Mark Walters
@mark-walters
Archaeologist. Into: Sound & Music, Photography, Botany, Lichens, Birds, Dragonflies, Palaeontology, Astronomy, Art, Ancient History, Numismatics, Gaming, Border Collies & walks in the hills
This Four-spotted Chaser has seen a lot of action in its short lifetime. Look at those tattered wings
Mickey Mouse, missing since Christmas, found drowned on the Montgomeryshire Canal
Nice to see George Buck’s unique 1819-31 lock ground-sluice control mechanism at Carreghofa Top Lock on the Montgomeryshire Canal. You only see these in drought conditions now, or if the canal is drained for maintenance. They were manufactured in cast-iron at Coalbrookdale.
Seeing all of the wildfires in Wales on the news reminds me of the fire on top of Craig Rhiwarth hillfort at Llangynog in April 2020. I popped up after the Covid lockdowns for a look and many of the recorded 170 round house foundations were clearly visible after the heather had burned off.
It’s like the thistles know when there is a good breeze around. They have all popped their seeds at the same time.
Dragonfly highlights on the Montgomeryshire Canal today - female Banded Demoiselle, female Broad bodied Chaser, female Southern Hawker, male Ruddy Darter.
Never seen the Montgomeryshire Canal so low. Clearly the canal feeders from the rivers are low on water too - without them there’s no canal. It’s just 10cm deep now & you can walk across it. Fish are already limited to deeper water sections. There’s some abstraction by farmers too which doesn’t help
Never realised that Prof. David Petts @davidpetts1.bsky.social of Durham University had written this excellent 2009 book on The Early Medieval Church in Wales. Picked up a good condition copy on EBay.
Lots of Pike fish resting up in the heat today in the Montgomeryshire Canal
Moorhens mooching in the increasingly shallow Montgomeryshire Canal. You will be able to cross the canal without getting your feet wet soon.
It’s that time of the year out the front. Windows closed to avoid the hay dust when cutting and its 31 degrees 🥵
Love the contemporary stained glass by Alan Davis in Penmachno Church
This high status medieval grave slab in Penmachno church was found when the original church was demolished in the 17th c. It is later 12th/13th c. in date & assoc. with Iorwerth ab Owain Gwynedd. Iorwerth was killed in battle at Pennant Melangell & his son went on to become Llywelyn the Great.
The find location of the stone is simply given as further up the Penmachno valley in the area of the slate quarries. Interestingly this stone was also, like the Cantiorix stone posted earlier, found adjacent to the Sarn Helen Roman road.
The 5th-6th c. Carausius stone in Penmachno Church. It includes one of the earliest examples of Christian symbology in Wales with a staurogram cross. The Carausius mentioned is not the usurper Roman emperor of 286-296 CE from Britain but someone using the same name & recalling a British emperor 1/2👇
They had secondhand books going for a donation in St. Tudclud’s Church in Penmachno today and appropriately, given the wealth of Welsh history within the church and chuchyard, this 2007 revised edition of John Davies’s A History of Wales has found a home 🙂
If you look closely you should be able to see what is known as the ‘Roman Bridge’ over the Afon Machno. It is festooned in Ivy high above the gorge & difficult to see at first. It is more likely to be a 16th/17th c pack horse bridge despite lying on the Sarn Helen Roman road route.
The 16th century Pont Tai Hirion bridge on the Migneint. It is the forerunner of the modern B road that crosses from Bala to Llan Ffestiniog.
Thought I had spotted the Gwiber on the Afon Machno this morning, but no, it’s just a slate ghost 🙂
This was a good lightweight travel book published in 1990 that I read while exploring the Eden Valley. It’s amazing how much things have changed in just the 36 years since it was written.
Good to see Flowering Rush spreading along both sides of the Montgomeryshire Canal near Four Crosses this year - perhaps helped by the dredging in winter 2024/25 #WildflowerHour
Thought I would give this Italian film a go tonight. Based on Vivaldi’s historical involvement with Venice’s Ospedale della Pietà, a foundation designed to care for abandoned & orphaned children, & the all female orchestra he worked with in 1716. The fictional Cecilia is the historical Anna Maria