Drone flight around The House Of St David’s revealing spectacular coastal scenery in West Wales

On the recent Whitsun Sunday on May 30th we headed down to the westerly tip of Cymru known as ‘Wales’ to English speakers ~ deep within Dyfed in the county of Pembrokeshire to the tiny city of St Davids. Here the magnificent walled House of Saint David’s magnificent Cathedral lies surrounded by the ancient walled enclosure and ruins of the Bishop’s Palace. It was a glorious day and we had intended to visit Whitesands Bay a little to the west of the city but the tiny roads and lanes were rammed with tourists, day-trippers, camping vans and surf dudes, so we headed back to the shade of the Cathedral precincts and took shelter in the medieval ruins of the Bishops Palace. There we admired the architecture and remarked how classical Italian in style it looked in places, no expenses spared when it was re-built by Bishop Gower in the 14th Century.

It was said that two trips to St Davids were equal to one to Rome – turning it into a centre of pilgrimage for the entire Western world. Thousands flocked to see the shrine of St David in the newly built cathedral.

We chilled at the Palace until closing time at which the crowds had dimmed a little around the Cathedral, so we ventured into the huge Church to take in the ambience of spiritual peace and serenity. As we left the house the large crowds that were sitting around the graveyard enjoying the Sun had left for for the day we had a large crowd free space in the orchard at the back so I let ‘Buzby’ my DJI Mini 2 Drone for a spin. The above footage is an edited version. The music I prepared and composed especially for the footage being mindful and hopefully empathetic to the grace of Wale’s patron saint St David himself and his House. Now here’s the thing, whilst sat within the great church the Choir were going through the evenings routines. The lockdown measures had just ended for Wales thus they were once again together and singing together rather than on Zoom. It was beautifully moving to hear the sound of tuned hum voices reverberating around a splendidly large acoustic space. I slipped my phone into record and managed to capture the last refrain.

Now in the interest of artistic creation and with the magnificence of the space and religious culture I blended and recombined tomes and added some hopefully empathetic textures in my style to create the soundtrack. So this is my take on the glory of that day and the history and sense of Genus Loci. Having been bought up a Christian in my childhood I had since rejected it many years ago although I like to feel I still take onboard in my life some of it’s positive virtues. I have at times often been critical of Christianity for it’s negativity and hypocrisy among other reasons. Notwithstanding I deeply appreciate our culture and legacy left over from many generations of servitude to the cause. That is mine and perhaps your ancestors placed so much faith in their lives towards what they saw as being a sacred purpose. who am I to reject their beliefs? Instead I will hold up their work and cause as a testament of iconic cultural treasure.

I don’t expect to make any money out of this expression, I have not done so up until now with much of my other music or creations save an occasional small amount of pocket money, but I will pledge that if indeed any money should result from this particular piece of music, that I will remunerate, the Cathedral to sum of 50% of any royalties forthwith. Please message me if you have any questions on this.