Around the edge of Wales (22) ….Penrhyndeudraeth to Pistyll
The Llŷn Peninsula has a beautiful coastline but the current
coast path route doesn’t allow you to get too close to it in many areas. Having
studied the maps and seen how much of the path follows tracks and roads I
decide to cycle the peninsula and switch to walking on the north coast.
Early morning near the toll bridge in Penrhyndeudraeth and
the tide is out. Ynys Gifftan squats in bright sun, Portmeirion village is just
about visible in the distance, and I begin to cycle westwards. Now that the
Porthmadog bypass is open the old road into Porthmadog town is much quieter and
a roadside pavement, combined with an excellent cycle track alongside the Cob
provides a traffic free route all the way from Penrhyndeudraeth. The view from
the Cob across the Glaslyn estuary towards Cnicht and Snowdon is one of the
most stunning in Wales. Could anyone ever tire of it? Fortunately, the careful design of the new
bypass – which sits low in the landscape and is devoid of vertical structures
such as lights - hasn’t detracted from
this picturesque and dramatic panorama.
The recent improvements to the road to Morfa Bychan also
meant an easy freewheel down from the turn to Borth y Gest, along a smooth
tarmac surface. The road through the village and out to the beach took me past
a duneland Site of Special Scientific and I was reminded of the case at work,
about 12 years ago, to save it from being covered in holiday chalets as a
result of developers’ enthusiasm to implement a historic planning consent
granted some decades previously. It had been a bête noir of a case back then
and had sparked a massive protest by the Welsh language movement. It was still
contentious 12 years ago but the effort to save the site from development had
paid off – although I wasn’t sure if there had been some further encroachment
of caravans since then.
Back towards the main Porthmadog-Cricieth road the route took me over a hill from where, at
one point, you can see both Cricieth and Harlech castles at the same time. A
pavement runs alongside the main road all the way to Cricieth, which was a
relief although the road was virtually empty at this early hour. My only company on the seafront at Cricieth
was a council worker emptying the bins. A beam of sun hung over the Dwyryd
estuary but the day hadn’t yet woken up
properly. A westerly wind chilled the air and slowed my journey as I travelled
towards Pwllheli along the pavement cycle route created as part of the recent
road improvements. The coastal wetland at Abererch looked attractive –
unfortunately not an easily accessible area.
I was glad to stop for a coffee and toast at Pwllheli and
was surprised to find a new Costa coffee house in the town. Did the place
really need one? I decided to use one of
the other small, local coffee shops instead.
A gentle ride along the sinuous promenade pavement took me out to the
edge of town, heading towards Llanbedrog. Some new houses were being built on
the dune edge – yet more steel and glass balconies! Having passed some
depressingly bland new houses being built ‘for the future’ at Llanbedrog I was glad to climb up to Mynydd Tir y Cwmwd.
A stunning heather headland with
brilliant views in all directions.
Abersoch was busy – full of shorts and flip-flops, lots of white and turquoise
and all-terrain prams. Not a place to stop for long and I rattled quickly over
the rough track through the golf course
to escape from the place. The
climb up to Machros and Bwlchtocyn at the other end was steep. Plenty of time
to remember the case of the landowner who tipped rubble over the edge of the
cliff about 12 years go – another difficult and testing piece of work that I
inherited when I moved to north Wales to work. Bwlchtocyn was sunny and warm. A bright little
place, brilliant white houses and fuschia bushes. Onwards I went to Llanengan with its
strangely designed village hall and its huge chimney stack that would have been
associated with some local industry in the past – brick perhaps? Down then to
Hell’s Mouth, the only place in Wales now where the rare Welsh bee can be
found. I spent a bit of time looking for
the creature near the patches of trefoil behind the beach and found a couple
busily flying in and out of their nest holes in the sand. Back inland the route
across the vast area of low lying land behind Porth Neigwl is rather
uninspiring. The fields are large and improved and the verges were solid masses
of dropwort. Dark humming clouds of flies kept on rising from the flowers as I wheeled
by, whizzing madly around my head and crashing into my face. It was good to get to the main road and turn
towards Rhiw.
The last time I’d visited this part of the peninsula was
when I was dealing with a road improvement scheme on the far side of Hell’s
Mouth, when the cliff edge road past Treheli was beginning to show signs of
rapid erosion and collapse. People were agitated about the proposal to carve a
new route across the hill – it would mean cutting a swathe through one of the
few areas of woodland on this far western end of the peninsula, and through the
National Trust ‘Plas yn Rhiw property. I remember the son of the poet
R.S.Thomas writing in protest from Japan – the proposed route would also cut
across the slope above his parents’ cottage which he still owned. Local people were increasingly frustrated at
the prospect of delay which could mean them having to undertake massive detours
to carry on with their normal daily lives. It was a sensitive piece of work and
emotions were running high. We spent a long time discussing options and the
fine detail of the final design to try and ensure the road would avoid damaging habitats, would blend
with the landscape and retain the feel of a small country road –Gwynedd
Council, the National Trust and myself for the Countryside Council. I was
intrigued to see how the scheme had worked
out as I’d changed jobs just before work started on the scheme. I was so impressed. The Local Authority
should have won some kind of rural design award for this project. It wasn’t
until I noticed the old road below that I realised I was on the new one. The narrower than usual carriageway, the lack
of markings and lights, the stone walls and roadside trees were all as we’d
planned and it looked good.
The climb up to Rhiw village from the National Trust
entrance to Plas yn Rhiw is uncomfortably steep. Local farmers in their little
Kubotas were whizzing up and down but no one else was cycling or walking this slope!
The views from here are stupendous though – over the Llŷn peninsula and towards
Snowdonia. It was worth the walk to have the time to take it in. tiny
‘Cragen-Llŷn’
banners had been stapled to telegraph poles, drawing attention to the local
protest group that has just been set up to oppose the Welsh Government’s
proposal to designate a Highly Protected Marine Zone around the western end of
the Llŷn
peninsula.
On the long, 3 mile descent from Rhiw to Aberdaron I stopped at Blawdty farm,
at the side of the road, to photograph one of the old outbuildings that has
been partly constructed out of a mixture of clay, straw and other materials. it
must be one of the few clay buildings left on Llŷn. I stopped at the Ship in
Aberdaron and chatted outside to holiday
makers for a good hour or two. Most of
them had been coming here for years and knew the area very well. I learnt that
Rolf Harris was in the area filming a programme, though nobody seemed to know what it was about, and that the tiny
HSBC building on the sea front was on sale for £half a million!
