We spent a wonderful, if slightly soggy, day with seven members of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland in late May, walking the land on the search for plants here at Llwynbwch. We were pretty blown away by the deep level of knowledge in this lovely group of plant botherers! We learnt a huge amount and were so pleased to see the huge diversity of such a small area.

Plants of local significance recorded by the BSBI group included Wood Horsetail, the form of Lesser Celandine with bulbils in the nodes,  Hedgerow Crane's-bill, Corn Mint, Lousewort, the hybrid cinquefoil Potentilla x suberecta, Bulbous  Buttercup, Northern Yellowcress and Great Burnet. The party also recorded ten sedge species  including Spring Sedge, Pale Sedge, Pill Sedge, Common Sedge and Star Sedge, which are all  noteworthy in a local context. In addition, the discovery of hybrid shield-fern Polystichum x bicknellii is  of county interest and is the first record for this area.

 Also, Round-leaved Crowfoot, a species regarded by the Countryside  Council for Wales (now Natural Resources Wales) as globally threatened, although not uncommon in  Wales, was found growing in the wet mud in one gateway. Whorled Caraway and Primrose are also  included on the CCW globally threatened lists.  

On April 5th 2025 Adam & Lou, alongside Sue Burger and Paula Senior, gave a talk on Conservation grazing with Exmoor ponies to members of the Carmarthenshire Meadows Group AGM at Bronwydd Hall, Carmarthen.

We’re super happy to collaborate with Live Frankly and are now in their Travel Directory.

A little about Live Frankly:

What we do
Ethical journalism funded by the good guys.

Our articles make it easier for you to live in line with your values. You know, when you ask is Primark really any different to other high-street fashion brands? Or what does organic really mean? Or even, I’m one of 7 billion people on this planet, why does what I do matter? Our articles delve into all of this so you can start to decide what you really stand for.

Our directory is dedicated to making your everyday choices count.

We welcomed beautiful Nora (Rossmill North Wind) to live here at Under Starry Skies today.

She joins Rosemary (Coedywern Rosemary), Jasper (Buttondown Jasper) and Bear (Rossmill Scirocco) who is her half brother. The image above is of Nora (chestnut coloured, on the left) greeting Bear after many years apart.

Today was a very different day for Llwynbwch Barn! Instead of holiday guests, we hosted a small film team from the BBC, here to do an interview for Good Morning Britain.  It was lovely to meet the team, who had travelled across from Cardiff and London. We look forward to spotting the barn on the tv and hope it will make the perfect backdrop!

A Council of all Beings to be held at Llwynbwch May 10th to 12th 2024.

An invitation to allow the many voices of Earth to be heard, as we connect with other-than-human-beings on a soul level and weave their voices into our urgent conversations about environmental collapse. Through gratitude and grieving, we open our hearts to hear what is going unheard. In the tradition of the Work that Reconnects and of many ancient ceremonies, we meet to step beyond our purely human identities and speak on behalf of another life-form. At a time when our planet is in such trouble, we listen to other beings with whom we share this Earth.

Fully residential, with choices from comfortable bedrooms in an eco-converted barn, a warm cabin in flowering meadows or camping in your own tent or van. From 6.00 pm Friday May 10th to 4.00 pm Sunday May 12th, delicious vegetarian lunches and evening meals will be provided.

Facilitated by Sue Weaver, Alan Bellamy and Kate Dufton, all deeply experienced in facilitating and in the Work that Reconnects.

We are very lucky to be stewards of the land here at Llwynbwch.

We’re not the first and we certainly won’t be the last and whilst we’re always looking, listening and learning from the land, neither of us are trained ecologists, so we happily look to others for support and advice. (As a small aside, Adam did study Environmental Biology in his university days, but they’re a few years ago now!)

In June we spent an enjoyable afternoon with Ivy, an ecologist from nearby conservation business Conversations and Trees, walking the land and discussing our land management plans, especially in relation to how the Exmoor ponies are grazing and any impact this has. It was particularly dry, being a warm June day and many of the usual streams had stopped running – quite unusual here!

During our walk we spotted purple moor grass/ melinio, plenty of healthy valerian, orchids and dog violet growing as well as meadow thistle, tormentil scabious and numerous meadow brown, ringlets and checkered skipper butterflies. We discussed brambles, whether and how much to control its growth (it can be a habitat for both hedgehogs and dormice) and whether or not to bruise bracken to weaken its growth. We also talked at length about scrub encroachment – some scrub is great for wildlife but it will keep trying to turn into woodland if left. 

We told Ivy that nearby neighbours had been out looking for glow worms and asked if she’d ever seen any locally. Neither of us have, so far, but we are hopeful and will definitely be on the lookout now it’s in our thoughts!

We found Sneezewort, Marsh willowherb, an absolutely stunning golden ringed dragonfly, Burnet moths, Hemp agrimony and some common Cow-wheat down by the gorge near ‘Goat’ field. This is a plant food for the Heath Fritillary butterfly. We didn’t see any Heath Fritillaries, but will now keep our eyes peeled for any sightings.

We were lucky to share a beautiful afternoon and have much to look up and think about moving forwards, along with some more decisions to be made!

In June 2023 we were very happy to be surveyed for bats, as part of the Carmarthenshire Bat Project. The project aims to build on the biological records for bats at the West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre (WWBIC).

Between 2nd and 5th June 2023, a bat survey was carried out, with four Audiomoth bat detectors deployed around the site in ‘night time mode’, with the main objective being to determine which bat species are present in and around the area. Two of the sites were very close to Hafan and Derwen cabins, one close to Llwynbwch Barn and the final one near Lou & Adam’s home.

‘What’s that?’ You may well ask!

Toilet Twinning has been running since 2010 and funds global water, sanitation and hygiene programmes run by Tearfund. ‘Tearfund’s partners work alongside communities, bringing people together in workshops and action groups focused on issues that concern them – such as farming. Lasting, whole-life transformation comes from working alongside someone, not making decisions on their behalf. Toilet Twinning’s approach is about dignity and self-respect as much as it is about alleviating poverty and accessing safe sanitation.’ (words from Toilet Twinning’s website).

Our Carbon Footprint…

We’re really happy to receive results of our Carbon Emissions Survey from Ecollective, in collaboration with Canopy and Stars. We’re super excited to report that our carbon footprint per cabin per night is currently 1.0kg CO2e. This amount can be compared with the National average for UK Hotels of 14.9kg (CO2e) per bedroom per night.