RS Thomas Memorial Walk

On Sunday May the 12^th, St Hywyn’s church and their doughty walk leader Susan Fogarty planned a small pilgrimage to celebrate the 100 years since the birth of R.S. Thomas in Holyhead in 1913. R.S. was a distinguished poet and vicar of Aberdaron before his retirement to live in a cottage in Rhiw near Aberdaron. Unfortunately we chose the worst Sunday of the year, and the rain was constant. This limited the numbers and made walking very difficult. Fortunately, Edge of Wales Walk with their minibus were on hand to assist and we were able to take people to places when walking was impossible.

We started in St Hywyn’s Church where we were greeted by the vicar of Aberdaron the Reverend Susan Blagden, now the vicar of the greater parish of Bro Enlli.

After a bus ride to Sarn Plas, R.S.’s retirement home, poems were read in the pouring rain.

This is the extension to the cottage that R.S. built, and where he wrote many of his poems.

This is an upstairs window of the cottage and a model of the hand of Elsie, who was the wife to R.S. Thomas and a serious artist in her own right.

The party then moved on to Llanfaelrhys, which was a church served by R.S. where Elsie was buried.

The gravestone shows that Elsie was buried here, but R.S. is only there in spirit. He was actually buried in Porthmadog on the instructions of his second wife. The party laid some blossom on the grave which we had just taken from Sarn Plas.