Penrice 2

I have just spent a few days exploring the countryside in and around the Penrice Castle Estate in Gower. The centuries-old stone-walled cottage where I stayed is one of 17 former estate buildings that can be rented. “Hillside” is the first building in the old village of Penrice as you approach from the north and is literally cut into the top of a hill. Behind it is the tree-covered earthwork known as Mountebank from the construction of the original castle in the 12th century. From the back garden there are views down over the surrounding hills and valleys where neatly bordered green fields provide grazing for sheep and cattle and are wrapped all around by natural mixed woodland.

A gateway on the side of the road a few yards below the cottage opens into Mill Wood and the Gower Pilgrimage Way that connects the local St Andrews church in Penrice to 16 other historic churches on the Gower peninsula. The narrow track wends downhill through overarching tall trees covered in mosses, with a steep impenetrable gully to one side and a fern-covered slope up to the field boundary on the other. At one point steps lead to a gate in the boundary fence where an ancient well or spring lies in the field.