’s drive takes me along the scenic Cardigan Coast. My destination is the village of Manorbier, where the Celtic Herbal Company is based. Founded in 1998 by Barbara Fredriksson and Nicola Dent, this artisan company produces handmade herbal soaps, balms, and sachets from herbs grown organically on their property. “We developed products around what we knew would grow well here,” explains Dent. Besides herbs, additional ingredients include essential and natural oils, sea salts, clays, honey, and beeswax that are all produced organically. No animal testing is involved, and the hardworking Fredriksson and Dent team do everything themselves, from growing the herbs to packaging the finished products.
They take me into a heavenly-scented workshop where boxes of cut soaps fill the shelves – lemon balm, rose, bluebell, cowslip, honeysuckle, lavender, and a host of others. “It’s so important,” says Fredriksson, “to be able to buy from someone who can tell you the source of ingredients, where the plants were grown, and how they were cared for.” Today, the Celtic Herbal Company supplies a number of spas and specialty shops throughout Britain, with plans to expand both their market and their range of products. (www.celticherbs.co.uk)
Botanical Heritage
Later, I check into Lamphey Court, a stately manor house-turned hotel in Pembrokeshire, and quickly make my way to the Leisure Centre. A pool, top-line gym equipment, plus steam, sauna, and massage therapy rooms, occupy a separate building next to the colonnaded main house, where I expect a formal hunting party to gallop up on tall horses at any moment. In fact, old black and white photos displayed throughout the property reveal that that’s exactly the sort of activity that once took place here on a regular basis.
After a relaxing afternoon at the pool, I explore the ruins of Lamphey Bishop’s Palace at the foot of the hotel’s winding drive. The medieval structure is largely in ruins, but maintains a strong impression of its former splendor. (www.lampheycourt.co.uk)
The following morning, I head east toward Cardiff, stopping along the way in Llanarthne to visit the National Botanical Garden of Wales and its Physics Garden, where medicinal plants from all over the world – including those once used by the Physicians of Myddfai – are grown. I’m just in time to catch a lecture in the Physicians of Myddfai Hall, where volunteer Bob Edwards tells me more than I really want to know about leeches, and shares some fascinating information about the antique apothecary bottles lining the walls, many of which still contain the remnants of herbal tinctures. (www.gardenofwales.org.uk)
The Physicians of Myddfai
While legend links the original Physicians of Myddfai to the famous tale of the Lady of the Lake – telling how her marriage to a mortal resulted in three sons endowed with special healing powers – historical accounts suggest a more humble beginning. Medicine, or meddyginiaeth in the Welsh language, was one of nine rural arts practiced by the Welsh people as long ago as 1000 BC. Around 430 BC, and pre-dating Hippocrates (popularly considered to be the Father of Medicine), botanical medicine was still practiced. It held a place of honor as one of three civil arts, which also included commerce and navigation.
Later, the Druids gave great study to the use of plants in healing, believing many of them to possess magical properties. In the early 13th century, a physician called Rhiwallon and his three sons, Cadwgan, Gruffydd and Einion, provided healing services to Rhys Gryg, son of the then-prince of South Wales. Rhiwallon and his sons collected and recorded herbal medicinal recipes, providing a written record and basis for the Welsh pharmacopoeia that included details of individual herbs, their application, and the symptoms and diseases they were most suited to treat. An original copy of this manuscript is housed in the British Museum. Here, at the gardens in Llanarthne, displays in the Physicians of Myddfai Hall pay tribute to ancient Welsh herbal doctors, and provide valuable research and insight to the country’s growing number of herbal medicine practitioners.
Wales is also the homeland of poet and writer Dylan Thomas, so I plan a short visit to the Dylan Thomas Visitor Centre in Swansea to round out the day. Photographs and manuscripts fill the center, and I am enchanted to hear the voice of my favorite poet reading his work aloud via a series of recordings from the past. Having spent some time in Wales now, it’s clear to me how much this powerful environment influenced his work. (www.dylanthomas.org)
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