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Home , Criccieth Castle, Llanfaglan, Llanystumdwy

North TRAVEL

ME AND MY ’VAN sense of being isolated from the outside world is, for me at least, one A of the key attractions of the Llynˆ Peninsula. It’s not an easy place to get to. Once you’ve come off the Expressway, there’s just one last stretch of Taking it slowly decent A-road before you find yourself on increasingly narrow lanes that lead slowly – ever so slowly – into a pastoral landscape where time seems to be standing still. The hills, cliffs and heathland, so often shrouded in mist, are covered with historic ˆ remains, including dozens of enigmatic Vivienne Crow... prehistoric sites. The fields are divided by spent years enduring long-haul traditional, stone-faced earth banks known on the Llyn travel and is now enjoying as cloddiau. It doesn’t look like the twenty- getting to know places closer first century and it doesn’t feel like it, either. to home in her campervan The timeless atmosphere of this stunning north This slender finger of land reaching out towards Ireland at the northwestern tip Wales peninsula is utterly captivating of Wales is watched over by two guarding either side of the neck of the WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY: Vivienne Crow peninsula – and . Most motorhomers will pass one of them as they head out to the Llyn.ˆ As we approached from the north, it was Caernarfon that accosted my partner, A 2002 Auto-Sleeper Symbol, Heleyne, and I soon after we left the A55. known fondly as Hamish, has Despite the rain, we paid our respects to plenty of storage space, which is just as well because we this massive, well-preserved fortress. don’t travel light Built in the late thirteenth century, it was part of Edward I’s ‘iron ring’ of castles in Wales, using a formidable combination of concentric defences, and large . A highly visible reminder to the unruly Welsh of England’s might, each castle was planned with its own walled bastide town populated by English settlers. Locals were allowed to enter, but only during daylight hours and they had to be unarmed. The town battlements at Caernarfon survive intact today, including towers and impressive gateways. Although visitors can’t actually walk on the medieval walls, you can follow them on a circuit of the old town. We LEFT Cliffs near considered it but, with the rain intensifying BELOW INSET The ruins of and the rest of Llynˆ calling, we pushed on. stand proud As we headed southwest, it was like above the town travelling further and further back in time. ➤

710 THE JOURNEY miles In June, we travelled from Carlisle to Uwchmynydd near Aberdaron. We spent six nights on a site here, using it as a base to explore the whole of the Llynˆ Peninsula THE COSTS Fuel Average 30mpg...... £117 Site fees...... £108 Attractions Two adults: , Criccieth Castle, and Highgate...... £42 Total costs...... £267

