Lleyn Peninsula Coastal Path, Part 1

From Caernarfon to Llangwnadl

After a night at a comfortable B&B inside the town walls of Caernarfon, we turned left and walked out through a gate in the wall:

We put the camera on a post and took a picture of ourselves on the bridge that leads away from Caernarfon Castle. As we walked beside the Menai Strait we could see in the distance Yr Eifl, the mountain that we would be crossing the next day.

We soon saw the church of Llanfaglan up in a field on our left. It's in an evocatively isolated spot, set in a walled enclosure. It's cared for now by a group called "the Friends of Friendless Churches."

We looked around it for a good while. A nearby farmer had told us to look for a pirate's grave. We searched, not finding it, but then read later that the story about a pirate's grave is false. All the same, we very much enjoyed the church and its setting.

We then set off inland, over stiles and through often muddy fields. After a couple of miles, we came to Dinas Station on the Welsh Highland Railway. This railway was closed in 1930 and is being rebuilt now; it will run steam trains from Caernarfon to Porthmadog.

Through the afternoon we trudged through many more fields, occasionally having to backtrack, frequently stopping to ponder the map and compass. Often the kissing gates were too tight a squeeze for Thann and his pack, so he would have to take it off.

Many miles and hours later we were back at the coast and on our first (of many) beaches.

Later yet we almost accidentally found a cromlech, or megalithic burial chamber. We had stopped to check the map, and just happened to look in the field beside us. We saw what looked to be a cromlech, or dolmen, and walked over to it. It was indeed a very proper and pleasing cromlech -- and in fact we then saw that it was marked on our map.

A mile or so later we came to our stopping place, and our weary feet were relieved to stop walking, after this 16-mile first day. Fortunately, we could eat dinner where we were staying, at the Bryn Eisteddfod.

We were in Clynnog Fawr, and the next morning we set off to visit its church, St Beuno's. Saint Beuno founded a monastery here in the 7th century. It was burned down by the Vikings in 978, rebuilt, and then burned down again by the Normans. The churches here were a gathering place for pilgrims on their way to Bardsey Island, or Ynys Enlli, off the tip of the peninsula. It was said that three pilgrimages to Bardsey were equivalent to one to Rome. The church was unfortunately closed when we tried to visit it, but we saw the early (possibly 10th century) sundial beside the church, and enjoyed walking around. From the church we could see clearly our first objective of the day, the hill called Bwlch Mawr.

As we started up Bwlch Mawr, we could see to the southwest Yr Eifl, which we would be crossing later in the day:

While catching our breath, we would sometimes turn and look back at the coast:

Half an hour later, after the hillside leveled out, we were relieved when we caught sight of our next objective, a wall half a mile ahead:

It was slow going through the marshy ground, but we were happy to be heading toward the wall corner that showed on our map.

After yet another half an hour we were finally beside the wall. We walked up alongside it, and when we turned to look back, we saw a hut circle on the hillside to our right. It's at the right of the photo; below is a zoomed version.

At the top we turned right and wound our way through deserted farmland, still heading toward the peaks of Yr Eifl.

We went back down almost to sea level, climbed up over the pass on Yr Eifl, walked down the other side while looking longingly at the valley of Nant Gwrtheyrn which we had hoped to visit, and five hours later came to the church at Pistyll. Pistyll is another church where pilgrims used to stay on their way to Ynys Enlli. It still has a lepers' window, as well as a medieval herb garden. But since the sun was setting and we had several miles to go, we had to put this church, along with Nant Gwrtheyrn, on our "see on a later trip" list.

We walked through Nevyn. Its church, also a pilgrim church, is now a maritime museum with a ship on top its tower!

Finally, again with sore feet and aching muscles, we arrived in Morfa Nevyn for the night. We were too tired even to walk to a pub for dinner!

The next morning started with several very enjoyable hours on the spit of land sticking out to the west of Morfa Nefyn. There's a harbor at the end of a wide bay, the hamlet of Porthdinllaen on the beach, and a long golf course up above. We started walking beside the golf course, planning to drop down to the beach and the hamlet.

We found a path and slipped and slid down the sand, down to the beach. We came to the Ty Coch Pub, a well-known pub with a webcam which we had been looking at while at home. (Ty means house; coch means red.)

We enjoyed seeing the view of Yr Eifl that we had looked at so many times on the Ty Coch webcam. The house at the left of the photo was on the next part of our route, as we followed a path around the edge of the coast.

We enjoyed our walk around the coast path, and then eventually were forced back up to the golf course.

We found a path around the tops of the cliffs,

and were careful to avoid the steepest bits of the path, by scrambling uphill at times.

We finally arrived back at the main coastline, at a stile at the top of a drop down to a cove.

This turned out to be the pattern for the rest of the day.

		The section after this cove is apparently falling into the sea. When we got down to the sign, we saw that they had kindly provided a map on the post. We were diverted inland for a mile or so.

This next cove looked like an interesting crossing.

But this other one a bit later looked trickier, with slippery, wet rocks and fast water. Thann crossed and waited for me:

The path is unfortunately in constant need of upkeep, as parts of it fall into the sea:

And another section, which seems to have supported Thann, at least:

In the late afternoon we came to a sandy beach, Traeth Penllech.

At the far end of the beach we turned inland to get to the farm where we were to spend the night. It was several miles of walking on small roads, and we passed another pilgrim church on the way. Llangwnadl Church was an important stop on the pilgrim route, and was enlarged during the Middle Ages from its original rectangular shape.

We reached the farm about 6:30, and Gwladys Thomas had dinner ready for us. What luxury!