Day 156 Tinkinswood & St Athan

?Dormitory

While LB was playing golf today I had a drive around the Vale of Glamorgan looking for photo opportunities.  First stop was the beach at Llantwit Major but a grey sky, grey rocks and a very low tide with grey sea did not inspire.  Itreated myself to an icecream and decided to go to Aberthaw thinking that I could make a photo of a similar beach but with the power station in the background for added drama. I'd never been there before and in trying to find the route to the beach I enjoyed driving down several small lanes where I unexpectedly found the remains of the St Athan Boys Village.  This was a sort of holiday camp for the boys of South Wales miners and had closed in the 1960s. there were big stones blocking the entrance for vehicles so I parked outside and had a walk around.  It's all in ruins and I'm sure there are a lot of interesting photos to be had.  It's obviously private land though and when some men arrived at the other entrance I scarpered! I took a few photos and may try to go back another day.

War Memorial & Church

From there I, gave up on trying to find the beach road and headed home but en route diverted to the Tinkinswood Burial Chamber at St Nicholas.  This is a neolithic tomb dating to 4000 BC with the largest capstone in Britain.  There's a very peaceful walk through fields to get there but I was disappointed to find a rather noisy group of people with a couple of guitars there. They were actually very pleasant & helpful.  As there was no information at the site they told me a bit of the history. They were pagans and were rehearsing a handfasting or wedding ceremony they were going to hold there the next weekend.  All very interesting. Of course making a bunch of stones look interesting is quite hard so just the one photo of it.

Tinkinswood Burial Chamber