IV.

Places of Interest

Carmarthen was the site of a Roman amphitheatre. The poet Dylan Thomas lived for many years in Laugharne and is buried there. A short distance from the town of Llandeilo are Carn Goch, an Iron Age hill fort, and Carreg Cennen Castle, a fortress built in the 14th century on a cliff edge. Dinefwr Park and Newton House are located a short distance to the north of Llandeilo and are managed by the National Trust. Within the extensive grounds are the ruins of a medieval castle, a 19th-century Gothic-style mansion, 18th-century landscaped gardens, woodlands, and an ancient deer park. East of Carmarthen is Paxton's Tower, built as a memorial to Horatio Nelson in 1811. Five miles south-west of Llandovery, at Llanwrda, visitors may see the Dolaucothi Gold Mines, which were exploited by the Celts and Romans some 2,000 years ago, and were last worked in 1938.

There are excellent beaches to the east and to the west of the Towy estuary; on the western side the Pendine Sands stretch for 10 km (6 mi) and were used in the 1920s in various attempts on the land speed record. The 230-hectare (568-acre) National Botanic Garden of Wales, a centre of education, conservation, and leisure, opened in May 2000 near Llanarthney; it was the first new national botanic garden to be established in the United Kingdom for over 200 years. It contains walled gardens, lakes, cascades, and parkland, as well as the Great Glasshouse, a futuristic oval-shaped construction designed by the architects Sir Norman Foster and Partners.