Cambrian Mountains Initiative’s Dafydd Wyn Morgan has completed a marathon night photography challenge, just in the nick of time.

Set the task of photographing twelve Cambrian Mountains bridges across 2022, Project Manager Dafydd finally took his twelfth and final ‘night bridge’ photo last weekend (17/12/2022) at Ysbyty Cynfyn, Ceredigion.

The bridges photographed across the year include the world-famous three bridges of Pontarfynach/Devil’s Bridge(Ceredigion), Pont Dolauhirion(Carmarthenshire) and Pont ar Elan(Powys).

Dafydd admits that after photographing eleven bridges, the task of choosing the twelfth and final one was immense. He turned to social media, and following various suggestions, Dafydd decided to head north from this home town of Tregaron and visit the tiny community of Ysbyty Cynfyn.

Fascinated by the history and heritage of the bridge and the community, Dafydd’s final click of the camera includes himself standing on the snowy bridge. The current bridge, built in the 1950s, replaced an old chain secured plank bridge reputedly used by the visiting vicar who preached at the little church at Ysbyty Cynfyn.

“I really enjoyed visiting this final bridge, just after midnight” said Dafydd.

“It was very cold and slippery, but I took my time in walking along the short trail, a trail I had visited several times before, during the day”.

As he arrived at Parson’s Bridge in the Coed Rheidol Nature Reserve, Dafydd was joined by a barn owl, curious as to why he was trundling down the snow-covered track in the middle of the night carrying a big rucksack and tripod..

“I watched the beautiful barn owl for a few minutes, then headed down into the steep Rheidol Gorge, where I could hear the fierce roar of the Afon Rheidol cascading below” added Dafydd.

Asked which his favourite bridge to photograph at night had been, Dafydd answered,

“They’ve all been astounding places to visit at night, each with their own challenge. However as one of the bridges is normally submerged by water, that is possibly one of the special ones I visited”.

Dafydd looks forward now to 2023, with maybe an eye on another themed night photography project up his sleeve.

All images(and descriptions) can be viewed here.