Читать книгу Great Mountain Days in Snowdonia. 40 classic routes exploring Snowdonia онлайн

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Along the southern edge of the range lies the isolated Dyffryn Mymbyr farm sometime home of Esmé Firbank-Kirby. In 1935, she was running riding stables when she met and soon married Thomas Firbank, who had just purchased the 2500-acre mountain farm of Dyffryn Mymbyr. Esmé instantly threw herself into the role of farmer’s wife, and shared her husband’s zeal for the powerful landscapes of Snowdonia. Those early years at Dyffryn were later immortalised by Thomas in his best-selling novel I Bought a Mountain. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Thomas, like so many young men, went to fight, and although he survived the war and earned great distinction, he never returned to the farm. Life then was desperately hard for Esmé, but soon after the war she met and married Major Peter Kirby. From then on, Esmé was an ardent conservationist, becoming the founder of the Snowdonia National Park Society, and, later, the Esmé Kirby Snowdonia Trust. She died in 1999, at Dyffryn Mymbyr, and her remains lie buried on her beloved mountain.