Lodge Life :: December 2025

Hi there everyone 😀

It seems an age since my last Lodge Life post, which was back in October last year. With our week in Yorkshire in November we didn’t manage a lodge visit … but we did get over for a few days early in December with mum and then headed back over after Christmas for a longer break to see in the New Year with Jackie and Phil. 

Whilst we weren’t there for long with mum we did manage to pack plenty in … starting with our visit to Attingham’s Christmas event on the way over …

This was followed swiftly by our visit to Penrhyn Castle for a further fill of pre-Christmas cheer …

… followed by a brisk walk on Bangor Pier … though I have to say we have braved it in much colder, wetter and windier weather … so this was a breeze …

We also managed our usual wander along the Criccieth seafront …

… where it was considerably windier …

… which made the warmth of Dylan’s for coffee a welcome treat …

Our walk on the beach the other side of the castle had mum staying in the car but Martin and I braved the weather for a very bracing wander …

That was pretty much all we did really. We’d stayed for just four nights but it had been really lovely to get back to our happy place.

It was the 28th when we got back over. We had a few days before Jackie and Phil joined us to celebrate the New Year.

We spent the day of New Year’s Eve walking around the Dorothea Quarry. Martin and I hadn’t done a full circuit before so we ended up being quite pleased with ourselves.

We parked in Talysarn and and headed along the track which took us towards the quarry …

We were walking clockwise around the quarry … and soon came to the old gates of Talysarn Hall …

There really is loads to see on this walk with lots of views of quarry pools …

… and lots of old building that are slowly being reclaimed by nature. It really is a fascinating place.

The track takes you up to the top of the main quarry …

… and then down past the spot where the diving school operates from.

This was as far as Martin and I had walked this way before so it was intriguing to find out what came next.

We ended up with a bit of conundrum when we found the path we had expected to be taking to be blocked off … as it was considered dangerous … so we weren’t quite sure of our options. I really did hope we weren’t going to have to retrace our steps.

Luckily a friendly dog walker made an appearance and was happy to show us the new route … which we probably wouldn’t have been confident in on our own as it seemed to be leading us away from where we needed to go.

Anyway we were soon on our way again and heading back towards the quarry … where we found a steep and narrow track that took us through lots of old slate piles and very close to the edge … it was a little hairy but good fun and made for a very interesting walk …

The track then carried on past lots more old buildings … which looked like workshops … before bringing us back to the old beam engine … which is where Martin and I had walked to before … but from the opposite direction …

This felt like a good place to stop for our lunch … which was flasks of hot soup, which were just the job.

From here it was just a short walk back up the hill to take us back to where we’d started …

Doing the full circuit made for a really nice and interesting walk … and one that I’m sure we will do again at a different time of year. We’d been really lucky with the weather though … whilst it had been cold it was certainly nice and bright … and no sign of any snow just yet 😜

It was time to head back to the lodge where we had a New Year’s Eve feast, escape rooms and fireworks on the TV on the cards … and I know it’s a bit late but …

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