The final video from our Cwmorthin trip, the ruins of Rhosydd Chapel, 2000ft up a Welsh Mountain…
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Great video. Heading to Snowdonia myself later this year so this is giving me some ideas on where to film 
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Thanks, glad it was enjoyed and useful… There are loads of great places to fly in Snowdonia…
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Brilliant as always. Scots Pine trees next to a building (usually but not always a farm) were an indication that land, feed, and water were available for cattle, and the men, to stay overnight on the long cattle droves. These were common in Wales before the coming of the railway, and later in some places; the most famous were droves across England to Barnet Fair. As well as selling the beasts for slaughter in the abbatoirs of London at prices unimaginable in Wales, girls from the villages would accompany the drove doing the domestic chores, and Barnet was a hiring fair for girls going into service in the big houses of London.
Lloyds Bank started as a bank willing to lend money to Drove leaders in Llandovery (a market town where many droves started), who would use it to buy the beasts and necessary items on the long journey, and pay back the loan out of the profits. A few successful droves could raise enough to buy a farm of your own! The Black Horse sign was originally a Black Cow, drovers being mostly illiterate! Suitable, as the area is still known for it’s black cattle, and the beef obtained from it!
The Scots Pines were visible from many miles around, and the locations well known to experienced drovers. When the trade was replaced by the railways, many of the men emigrated to the US, where they became involved as cowboys in the big cattle drives of the Wild West; yippee-ay-yay was heard in the mountain fastnesses of Wales long before it became the signature sound of the Great Plains of Texas, Wyoming, or the Dakotas! From Sarn Helen to the Chisolm Trail!
Drovers were a bit rough & ready, as you’d expect from men who led such a tough life, and the battles they had with railway navvies (another hard-drinking bunch of likely lads) are still talked about in some places in Wales!
Not difficult in lonely spots like this to hear the ghosts on the wind…
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Thanks John…
Wow, thats some amazing history, thanks for sharing it…
The more you know, the more ghosts there are…
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