Sleeping at St. Donat's Castle

#9 on my list of things to do before I die was accomplished a couple days ago.  Friday, Feb. 12th I was asked to be the guest lecturer for the Atlantic College students for their Friday evening lectures.  I also had the opportunity to sleep over in the "Lloyd George room" so named because the famous Prime Minister slept there.  Supposedly Charlie Chaplain once took a bath in the huge tub in the room as well.

This castle is one of the oldest castles still being inhabited in the UK.  William Randolph Hearst bought the castle and it become his playground for a time.  Other ancient building were dismantled and brought to Llantwit Major in the most southerly part of Wales to enlarge the castle.  The room I lectured in was one of these rooms.  Known as Bradenstoke Hall it was once Bradenstoke Abbey.

Special thanks to all the students I hung out with for the two days there.  I had a blast.

The bathroom in the Lloyd George room was a bit outrageous.  Even the toilet was named "The Venerable"  That reminded me of St. Bede, but I probably shouldn't have had that thought in my head.

Update on #1 (Cadair Idris), and #9 - maybe

I have my ticket to Wales.  I will be headed there on February 5th on an American Airlines red-eye flight, and returning on February 22nd at a decent time of day.  I had enough points with a card to have to pay only the taxes, which were over $150, but that still beats any other price.

I will be south Wales for the first week, and then head north.  I will spend sometime with Paul Allen at The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Machynlleth, and my #1 thing to do before I die is very near CAT.  So I am planning on climbing Cadair Idris.  I suppose I might change my mind if the weather is too crazy for climbing and spending the night, but at this point I figure that climbing in the winter is a mad thing to do - that means according to the myth I should come down the next day a poet.  Go up mad, return a poet - not a bad exchange.  Of course, I could simply end up twice as crazy.

I will be lecturing at a castle on the 12th, and am looking forward to that experience.  Atlantic College meets in a castle.  Maybe I can find a way to stay there as well, and then I could fulfill #9 on my list as well.

#9 Sleep Overnight in a Castle

As is obvious to even the most casual observer of this blog - I am Cymrucentric.  The top of my list involves things to do in Cymru (Wales).  Although sleeping overnight in a castle anywhere would be fun, doing it in Wales would be even better.  Wales has more castles than anywhere in the world for its area.  If the English weren't building them to keep the Welsh down, the Welsh were building them to try to keep the English away.  So now there 600 or so castles or remains of castles across a land the size of Massachusetts.  That's almost enough castles for everybody to own one!

I've been to Caernarfon which walls still run through the city, Caerphilly (where there are working siege machines!), Chepstow sitting high above the Wye River, and a host of smaller ruins some of which names I can not remember.  I have yet to sleep in a castle though.

There are some castles in Wales which have become accommodations for tourists.  Craig-y-Nos, which I have driven past a dozen times, and have not been able to stop yet was once the home of famous opera Diva Adelina Patti.  Castell Ruthin (Ruthin Castle) also offers accommodations and fine dining.

I am hoping to go a little more rustic and hang with some students at Atlantic College where I will lecture in February, and stay the night St. Donat's Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan.  Someone's working on that for me - we'll see.