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expected families, all done up in their BOOKS were more substantial than anything I’d Inn, which sits just a pebble’s throw from “Time to explore at an pace, Sunday Georgian finest, to take their usual seen on mainland Britain. the sandy beach. unhurried seats. At one time, apparently, there was a Northern Eye Books has Archaeologists say the oldest settlement Our base for exploring Llynˆ was Ty- healing well in a nearby field, particularly published several walking dates from the Iron Age, although it was Newydd Farm, home to one of the many guides to the peninsula, time to stop and the wildlife good for getting rid of warts. Sufferers were built around an even earlier Bronze Age campsites at the far end of the peninsula, admire including the official guide to encouraged to bathe the affected area, the Llynˆ section of the Wales cairn. It then grew during the Romano- a Welsh-language stronghold known prick it and then drop the pin into the well. Coast Path by Carl Rogers British period. In the silent solitude, it’s hard as Uwchmynydd. It takes a while to get and time to unwind and relax” Hundreds of pins were discovered when the and Tony Bowerman to believe as many as 400 people lived in the anywhere from here – this is about as far well was dredged in the nineteenth century. ISBN 978-1-908632-24-1 150 houses unearthed here. along the peninsula as you can get – but the and the pocket-sized Top 10 Further down the peninsula’s north Walks by Carl Rogers Also on the north coast, friendly site and its surroundings made it BELOW FAR LEFT Bardsey As well as the ancient remains littering the coast, we leapt back in time again when ISBN 9781902512341 is well worth a visit. A track leads from the well worth the effort. Island from Mynydd Mawr landscape, mobile phone signal became we visited one of the best preserved hill northerneyebooks.co.uk National Trust car park at Morfa On one of the highlights of the trip, we increasingly patchy and the roads quieter forts in Britain. Tre’r Ceiri is located on along a narrow, grass-topped promontory walked from the campsite on a 10-mile and slower. I was forced, literally and Yr Eifl, (aka The Rivals), a rocky, volcanic that, like so many Llynˆ hills and headlands, circuit of the rugged cliffs of Uwchmynydd metaphorically, to move down a gear. dome that’s often mistaken for the higher is crowned by the remains of an Iron Age along the north coast and across the neck No bad thing; it felt like I’d gone back to mountains of Snowdonia when seen from a settlement. From the rocks at the tip of this of the headland to Aberdaron – where the another, less frantic era. Time to explore at distance. I first visited the fort several years cape, we watched grey seals below us. The poet, RS Thomas, used to preach – and then an unhurried pace, time to stop and admire ago, on a misty day, and my hazy memory sea was so clear we could easily make out back along the south coast. It was a walk the wildlife and time to unwind and relax. was of tremendous walls, both thick and the creatures’ long, blubbery bodies as they of open heathland, secretive coves, fort- A few miles beyond Caernarfon, as high, encircling a huge settlement of clearly floated near the water’s surface. topped headlands and wave-sculpted cliffs, the rain started clearing, we stumbled discernible houses. A rocky trail led us along the base of following the reassuringly well-signposted across the first of many hidden gems. St I had assumed my memory was blurred the cliffs on the headland’s eastern side Wales Coast Path for most of the journey. Baglan’s, near , is a redundant by a combination of the disorientating to a tiny fishing village. Despite having no The high point, in more ways than church looked after by the playfully named physical mist and whimsical mists vehicular access, it was a busy spot on this one, was Mynydd Mawr (Welsh for ‘great Friends of Friendless Churches. It’s a of time. But no! On my second visit, having hot summer’s day, its sheltered waters filled mountain’) where heathers and western short walk from the road, yet has a sense climbed up to the enclosure via a narrow, with swimmers, kayakers, paddle-boarders gorse creep along the ground, prevented of timeless seclusion. Inside are some rock-walled corridor, I passed through the and sailors. from growing to any significant height by gorgeous wooden box pews and benches inner wall and could see it was just as sturdy We had to pick our way through the the salt-laden winds that almost constantly dating from the middle of the eighteenth as I remembered – almost 3.65m (12ft) high blubbery bodies (human this time, not batter this exposed hill. From here, we were century. As I snapped a few photos, I half in places – and the remains of the buildings phocine) spread out in front of the Tyˆ Coch able to look back up the peninsula to ➤

INFORMATION The Wales Coast Path (or Aber raw Llwybr Arfordir Cymru, in Niwbwrch Welsh) is 870 miles of path around the entire Welsh coast Caernarfon walescoastpath.co.uk Find out about the historical sites of Wales, including the A castles at Criccieth and E Caernarfon S .gov.wales H Rhyd-Ddu The National Trust has five S sites on the Llynˆ Peninsula I nationaltrust.org.uk/ IR days-out/regionwales/llyn For information about the town as well as A487 aberdaronlink.co.uk It means salt water pool in Criccieth English and is the unofficial capital of the Llynˆ .org.uk Pwllheli Tourist Information Centre, The Library, Town Hall, Penlan Street, Pwllheli, Aberdaron LL53 5DE ☎ 01758 612089 Porth Neigwl Uwchmynydd

