Dylan Thomas season: Dylan’s Walks - Weatherman Walking

Derek Brockway, Presenter, BBC Cymru Wales:

As part of the Weatherman Walking series of programmes, I have walked in the same footsteps as Dylan Thomas. To be honest, I didn’t realise he wrote so many poems. I knew about his work Under Milk Wood from my school days but hadn’t really revisited his poems since.

I have realised that there is so much more to Dylan Thomas than I had thought and I have been able to immerse myself in places where Dylan lived and worked. Sea views, picture postcard towns and landscapes that feed the imagination. I’ve visited many of the places that meant so much to him. We all know about Laugharne and his beautiful Boathouse - where I sat at his desk looking at the stunning views over the estuary but I also went to lesser-known places to find out about their connections with Dylan. I went to New Quay where I walked up through the town and down to the wild beach below all the way to Llanina Point. I even found out more about Swansea - Dylan’s ‘ugly, lovely town’ - which left its stamp on him.

Walking in Dylan’s footsteps has really shown me a very different side to the man I thought I knew. I already knew about his reputation for drinking and I did pop into some of his favourite watering holes along the way to try to imagine what his life would have been like. But I also met the people who are passionate about Dylan - Dylan’s granddaughter, Hannah Ellis, and Jeff Towns, a Dylan Thomas encyclopedia, known as the ‘Dylan Thomas guy’. They had so much passion and enthusiasm for Dylan, it was very contagious. It’s given me a renewed enthusiasm for his work. He was, and still is, one of our nation’s greatest poets.

I’ve really enjoyed roaming around Dylan’s Wales and the places that left their mark not only on him but on the pages of some of his greatest works. The landscape of Wales gives meaning and texture to the work of Dylan Thomas and that rich landscape is still here today with all those magical places still to enjoy on our doorstep.

Welsh-language version

Ymdrochwch eich hun yn y llefydd lle bu Dylan yn byw ac yn gweithio. Golygfeydd môr, trefi cerdyn post a thirluniau sy’n bwydo’r dychymyg.

• BBC One Wales - Ebrill

Derek Brockway, Cyflwynydd, BBC Cymru Wales:

Fel rhan o’r gyfres o raglenni Weatherman Walking, rwy’ wedi cerdded yn ôl troed Dylan Thomas. A bod yn onest, doeddwn i ddim yn sylweddoli ei fod wedi ysgrifennu cymaint o gerddi. Roeddwn i’n gwybod am ei waith Under Milk Wood ers dyddiau ysgol ond doeddwn i ddim wir wedi troi’n ôl at ei farddoniaeth oddi ar hynny.

Rwy’n sylweddoli bod cymaint mwy i Dylan Thomas nag a feddyliais, ac wedi gallu ymgolli fy hun yn y llefydd lle bu Dylan yn byw ac yn gweithio. Golygfeydd môr, trefi cerdyn post a thirluniau sy’n bwydo’r dychymyg. Rwy’ wedi ymweld â llawer o’r llefydd oedd yn golygu cymaint iddo fe. Mae pawb yn gwybod am Dalacharn a’i Boathouse hardd – lle eisteddais wrth ei ddesg yn edrych ar y golygfeydd anhygoel dros yr aber – ond fe es i hefyd i lefydd llai adnabyddus i ddysgu am eu cysylltiadau â Dylan. Es i Gei Newydd, lle cerddais drwy’r dref ac i lawr at y traeth gwyllt islaw a’r holl ffordd at Drwyn Llanina. Fe ddysgais ragor am Abertawe, hyd yn oed - ‘ugly, lovely town’ Dylan - a adawodd ei hôl arno. Mae dilyn trywydd Dylan wedi dangos ochr wahanol iawn i’r dyn roeddwn i’n meddwl fy mod yn ei adnabod. Roeddwn yn gwybod yn barod am ei enw fel diotwr ac fe wnes i alw i mewn i rai o’i hoff dafarndai ar hyd y ffordd i geisio dychmygu sut beth oedd ei fywyd. Ond fe gwrddais i hefyd â’r bobl sy’n teimlo’n angerddol am Dylan – wyres Dylan, Hannah Ellis, a Jeff Towns, sy’n gwybod pob manylyn am Dylan Thomas, ac sy’n cael ei adnabod fel y ‘boi Dylan Thomas’. Roedd ganddyn nhw gymaint o angerdd a brwdfrydedd dros Dylan, roedd yn heintus iawn. Mae wedi rhoi brwdfrydedd newydd i fi am ei waith. Yr oedd, ac mae’n dal i fod, yn un o feirdd mwyaf ein gwlad.

Profiad hynod o bleserus oedd crwydro Cymru Dylan a’r llefydd a adawodd eu hôl nid yn unig arno fe ond ar dudalennau rhai o’i weithiau mwyaf. Mae tirwedd Cymru’n rhoi ystyr a sylwedd i waith Dylan Thomas ac mae’r tirwedd hwnnw yma o hyd, gyda’r holl lefydd cyfareddol hynny’n dal yno i’w mwynhau ar ein stepen drws.