They are the places where the past can almost be touched. They are a myriad worlds clashing against your brain and yet you do not have the key to open them. What the hell is she talking about? Well perhaps you can only see them on Sunday, when the world quietens down for a start.
I do not believe in spirits and ghosts but there are times when they drift past, elusive just like the memories in your brain. For me a thin place is St. David's Headland, with its cathedral snuggled so neatly into the valley of the town and the prehistoric barrows scattered on the headland strewn with rocks. The meeting of land and sea, the elements all add to the timelessness, the magic of 'place', when you can almost reach out and touch past worlds, still riding the Universe in an endless cycle.
Another thin place is the valley around Llanthony Priory, the narrow road that takes you past Welsh farms and the tiny church of Capel-y-Fin. You will eventually arrive in Hay on Wye. the 'town of book shops', something Bovey Belle wrote about the other day.
Wales is a country landscape full of greyness, grey houses and grey rocks. Its hilliness makes farming difficult, sheep scatter the uplands but it is also green and damp, there is a poem somewhere on this blog about one of the beat poets Allen Ginsberg visiting Capel-y-Fin "Heaven balanced on a Blade of Grass"
Enjoy the video, I need coffee and a scone that I have just baked..........
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006/may/03/unitedkingdom.onlocationfilminspiredtravel.culturaltrips
I have felt those thin places. Most notably in a Indian cliff dwellings built along a canyon walls with a creek running in the bottom. It was snowing lightly and there wee no other visitors. It was like the people who built them had just left. One could almost hear them calling to each other.
ReplyDeleteYes we have a singular view of time but it as if we can sense other times in past history being alongside.
DeleteI agree with the writer of the comment above Thelma. I think one has to know a little of the history in order to get the feel of a place. I love the commentary in your film - it gave a background to the feeling one might well get. I have felt it in old buildings
ReplyDeleteA lovely village life still lived out but you can see the problem of housing and land when one of the generations before had 15 children, how do you apportion the farm?
DeleteOne of the thin places is the little painted church of St Mary at Kempley (near Dymock). You can literally feel part of the past there. The floor seems to gently vibrate - and I am not the only one to have felt this. I think hundreds of years of worship make for a special atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteHoping to visit Llantony again soon - turns out we ended up living much closer!
It is a strange place Jennie. served only by a narrow lane, the religious element of course make up the feeling of otherness.
DeleteP.S. I have enjoyed the programme about Craswell too. Tam and I are planning a walk up on Hay Bluff in the next week or so, and I will look for the little church. I only know the one at Capel-y-Ffin.
ReplyDeleteThat was such a charming little film. I wonder if we will ever be able to return to times like that.
ReplyDeleteI think the answer is no Tom. The village of Craswall has a lot of children which will secure its future somewhat. But take our village, all the houses are bought by retiree 'incomers', no children, church closed, it has just become a suburban retreat sadly.
Delete'Thin places'. The funny thing is Thelma, as soon as I read those words, I knew what you meant. I have experienced this, but had no words. Now I do. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAlways glad to help Debby ;) There is another way of saying it 'Spirit of Place'. I think it lies in the imagination of the person and their feelings.
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