Photos by Stephen John: on the map, in Google Earth (KML)

beautiful picture, congratulations. Greetings fron Brazil. Amauri Jacomini

Super shot! Very nice colors!Greetings from Poland - Barbara

Very nice shot!!! Greetings from Poland - Barbara

A lovely shot. According to legend Mumbles or as it is fully called, 'The Mumbles' was named by a French sea captain who thought the two islands resembled breasts, 'mamelles' is French for breasts and the name stuck and got corrupted to 'Mumbles'. No actual proof of course, but it does make a good story.

One thing is to see interesting places another thing is to capture it as a good photo. This is absolutely great shot. Nice work Stephen. VOTED. Tedy.

I invite you to vote my march contest picture VILLAGE CHURCH if you think it deserves.

So lovely landscape! My vote is for you. I've also nominated this photo for "Best of Panoramio".

I hope you'll visit my contest photos.

Good luck! Greetings from St. Petersburg, Russia.

Beautiful landscape, voted.

Thanks for the correction, I meant to say Towy ( Tywi is the Welsh). No excuse I live just up the road from the castle but have lived in Swansea in the past.

Chris, Thanks for your replies. The lake in its original state was three times the size of the current lake. If you zoom in to the area of the lake on Google earth, you will see a stand of trees just north of the lake. That stand of trees was actually an island in the lake. If you basically follow the tree line on Google earth, then that was the boundary of the origianl lake. For some bizarre reason, the Council destroyed the sluice gates that held back and controlled the level of the lake approx mid 1960s and drained the lake. So when you first visited the area then it would have been a vast reed bed. On the other side of the river alongside the old Tir Doncyn colliery was an incredible blue pond which we called the Blue Pool. The water was turquoise in colour and crystal clear. I imagine it got its colour from underground minerals? That also got drained by either the Council or the Forestry Commision who own that area !!!! You had a great day for the walk and I bet the dog enjoyed it too. I used to practically live in the woods (and my dog) and I actually buried him there. May and June are very good months for walks as the bluebells will be out on Bluebell Hill and the rhododenduns will be blooming. There are 2 areas also where wild daffodils grow which was handy for Mothers Day.....but I would not pick them now of course because it is illegal!!! As for your photos, it takes a while for Google to process them and upload them onto Google Earth and then they may not upload them all. I have uploaded some more a few days ago including an old black & white photo of the lower lodge in its orginal state. I have an old photo also of the lake with myself and some other street urchins but I have refrained from loading that one. They are not on Google Earth yet but keep visiting as I will do to keep an eye out for yours.

Cheers, Stephen

They are there somewhere I believe!! I think they are further up on Kilvey Hill but are very secretive just like the fairies that also abound in the same area.