The Ascent of Cader Idris

In August, 1972, Richard James, Professor of Art History at the University of Birmingham, England, led a climb up the mountain Cader Idris in Merionethshire, Wales. 

Richard James on Cader Idris

A stone that lies upon the ground

May shine as white as snow.

A cliff the sun has never found

Is where pure black will grow.

Emerald slips of water turn

A crumbling shore to jewels,

And every silver sliding burn

Sinks purple in these pools.

The view north from the crest.


Sheep astride Cader Idris.

Down fall the climbers, water springs up,

We on our knees, our lips to the cup.

Reedy grass sways a hum all around.

Near the sky we have found immaculate
    ground.

Spring water forms a grassy pool near gleaming white quartz at the summit of Cader Idris.