Taking It Slowly
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North Wales 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 North Wales 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 castles guarding either side of the neck of the WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY: Vivienne Crow peninsula – Caernarfon and Criccieth. Most motorhomers will pass one of them as they head out to the Llyn.ˆ As we approached from the north, it was Caernarfon Castle 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, barbicans and large gatehouses. 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 Aberdaron considered it but, with the rain intensifying BELOW INSET The ruins of and the rest of Llynˆ calling, we pushed on. Criccieth Castle 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: Caernarfon Castle, Criccieth Castle, Lloyd George Museum and Highgate ................ £42 Total costs..................................................................................£267 44 outandaboutlive.co.uk June 2019 June 2019 outandaboutlive.co.uk 45 North Wales TRAVEL 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, Porthdinllaen 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 Nefyn 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 Llanfaglan, 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 the more 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 Aberraw 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 Llanberis sites of Wales, including the A castles at Criccieth and E Caernarfon S cadw.gov.wales H Rhyd-Ddu The National Trust has five S sites on the Llynˆ Peninsula I nationaltrust.org.uk/ IR Beddgelert days-out/regionwales/llyn For information about the town as well as Bardsey Island Morfa Nefyn A487 aberdaronlink.co.uk It means salt water pool in Criccieth English and is the unofficial capital of the Llynˆ pwllheli.org.uk Pwllheli Tourist Information Harlech Centre, The Library, Town Hall, Penlan Street, Pwllheli, Aberdaron Abersoch LL53 5DE Llanbedr ☎ 01758 612089 Porth Neigwl Uwchmynydd 46 outandaboutlive.co.uk June 2019 June 2019 outandaboutlive.co.uk 47 North Wales TRAVEL 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.