On the edge of Talybont, the small cemetery, kempt and cared for, overlooks the coast and the wild brown swathe of Cors Fochno (Borth Bog). A burial ground is perhaps an odd place to begin a walk, but, as a friend remarked, it’s infinitely better than ending one there.
The early rain has cleared so the air is crisp and the colours deep. In the foreground, grassland fields slope away towards the wild expanse of the bog, bounded by wooded hedgerows bright with hawthorn blossom. The first cut of silage has been secured, baled and removed, and a few cattle are grazing the aftermath with interest while red kites traverse overhead. The surface of the bog, marked here and there by glittering open pools, shimmers slightly in the heat of the day. Across the Afon Dyfi, the steep-faced sand dunes of Aberdyfi are visible before the eye is drawn further off to the line of hills that defines the Llŷn peninsula.
An old track, steep and rough underfoot, drops down on to an eroded surface one step above the bog. Turning east, towards the village of Tre Taliesin, opens up the always impressive view of the Dyfi Valley itself. Constrained though it might be by stern ranks of hills on both sides, it’s a sight that never tires. This lane, hummocked by bands of rock outcrop and studded with trees, marks the boundary between the well-drained pastures of the hillside and the more marginal wetland. Patches of scrub and bands of foliage mark where islands of rock rise up from the gently domed surface of the bog – once true islands in the distant past, these would have made excellent places of refuge in times of unrest.
The day is becoming oppressive and thundery, and towers of cumulonimbus cloud are building above the hills. The mosaic of fields and woods darkens in turn as ragged elements of cloud occlude the sun and bees fumble noisily in the blossoms as I trudge the last uphill yards into the village. Here I pause to look at the metal sign high on the wall of the corner house, with the archaic message “Telegraph Office”. As always, I check to see if the office itself has reappeared in some odd quirk of time.
