Cors Fochno

Behind Morfa Borth was Cors Fochno – the marsh of the pigs. The marsh was a huge triangular area, some 4,000 acres, bounded by the sea, the River Dovey and the Cambrian Hills. There were occasional ‘islands’ of higher ground, some supporting wind-carved trees. Often there were dark pools of dark peat-stained water.  

I’m sure it is centuries since pigs roamed the bog. In my childhood it was just a source of turf and peat, but pigs there certainly were at the farm just outside the village. I remember being taken to see these champion beasts at Glanwern. As I was just three they were much taller than me, and when, out of curiosity and the hope of food they jumped up, they towered over me like some pink snouted dinosaur.  Held up to see them, I recoiled into my mother’s arms in terror. They had more in common with Twrch Trwyth, the fearsome boar of legend, than a bacon sandwich.