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Showing posts from June, 2014

SAINT GOVAN'S HIDING PLACE

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The other weekend we had the opportunity of visiting West Wales. Pembrokeshire to be precise. We had been speaking at a Fatherheart weekend conference and during the time off we had the chance to revisit some of the beautiful scenery of the Pembrokeshire coast. I first went to Pembrokeshire in the late 1960s on a geography field course and enjoyed walking the cliffs and beaches of one of the most amazing stretches of coastline in the UK.  Returning many years later we went to some places that did not feature in the school curriculum. One such place was a tiny celtic chapel literally carved out of the side of a cliff on the south coast near St Govan's head. This chapel is named after the same saint who gives his name to the headland. This particular celtic christian man according to legend sought refuge from a marauding band of pirates on this windswept section of coast. He hid in the cleft of the rock so successfully that the pirates could not find him. In thankfulness he decid