Dolbelydr
Mon. September 15, 2014
It has been two weeks since the children went back to school and our summer holiday feels like a very long time ago. In late July we packed the children, one dog and a good supply of presecco in our van and headed north to stay in another Landmark Trust property. Dolbelydr was our second LT holiday let. It was perfect for us. Tim spent hours looking at the furniture and construction of the house, we both spent time reading the excellent library of books LT leave in their houses. The children played in the courtyard garden and Guiness found the enclosed garden most convenient for stopping the ball from being thrown too far for his rather old legs. Dolbelydr is situated in the vale of Clwyd near Denbigh and has a claim to be the birthplace of the Welsh language being the home of Henry Salesbury (1561-c 1605), physician and humanist scholar, who wrote his Grammatica Britannica here, which was published in 1593. The Grammatica was one of the first attempts to impose formal grammar on the Welsh language. Our favourite places to visit, were Ruthin and its goal, having lots of fascinating stuff for the children and Rug chapel and Llangar church for their wonderful interiors. The Rhug estate shop for delicious food, particularly the bison steak. Whenever we travel in Wales we take our copy of Simon Jenkins Wales Churches, Houses, Castles but having managed to previously to visit most of recommendations for Clwyd, we strayed over the border into Gwynedd to visit Ty Mawr Wybrnant which was the birthplace of Bishop William Morgan, the first translator of the Bible into Welsh, at about the same time as Mr Salesbury was producing his grammer. Now where shall we go next…