© Grey Alders 2019 All Rights Reserved.
It’s a weekend with a difference. A Weekend with the Celtic Saints. Come on a pilgrimage to West Wales just as Christians did fifteen hundred years ago. This is an opportunity to explore their world, learn about their robust view of faith and life, and walk where they walked. We’ll also explore where the Celts differed from the church based in Rome and what led up to the Council of Whitby in 664AD. We shall seek the Lord in our readings and times of prayer and worship. It will be faith-building and fun. With some feasting thrown in.
We’ll gather on Friday afternoon. Naturally, this evening, as every evening at Grey Alders, we’ll share a meal together, with time for fellowship and prayer afterwards.
On Saturday, after morning devotions and breakfast, we’ll take our Weekend with the Celtic Saints pilgimage into Pembrokeshire and visit St Govan’s Chapel which is concealed and almost on the beach. It is only approached down a flight of steps from St Govan’s Head.
It is said Govan escaped from pirates in the Sixth Century when the rock opened up. He hid in the cleft and founded a church in thanks to the Almighty. The current structure dates from the middle ages.
In the afternoon, we’ll motor to St David’s, see the headland where the man of God was born and look around the cathedral close. You’ll see the stream the sixth-century evangelist stood in to pray. Dewi’s monastic order allowed fish once a week and no meat. They were a tough bunch, these Celtic Christians! You will dine better than that at Grey Alders.
On Sunday, after breakfast, we’ll go into Carmarthen to St Peter’s. Founded as a Christian church in the Sixth Century, it was built right on top of an Iron-Age burial siter. It’s the oldest church in Carmarthen. The communion service in the Church in Wales is the nearest we’ll get to a real live service based on the Celtic rites and the prayers of the early Apostles.
We’ll come back for a light lunch. In the afternoon we’ll walk together on the ancient track travelled by our local Celtic Saint Gwinio. It runs between his retreat at Cilsant, where we are certain pilgrims were welcomed and entertained back in the day, and the site of his monastery at Llanwinio.
It can be a walk of some seven miles, but this can be halved by logistical use of cars! We’ll follow lanes, go through woodland, along valleys and up the hill to Llanwinio itself.
We’ll be walking in the actual steps of the man of God. Place names show Gwinio regularly trod this way fifteen hundred years ago. We’ll also see the spot where he lost his life by neglecting the Sixth Century travellers’ rule – ‘always go together’. It is said a healing golden spring – living waters – sprang from the ground his severed head touched.
On Monday we’ll once again serve breakfast before you depart for home. Naturally we hope and pray you and all our pilgrims will depart blessed by your time walking in the footsteps of the men of God.
You will be well catered for, with Bed & Breakfast and Evening Meals from Saturday evening to Monday breakfast and the occasional snack. (Refreshments purchased in St David’s are excluded.) The cost of the whole weekend will be from £150 to £170 per person depending on whether the accommodation is sharing a shower or en-suite.
Obviously, the weekend will only suit those able to walk.
Food will be three 2-course evening meals with drinks included. At least two of them will feature meat from our own super-aged beef or mutton from the Grey Alders farm (‘Wernlwyd’ in Welsh). (We can provide vegetarian [but not vegan] alternatives.) You have three cooked breakfasts with eggs from our hens and home-baked bread. You will also have snacks, cakes and at least one lunch. No one goes hungry at Grey Alders events.
You will have the opportunity to carry a box of frozen Wernlwyd gourmet beef or mutton home with you. Click here to view our meat.
We have a double room and a twin room in the timber-framed modern lodge and additional comfortable accommodation in our mobile homes.
You will need wellington boots and warm clothing. Although we are in West Wales, and therefore always guaranteed the finest weather in the British Isles (ha!) do bring something rain-proof. We’ll be in prayer for a dry spell, of course.
© Grey Alders 2019 All Rights Reserved.