My Welsh language skills are poor and so, after seeing Cara Cullen’s beautiful post regarding the on-going destruction at Craig-yr-Hesg , I had to look up the word “Cynefin”.

I found a definition here .

CYNE-WHAT?

Cynefin, pronounced kuh-nev-in, is a Welsh word that signifies the multiple, intertwined factors in our environment and our experience that influence us (how we think, interpret and act) in ways we can never fully understand.

Cynefin is a Welsh word meaning “haunt”, “habitat”, “acquainted”, “accustomed”, “familiar”. It carries with it a sense of rootedness—temporal, physical, cultural or spiritual. It “describes [a] relationship: the place of your birth and of your upbringing, the environment in which you live and to which you are naturally acclimatised’.

The Welsh language has such a strong connection to the landscape the words describe physical features of the landscape but also evoke the deep emotional connection that Welsh culture has with its natural surrounds . I’m delighted to discover a word to describe exactly how I feel whenever I get a chance to walk the field and hillsides above Pontypridd. It represents to deep and abiding relationship all Welsh people have with their surroundings. I love that the Welsh language can describe such a deep, complex emotional attachment to a place so effortlessly. Something to add to the Hiraeth I already feel for the place.

If you come to Pontypridd and stand on the summit of Craig-yr-Hesg you’ll be aware of the beauty below. However, only somebody who grew up in the valleys would be able to understand the sadness , heartache and scarring that has gone into creating the landscape as it currently looks. The remains of Darren Ddu spoil head immediately in front of you , the tips of Albion Colliery to your left, a mile or two ahead the reclaimed tips of The Maritime Colliery, each mountain and crag bearing the scars of previous quarrying activity, the list of despoliation goes on and on. This is why the landscape is so vital to protect and what’s left is so precious. It’s been mined, quarried, blasted, shredded, exploited and stripped . It may only be 15 million tonnes of aggregate to Heidelberg Cement which, they hope, will contribute to exceeding their €22 billion in revenue for 2022 (that’s £18,806,920,000, or $23,945,109,102 (USD) at today’s exchange rates), but it’s something far more precious and valuable to the people who enjoy this space.

During the “Black Gold Rush” of the 19th and 20th century our ancestors must have gazed upon scenes of desolation and irreversible change as their cherished landscape was forever altered, “The Rape of the Fair Country” as Alexander Cordell described it. Many of the residents must have protested with the limited means available to them at the time. In that light, even if we’re not successful, I hope we can leave a record at least of how strongly we struggled to protect these few fields and hedgerows so that future generations can find it in their hearts to understand a little about what’s unfolding.

It’s sadly ironic that the fences and security patrols are there to protect the land from the people who want to safeguard it. To protect it that is just long enough so the quarry owners can blast it so smithereens in order produce the ” ‘gold standard’ of high specification crushed rock aggregate”.¹ The repeated invocation of “gold” in this context rings with bitter irony, as history often shows how such pursuits tend to benefit distant proprietors at the expense of local communities, leaving behind a permanent trail of destruction and despair behind.

When it comes to the destruction of natural resources for profit, the concept of cynefin becomes profoundly relevant. The exploitation of natural resources often disrupts the delicate balance inherent in cynefin, severing the ties that bind communities to their land and jeopardizing their sense of place and identity. In the pursuit of profit, corporations and extractive industries prioritize short-term financial gains over the long-term well-being of communities and ecosystems, disregarding the interconnectedness inherent in cynefin.

1. Paragraph 71 of the appeals document ↩︎