travel
Gwynedd Coast Path, day 16
We knew today’s trip wouldn’t be a popular choice – it’s just the two of us again. The stretch from Trefor to Dinas Dinlle mainly follows the course of the busy A499 and must count as one of the Wales Coast Path planners’ biggest failures. Presumably they were unable to engineer or negotiate either a […]
Gwynedd Coast Path, day 13
Finding the way to Tywyn in our two cars isn’t easy. Turning off the road to Tudweiliog we miss a minor road to the right. We realise the mistake and trying to correct it, but go wrong again and end up on a narrow farm track behind an alarmed family of ducks. Retracing our steps, […]
Gwynedd Coast Path, day 12
We’ve stayed in cottages, houses and old chapels in previous walking weeks, but never in a penthouse. But here we are, in The Penthouse, in a building that’s part of the sea front at Pwllheli. It’s a replacement for the old West End Hotel, built by Solomon Andrews, the original developer of the grand seafront […]
R. M. Lockley, coastwalking pioneer
Preparing for a talk about coastwalking in Plas Brondanw in a week or two I’ve been thinking about the origins of the practice of walking around the coast of a country, and specifically Wales. When, I wondered, did coastwalking start to become a conscious mode of walking for travellers and tourists? Rebecca Solnit, in her […]
Staples RIP
Glancing across Parc Tawe after finishing the food shopping the other day I saw a shocking sight. Staples was no longer there. It took a while for the eye to confirm that it really had disappeared, and a while longer for the brain to absorb the meaning of the disappearance. The truth was that some […]
North Wales Coast Path, day 7
We’re quite a crowd, today, six of us. Enough to cause anxiety, with our clompy boots and bulky rucksacks, to anyone encountering us on the Coast Path. As well as M we have two other guestwalkers, Ca, and M-A, who’s waiting for us at Conwy station. A misunderstanding in the café nearby gives us one […]
North Wales Coast Path, day 5
In sunny Flint C and I make for a recommended café in Church Street, Yr Hen Lys. It deserves the praise. The coffee is good and the bara brith even better. Back over the railway line, we make for the castle, only glimpsed the day before. A silhouette sculpture – Flintshire has dozens of them, […]
North Wales Coast Path, day 4
Today is industry day. We’re back in Talacre, after a pair of slow bus rides, and plan to reach Flint. It’s even colder this morning – it sleets for a time later – and we’re dressed as if for the Norwegian Arctic. This time we do call in at Lola and Suggs for a coffee. […]
North Wales Coast Path, day 2
I’ve always had a soft spot for Llandudno, despite its pretensions and its appeal to royalty, domestic and foreign. It has many attractions: the languid curve of its bay bookended by the two Ormes, its numerous coffee shops, its graceful shopping arcades, its pride in whitewashed tidiness, the splendour of the Mostyn Art Gallery, the […]
North Wales Coast Path, day 1
Caravans and coasts go together like Morecambe and Wise. It’s seldom that we walk a day on the Wales Coast Path without seeing at least a few caravans. But the coastal strip between Pensarn and Rhyl, our gentle afternoon introduction to the north Wales coast, is so caravan-saturated that, on the top of a double-decker […]
