Cryptic caves

[grahams]

That didn't last long. All yours Graigwen.

 

[Graigwen]

A blessed cave, named after an international link between Queen Elizabeth and Alfred the Great.

 

[Graigwen]

A letter count would no doubt help.

2, 9, 4

 

[andys]

St Dunstan's Well?

 

[Graigwen]

No.
But you are thing along the right lines, at least as far as one word is concerned.
.

 

[Graigwen]

This may not help, but I'll mention it anyway.

I have just returned from Heathrow Airport where I dispatched to Zanzibar a descendant of the person after whom the cave is named.

This is more helpful. The international connection can be narrowed down to between Ethelred the Unready and the Empress Matilda.

 

[Graigwen]

This is a straightforward clue, no letter jumbling or anagrams. More of a tourist cave than a caver for cavers. The answer is in English although the cave is not in England.
.

 

[grahams]

St Margaret's Cave?

 

[Fulk]

Well, by my reckoning that narrows it down to the following, with 9-letter words in red:

Swein Fork Beard,
Edmund Ironsides,
Cnut,
Harold Harefoot
Hatharcnut
Edward the Confessor,
Harold Godwinson,
William the Bastard,
William II,
Henry I,
Stephen

But I'm none the wiser.

 

[ChrisB]

Are there any apostrophes in the answer, and if so are they counted as letters?

 

[Fulk]

Oh – I forgot about apostrophes.

 

[Fulk]

And my list is hardly international (should have read the post properly!).

 

[Graigwen]

St Margaret's Cave?

I have been asleep for most of the day, this is the right anwer.

Well, by my reckoning that narrows it down to the following, with 9-letter words in red:

Swein Fork Beard,
Edmund Ironsides,
Cnut,
Harold Harefoot
Hatharcnut
Edward the Confessor,
Harold Godwinson,
William the Bastard,
William II,
Henry I,
Stephen

But I'm none the wiser.

This is an excellent list of monarchs, although the Anglo Saxon monarchs between Alfred the Great and Edmund Ironside should be added. Give yourself a gold star for calling William the Bastard by that name. In my family everybody except me is descended from William the Bastard and refer to him by that name. The link however is not monarch but blood descent.

The only reason the later English monarchs from the Empress Mathilda and her son King Henry II can claim descent from the Kings of Wessex is that the Empress Matilda's mother (the wife of King Henry I) was Matilda of Scotland (also known as Edith). Mathilda of Scotland was the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland (as in the play "Macbeth") and St Margaret. St Margaret had been born in Europe, possibly Hungary and her family had also spent time in Russia; she was the daughter of Edward the Exile, who was the son of Edmund Ironside.

Your turn now Grahams.
.

 

[Fulk]

Thanks for that, Graigwen. However, in your paragraph:

The only reason the later English monarchs from the Empress Mathilda and her son King Henry II can claim descent from the Kings of Wessex is that the Empress Matilda's mother (the wife of King Henry I) was Matilda of Scotland (also known as Edith). Mathilda of Scotland was the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland (as in the play "Macbeth") and St Margaret. St Margaret had been born in Europe, possibly Hungary and her family had also spent time in Russia; she was the daughter of Edward the Exile, who was the son of Edmund Ironside.

it doesn't actually give any connection with the kings of Wessex.

 

[Graigwen]

Thanks for that, Graigwen. However, in your paragraph:



it doesn't actually give any connection with the kings of Wessex.

OK. This is the route back:

Edward the Exile=> Edmund Ironside=> Aethelred the Unready => Edgar the Peaceable=> Edmund I=> Edward the Elder=> Alfred the Great => Aethelwulf=> Ecgberht.......it gets a bit murky after that.

.

 

[grahams]

Thanks Graigwen.

Tag stop-off as somewhere to avoid (7, 3)

 

[andys]

Ftfagos Pot?

 

[grahams]

That's the place Andys.

 

[andys]

Try this then...

"Riotous river boos Macron?" ( 7,4,4 )

 

[grahams]

Borrins Moor Cave?