Devil's Bridge

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Tue 6 May 2014 22:47
Devil’s Bridge
 
 
 
 
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After a short rain shower we bimbled down the road, put a pound in the slot and eased our way through the turnstile. The view from here was over the wiggly steps that would take us down to get the best look at perhaps the most unique river crossing we have ever seen.
 
 
 
Devil's Bridge (Welsh: Pontarfynach, literally. "The bridge on the Monk") is a village in Ceredigion. 
 

 

Description: The bridge spans the Mynach, a tributary of the Rheidol. The bridge is unusual in that three separate bridges are coexistent, each one built upon the previous bridge. The most recently built is an iron bridge  (1901), which was built over a stone bridge (1753), which was built when the original bridge was thought to be unstable. The builders of the 1753 bridge used the original bridge (built 1075–1200) to support scaffolding during construction.

The bridge is at a point where the River Mynach drops three hundred feet in five steps down a steep and narrow ravine before it meets the River Rheidol.  

According to the legend the original bridge was built by the Devil, as it was too difficult for mortals to build. The agreement stipulated that the Devil would build the bridge in return for the soul of the first living thing to cross the bridge. The Devil built the bridge but was tricked by an old woman who threw bread onto the bridge. Her dog crossed the bridge for the bread, thus becoming the first life to cross the new bridge.

Devil's Bridge has been a tourist attraction for centuries. The celebrated English author George Borrow wrote Wild Wales (1854), which includes a lively, humorous account of his visit to Pontarfynach. 

 

   

At the bottom we could stand on a concrete platform and look down and up. 

 

   

Behind us the river – matching tourists.......... 

 

   

The orange blob in our pictures – rock. 

 

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Below the platform, the famous Devil’s Punchbowl. Eroded over centuries where the river makes a turn. 

 

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The next turn made another bowl then the river dropped out of sight. 

 

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Water dripped through the ‘wallpaper’, up Bear steps, interesting fungus along the way.

 

The last set of steps up to the old turnstile.

 

 

Just time to get back to Rhayader for the red kite feeding time at three. After an ice cream first....... 

 

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An icon....I’ve still got keys for those. Yes Dear.

 
 
 
 
 
ALL IN ALL QUITE SOMETHING
                     REALLY UNUSUAL