Paxton's Tower

A view of the Towy Valley from Paxton's Tower.



I "WILL" get to White Castle, honest, but it will probably be tomorrow as there are lots of photos to load and the research to be done. Meanwhile, it is 5 a.m. in the morning, I am frozen, and wrapped up in a crocheted blanket, and a thick knitted scarf over my head to keep me warm. I look like a refugee from Dr Zhivago!

Anyway, yesterday my OH and I had to go out, and on the way home we decided to blow the cobwebs away up at Paxton's Tower. It's probably 12 years since we were last up there - though it's a place we send visitors to for the view of the Towy Valley and across to the Brecon Beacons. Unfortunately our visit coincided with that of a family with a cute little scrap of a puppy (Jack Russell) and two kids. "Oh look," said the man, "there's a bull over there." A black heifer, albeit with horns, was looking their way. I might add, that as it is public access across the fields to the folly, a bull wouldn't have been permitted in the first place (though this IS Wales and stranger things have been known to happen!) and if it WAS a bull, then where was this man's common sense, in leading his family and a dog into a field with a BULL IN IT? Anyway, we avoided them as much as possible, and took lots of photos of the distant views. Enjoy:



Click on the photos to enlarge. The fact that the tower is triangular is a reflection from the fact that Middleton Hall was also triangular in shape . . . Sadly it is no more but the beautiful Botanic Gardens keeps the name alive . . .

Just to the right of the main group of fir trees you can see the imposing hill with Dryslwyn Castle topping it and the meanders of the River Towy looping against its base.

More spaghetti loops of the Towy meanders and oxbows, with snow on Black Mountain top right.

Looking towards the Carmarthen side of the Towy Valley with Merlin's Hill and in the very far distance (you should see them if you enlarge it), the highest hills of the Presceli Mountains where the Stonehenge bluestones came from.

Another view looking towards the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountain.

The deep cleavage of the hills is our river valley - to the right of the picture. The village in the foreground is Llanarthne.


Paxton's Tower. We climbed up to the viewing platform on the first floor, where they used to hold elegant parties in Paxton's time.

The sun setting over the hills. You can just make out the glass dome of the Botanical Gardens to the right of the oak tree on the right hand side.