The local area - background geography
'Wish you were Ria?'
The River Cleddau consists of the Eastern and Western tributaries which unite to form the Daugleddau (the two Cleddaus) estuary. Rising in the Preseli Hills and converging around Landshipping and Hook - just south of the A40, the rivers’ numerous creeks harbour a fascinating history and offer secret landscapes ideal for bird watching, boating and fishing.
The main estuary - a great ria created by a postglacial rise in sea level and thus much larger than rivers of this volume would normally carve, has long been an important shipping channel. Nowadays the depth of the water and sheltered harbour have allowed oil refineries to be established.
The name Cleddau comes from the Welsh word 'cleddyf' (sword) and probably refers to the dramatic way in which both rivers cut into the landscape. The Western Cleddau is an example of a “misfit” river: a small river in a deep valley, formed when the River Teifi, swollen with melt water at the end of the last Ice Age, was blocked from flowing into the Irish Sea by a dam of ice.
Misfit river?
I guess I should fit right in.... I think we both feel a bit out of water here, Maria more so than me I think.
Dry now
Numerous streams
10
Geography
White river - waterfall
In the autumn this would have been full - but we were tucked up inside the cottage
The rocks often lend themselves to producing delightful little water features...