Monkey's Tump Traditional Cache
GizmoKyla: As the owner has not responded to our previous log requesting that they check this cache we are archiving it.
Please note that as this cache has now been archived by a reviewer or HQ staff it will NOT be unarchived.
Regards
Dave & Dawn
GizmoKyla
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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This is a cache and dash located near to a fascinating local spot. Please note that the cache is not located on the tump itself or near any of the crosses.
Monkey's Tump is a very popular dog walking and picnic site for local people, and is quite popular with people scattering the ashes of a loved one as shown by the growing number of crosses placed here.
The tumpe itself has a fascinating history as the following extract from a Rhondda book written by local author David Owen shows:-
When money was scarce and cars were few, one of the pleasures of the summer holidays was to ramble on the mountainside and picnic on the Monkey's Tump. I often wondered why there were no monkeys and thought that perhaps there had once been a monkey puzzle tree there.
It was many years later that I realised the Monkey's is a corruption of Monks and not monkeys at all. The word has been handed down by mouth and we always articulate in the easiest way; isn't it much easier to say 'monkeys tump' than 'monks tump? Having solved the question of where the name came from, I was faced with another: why monks came to Monk(ey)'s Tump.
Let us go on an armchair pilgrimage. Take your atlas and find Wales; put your finger on the Rhondda and take it straight down to the coast. There you will find LLantwit Major (Llanilltyd Fawr is its original welsh name). There, in the sixteenth century, when the Anglo Saxons were pushing the Celts westward, Saint Illtyd built a monastery and gathered round him monks and scholars in a sort of early University. From there the monks travelled on foot, on horseback or by boat to Cornwall, to Ireland, to Brittany and of course throughout Wales to meet up with others and spread the Gospel.
We will take just a few examples of these journeys, those of three saints, Illtyd, Dyfodwg and Gwynno. Look at your map due North from Llantwit Major and you will find Llantrisant, where they journeyed together. If we follow Illtyd and Dyfodwg (who travelled on together) we come to a church in Williamstown dedicated to Illtyd and further on we arrive at Ystradyfodwg (the ford of St Dyfodwg). Until fairly recently most of the Rhondda was in the parish of Ystradyfodwg: at Ton Pentre near the river there is now a very modern church built on an ancient site called St. John the Baptist. Here no doubt Saint Dyfodwg rested before fording the river and facing the climb up Penrhys to partake at Ffynnon Mair (Saint Mary's Well), which was famed for its medicinal qualities especially for eyes. He would have stayed at the Monastic cell on Penrhys for a night or two and worshipped the wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, which was taken away and burnt in Chelsea by Thomas Cromwell at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. The present statue is a very recent one. Dyfodwg would then have dropped down into the Rhondda Fach, to refresh himself at the farm in the North end of Oxford Street. He then took the steep climb to rest on the Monkey's Tump before dropping into Monk Street Aberdare, on through Llwydcoed (the wood of the grey monks) and so to Neath Abbey and eventually to St. David's.
PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ANY TRACKABLES IN THIS CACHE
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqrearngu gur fgbar va gur cvpgher
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