Monday 30 May 2022

Exploring :: North Wales #4 … Beddgelert

Hi there everyone 😀

On the Monday of our March break in North Wales we opted to have a change and head away from the coast ... to Beddgelert.

I seem to recall having visited a long, long time ago, but couldn't remember the place at all, though I can remember the legend of the faithful dog ...
"The story goes that in the thirteenth-century, Prince Llywelyn the Great had a palace at Beddgelert in Caernarvonshire, and as the Prince was a keen hunter, he spent much of his time in the surrounding countryside. He had many hunting dogs, but one day when he summoned them as usual with his horn, his favourite dog Gelert didn’t appear, so regretfully Llywelyn had to go hunting without him.

When Llywelyn returned from the hunt, he was greeted by Gelert who came bounding towards him …his jaws dripping with blood.

The Prince was appalled, and a horrible thought came into his mind …was the blood on the dog’s muzzle that of his one-year old son. His worst fears were realised when he saw in the child’s nursery, an upturned cradle, and walls spattered with blood! He searched for the child but there was no sign of him. Llywelyn was convinced that his favourite hound had killed his son.

Mad with grief he took his sword and plunged it into Gelert’s heart.

As the dog howled in his death agony, Llywelyn heard a child’s cry coming from underneath the upturned cradle. It was his son, unharmed!

Beside the child was an enormous wolf, dead, killed by the brave Gelert.

Llywelyn was struck with remorse and carried the body of his faithful dog outside the castle walls, and buried him where everyone could see the grave of this brave animal, and hear the story of his valiant fight with the wolf.

To this day, a cairn of stones marks the place, and the name Beddgelert means in Welsh ‘The grave of Gelert’. Every year thousands of people visit the grave of this brave dog; slight problem however, is that the cairn of stones is actually less than 200 years old!

Nevertheless this story has great appeal. History and myth appear to have become a little confused when in 1793, a man called David Pritchard came to live in Beddgelert. He was the landlord of the Royal Goat Inn and knew the story of the brave dog and adapted it to fit the village, and so benefit his trade at the inn."
It really is a beautiful village ... at the confluence of the Colwyn and Glaslyn rivers and surrounded by mountains ...


We wandered over the old stone bridge, had a mooch in a couple of gift shops, before following the Colwyn River ...
... to the point where it meets the Glaslyn, when we took a right to head towards 'brave Gelert's resting place' ...
Tourist legend or not ... it really is the most beautiful spot ... 

The path from Gelert's final resting place took us back to the river ... 

... which we followed until we reached the steam railway bridge, where we declared it time for a pitstop ...

... before we needed to cross the river to return to the village along the other side ...

We were so glad that we had decided to hang around here for a while as, quite by chance, we just happened to be in exactly the right spot at the right time ... 



As the railway hadn't actually started running for the season, we were all thrilled to have had such a close encounter with the old engine ... and in such a beautiful spot.

It was time to cross the river and start to head back towards the village ... 


Before too long we were back at the confluence of the two rivers ... 

... where we stopped to take pictures of the row of old stone cottages ... 

... before retracing out steps along the Colwyn and back to the car ... 
It was nearly time to head for home, but we couldn't leave without a quick look at the steam railway station ...



We were all shattered by now, with very achy knees, but we'd had such a lovely day. Beddgelert was a real treat and an absolutely beautiful spot ... if you're in the area and fancy a change from the beach, It's definitely worth a visit.

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Monday 23 May 2022

Exploring :: North Wales #3 … Nefyn & Criccieth

Hi there everyone 😃

It was Sunday and another glorious day and we decided to explore another new spot that we’d seen on the map but never been to before.

The beach at Nefyn can be found, along with a cafe, at the bottom of a narrow windy lane. We were lucky enough to find a parking spot and the tide was out, which meant we could walk along the beach to the small harbour area …
It was a lovely walk along the beach, which was still a bit soft in places as the tide was only just heading out … 

The harbour was a really interesting spot …




The only vehicular access to the houses by the harbour is along the beach, once the tide is low enough, though there is a footpath up the side of the cliffs at the back of the cottages.

There was plenty of blue sky and warm sunshine and we spent a while exploring the harbour and sitting in the sunshine …



Our second stop of the the day was at Criccieth, which was just lovely. We found a parking spot on the road on the east side of the castle …



... had a wander along the prom, heading towards the castle …


… and the lifeboat station …

We then jumped back in the car to head for the west side of the castle as I wanted to find the pretty coloured houses that I’d seen on line.

I wasn’t disappointed… they looked really vibrant in the sunshine …
The beach on this side of the castle was lovely and quiet …
... and we just walked as far as the castle and back again ...

It was time to head back to The Crossing, but we did drive through Llanystumdwy ... looking for the grave of Lloyd George, which we soon spotted ...
We'd had another lovely day ... exploring new places, with lots of blue sky and sunshine ... long may it continue 🌞🌞🌞

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Friday 20 May 2022

Exploring :: North Wales #2 … Trefor & Nant Gwrthyrn

Hi there everyone 😃

It was Saturday, the first full day of our week’s break with mum on the Llyn Peninsular. The weather forecast was great and we spent the day exploring a short stretch of the coast not too far from where we were staying.

We started off at the beach at Trefor, somewhere we’d never been to before. Although the skies were blue and there was plenty of sunshine it was windier than it looked and the car door was near whipped out of Martin’s hand as he opened it … good job we weren’t parked too close to the car next to us.

It was a beautiful spot … nothing there other than the natural beauty of the coast … 



… and a small pier …

Did I say it was deceptively windy?


From Trefor we decided to head to Nant Gwrthyrn … one of our favourite spots in the area. We particularly love the drive down, though it was sad to see so many of the old majestic trees on the way down had succumbed to the latest storms.

There is plenty of parking at the bottom … thank goodness … as it’s not somewhere we would ever be able to walk to. It really is worth a visit … the views are spectacular …
We started off with a walk round the old chapel, where you can find out more about the people who used to live and work in the old quarry, along with a bit of local legend …

At some point we will get to walk down to the beach but that was not for today …

After lunch sat outside of the café taking in the view we had a bit of a closer look at the old quarrymen’s cottages …


… before heading back to The Crossing where we whiled away an hour or so watching the birds feeding. We could have watched for hours … and in fact we did over the course of the week. We saw all sorts … woodpeckers, jays, nuthatches, robins, chaffinches, blue and great tits to name a few …

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