A dry if not sun-soaked day in April saw a group of about 10 of us take a loop from Devil’s Bridge past an old watermill and over to St John the Baptist Church with its sad gravestone to Wales’ first recorded quadruplets – who as well as their father, brother and sister all died within a few days in an epidemic (possibly smallpox or typhoid); one wonders how Margaret, the poor woman who had just borne them, must have felt!

Spoil heaps above the river After a coffee stop we dropped into the wooded valley to cross the Parsons’ Bridge over Rheidol gorge and then along the river – passing spoil heaps in orange and almost-pink, which are still contaminating the waters below, though it looks as though some sort of remedial project is now ( after a century?) underway.

Then a good uphill haul took us to cross the railway line, and we followed above it back to the town – to be caught up by the little steam train just arriving from Aberystwyth, as we got back to the station. Altogether a very enjoyable circuit.