So much has attached itself to Mary Jones that it is hard to untangle the truth. But what is certainly true is that for a while she was the most famous Welsh woman across the developing world.

Her story was an inspiration, an example. She was the little Welsh girl without a Bible, who walked twenty-five miles to Bala in her bare feet to get one. To understand Mary you have to understand the landscape within which she lived and you can only do that by going there. It is a wild place. As remote a place as you can find. Drive over the hill from Abergynolwyn, Gwynedd, along a single track road that takes you into a beautiful and remote valley, past the ruins of Castell y Bere - the last Welsh castle to fall to Edward I - and on towards Llanfihangel y Pennant. Here is the low grey chapel that Mary attended. Follow the road beyond until it ends at a bridge over the Afon Cadair, in the shadow of the Cadair Idris. Here was where she lived, far away from anywhere. The broken walls of the tiny cottage she shared with her mother remain - a shell beside the tumbling river - and in front of where the hearth would have been there is an obelisk with a representation of an open book, a memorial to her endeavour. This is Ty'n-y-Ddol, her world, a single room. When you see it you are not surprised that she walked so far - what else could she do?

The story continues on page 14 of our magazine.