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Yr Eifl and out to sea to Ireland’s Wicklow TOP TIPS beautiful, carved rood screen and loft, the Mountains on the hazy horizon. Closer in, church contains a wooden money chest just a couple of miles offshore but still a We were unable to visit brought from Bardsey abbey following choppy boat trip away, was Bardsey Island Bardsey Island as visitors’ Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries. (aka Ynys Enlli). dogs are not allowed on the From , our route took us into island. Boat trips run daily Resembling a child’s drawing of a from March to November, the popular resort of Abersoch, sometimes humpback whale, this is a special site weather permitting. Day- sniggeringly referred to as -on-Sea. in the religious history of Wales. A place trippers get to spend four While families played in the sand, on the where legend and history collide, Bardsey is hours on the island waters of adrenaline junkies thought to be the site of a Celtic monastery bardseyboattrips.com on jet skis and power boats left in their – one of the earliest in Wales – although wake those in yachts and on paddle boards the remains of the Augustinian abbey that seeking a more sedate ocean experience. It survive on the island today date from the was quite a contrast to our previous walk. thirteenth century. It’s also said to be the Slowly, as we made our way up on to the burial place for 20,000 Welsh saints. cliffs, the noise, the speed, the bustle, all In medieval times, three pilgrimages to started to seem like a distant memory. Bardsey were the equivalent of one to Rome We watched as two adult choughs used and pilgrims flocked to the island from all their curved red bills to prise insects from over Britain, secure in the belief that, if they the ground to fill the constantly squawking died there, they’d be guaranteed a place in mouths of their two demanding youngsters. heaven. Hospices caring for the sick and Further round the same headland – Mynydd dying sprang up next to churches along the Cilan, the southernmost on Llynˆ – we saw pilgrims’ routes. This was not as altruistic as another chough trying to intimidate two it sounds – the ‘carers’ charged a fee. juvenile kestrels sitting on adjoining fence We visited one of these churches on ABOVE CLOCKWISE posts. They were indifferent to its warning another walk that also took in part of the The sheltered waters of swoops and dives. Porthdinllaen; Looking north Wales Coast Path. Setting off from the car from Mynydd Mawr near the The bird gave up when a parent kestrel park at Porth Neigwl (aka Hell’s Mouth), tip of the Llynˆ Peninsula; flew in and sat on the rocks nearby, keeping we passed through Llanengan, home to the Medieval house at a watchful eye on its offspring. Even though delightful St Engan’s. As well as having a Penarth Fawr they’re rare in much of the rest of the UK, ➤

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we saw several choughs on our trip. It’s not ABOVE CLOCKWISE when Lloyd George was growing up here. surprising that the bird (known in Welsh Snowdonia’s hills visible is less than a five-minute as brân goesgoch or red-legged crow) is beyond St Tudwal’s islands drive from Criccieth, a seaside town with the symbol of the Llynˆ Area of Outstanding a magnificent mountain backdrop. This Natural Beauty. is a place of boutique shops, traditional Abersoch isn’t the only resort on Llyn’sˆ tearooms, galleries and stylish but relaxed south coast. Nearby is , known restaurants. But we were here to visit the for its long line of colourful beach huts. castle. It’s not as substantial as Caernarfon The traditional huts were all sitting in the and really is just a ruin – but it occupies a car park when we arrived. They had been spectacular location. Built in the first half rescued from the beach after a havoc- of the thirteenth century by Llywelyn the wreaking storm which swept away tonnes Great, it stands atop a steep-sided headland of sand, lowering the level of the beach with amazing views in all directions. One by nearly two feet and leaving the huts minute I was staring out across the waters vulnerable to flooding. of Cardigan Bay, next it was the rocky Further up the coast, Pwllheli was a summits of Snowdonia that drew my gaze. useful place to stock up on groceries, but we But it was the outlook to the west that didn’t linger for long. Criccieth, on the other really commanded my attention. Beyond the hand, was a charming place to spend a few town’s elegant beachside terrace of four- hours. En route, we made a short detour to storey Victorian houses, Llynˆ stretched away Penarth Fawr, where a tiny medieval house, into the distance. This was a place that had now used for weddings, stands in a tranquil kept us captivated for nearly a week. Now, spot surrounded by trees. looking back along the peninsula, I felt we’d Nearby, Llanystumdwy, the childhood only scratched the surface. home of , plays host to a museum dedicated to the only British Prime WE STAYED AT Minister to have spoken English as a second Ty-Newydd Farm Caravan and Camping Site, Uwchmynydd, LL53 8BY language. The museum includes Highgate ☎ 01758 760581 tynewyddfarm-site.co.uk  1 March – 31 October Cottage, which has been furnished to look £ Two adults, pitch and electric: From: £19 like it would have during the 1860s and 70s

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