LLANIDLOES
This is a typical Welsh market town, extremely uninteresting and remarkably dull, with the depressing style of architecture so characteristic of the majority of houses in the Principality. Externally dreary, too, are the places of worship, and one longs for a board of architects and artists who will supervise new building plans and save the land from further ugliness, so conspicuous where Nature is so full of artistry. The town is devoted to the Welsh flannel industry, and is well known to climbers as the jumping-off point for the ascent of Plynlimmon, about ten miles to the west as the crow flies. In the deeply furrowed shoulders of this mountain are the birthplaces of two famous rivers, the Wye and the Severn. About two miles north of the town are the Van Lead Mines, once so important; and upon Van Hill, close to them, occurs a large hill-fort, of which so many are scattered about this district.
The Market-house is of wood, and decidedly quaint; the church possesses a ceiling of carved oak, reputed to have been transported from the suppressed Abbey of Cwm Hir, in Radnorshire; it stands near the bridge, and is dedicated to St. Idloes. From this point a rather pretty view is obtained of the Severn uniting with a tributary, the Clywedog.
The five miles between Llanidloes and Llangurig present occasionally landscapes reminding one forcibly of English pastorals, if the mountains can possibly be kept out of sight. The village of Llangurig possesses a small church of no very great interest; perhaps the chief fact connected with the place is that the village is the highest in Wales, for it stands at an elevation of nearly 1,000 feet above the level of the sea.
(For the road between Llangurig and Talgarth, see [pp. 180-185].)
LOOP No. 5
FIRST PORTION: TALGARTH TO ST. DAVID'S—SECOND PORTION: ST. DAVID'S TO HEREFORD
TALGARTH TO CARDIGAN AND ST. DAVID'S, 117¼ MILES
DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE
| Miles. | ||
| Talgarth (Bronllys) to Brecon | 8 | ¼ |
| Brecon to Llandovery | 20 | ¾ |
| Llandovery to Llanwrda | 4 | ¼ |
| Llanwrda to Pumpsaint | 8 | |
| Pumpsaint to Lampeter | 8 | ¼ |
| Lampeter to Newcastle | 23 | |
| Newcastle to Cardigan | 10 | ½ |
| Cardigan to Newport | 12 | |
| Newport to Fishguard | 6 | ¾ |
| Fishguard to St. David's | 15 | ½ |