Keep it Lleyn

Caernarfon to Nefyn

The last stage of the Welsh coastal walk took me to Bangor, and, as I have already walked from Bangor to Caernarfon, I am skipping that bit this time, and resuming at Caernarfon Castle.

Somewhere between Bangor and Caernarfon, an invisible barrier has been crossed. I don't wish to take away the Welshness of Llandudno and other such places along the North Wales coast, but on arriving in Caernarfon, and all the more so when heading West down the Lleyn Peninsula, and also when crossing onto Anglesey, it is noticeable that the mother tongue of North West Wales is Welsh. Indeed, through my 4 days on the Peninsula, I could tell immediately who was a local and who was a holidaymaker – the locals spoke to each other in Welsh, the visitors in English. There was nothing rude or un-natural about that, it was simply people speaking to each other in their own tongues. I did try to practice my Welsh as much as possible – with some success, but I also need to improve it if I am going to get anywhere with it. Anyway, that's for another day.

How do you pronounce this peninsula I am walking? It's the Lleyn Peninsula – think “Clean” but with spit !

The knack at the start is to get the right bridge across the Seiont. It's only a small river, but it's still important. I worked out that I needed to find a footbridge just round the back of Caernarfon Castle. Miss it and it wouldn't be the end of the world, but you could easily find yourself doing a couple of extra miles. Before making the start of the trek down the north side of the Lleyn peninsula, I paused to take in the scene. There's history and culture all around, and it would have been a shame to miss it in a rush to head off. Caernarfon Castle, with it's long history and historic association with the Princes of Wales is on the right, the Island of Anglesey is ahead across the Menai Straits, and to the left is the start of the road that will lead round the coast – after a fashion !

Broadly speaking, the route I have been trying to follow is the Ancient Pilgrim's Way walk to Bardsey Island. Why the route should choose the north side of the Peninsula when the southern side is flatter, has more beaches and is generally a sight easier to walk is one of life's eternal mysteries, as is why the official walk for day is only 6 miles long and leads inland to the village of Penygroes.

Well, I've nothing against the village – I have been there a couple of times, and very pleasant it is too, but it's not exactly a coastal walk. So, following the road that leads away from Caernarfon, I followed the trail through the village of Saron before heading away from the trail to divert to Llandwrog and make progress to Nefyn.

Perhaps at this stage a word about Welsh chapels, their name, their village name, and what they are saying today. Many Welsh villages have Biblical sounding names, Saron, Bethesda, Horeb, there's even a Bethlehem. Apparently, in some of these small villages, the village was named after the chapel. It would have been the centre of village life, things would have revolved around that, and people for miles around would have known that, How things have changed.

In this day and age where churches and chapels have closed and are closing, a casual glance does not always tell you whether or not the chapel is open today. If there's no notice board, does that mean the place is closed? Perhaps. It certainly makes it look closed. If there is a service there on a Sunday, at what time? No information for visitors is not good for mission. A couple of notice-boards I passed later on the walk did display posters, one showing when the one service a month would be (one service a month? What's that about, and what do people do the other 3 weeks?) and one, which I only managed a quick glance at, but there were posters which I recognised as coming from the Presbyterian Church of Wales, so that did at least tell me which denomination the chapel belonged to. Had I looked closer, I might have been able to find out more, but it was enough to tell me that something was happening there.

For the next stage of the walk, progress is considerably easier these days than it has perhaps ever been. That is because of a very good foot and cycle path along the main road. I have mentioned before how much I dislike walking along main roads - other than locally – but given the distance needed to travel today, it was necessary in order to make progress. To be fair, there are times when the path does divert away from the road slightly, but, for the most part, if follows the road from just after Llandwrog, going through Pontllyfni, Aberdysach and Clynnog Fawr before it is necessary to divert towards the village of Trefor and back to the coast.

Heading towards Trefor is not a problem – but what happens after that is guaranteed to take your breath away. It involves the steepest section of the Lleyn Peninsula walk, perhaps even the steepest section of the entire Welsh coastal walk. The path goes dash close to the summit of Bwlch yr Eifl and involves a steep ascent, an ascent on which I was worried. Not only was I warm to begin with (it was a glorious, hot day), but as the climb progressed, I found myself dripping with sweat (not good, so very not good), very thankful that I had my phone and plenty of water with me, and part way up I slipped and hit my leg against a stone. It looked as if it was going to come up in a large bump, but thankfully a quick application of anti-septic cream means that there is a nasty mark there, and it hurt for a good few minutes, but it could have been a lot worse.

In stopping to take a breath, as one needs to, there are some marvellous views to be had. Not only does Caernarfon Bay offer a magnificent sweep behind you, but from the path at the other side of the hill, there are good views of both the north and the south coast of the Lleyn Peninsula, and for the next couple of miles, the path stays high up, offering spectacular views, but it levels out, allowing one to get their breath back. Looking beyond the southern coast, there were views of the Ceredigion coast. I have seen the Lleyn Peninsula on the horizon from Aberystwyth many times over the years – it was nice to look towards Aberystwyth, recall those long-gone days and enjoy the view from the opposite direction.

With such clear views, it is hard to lose your bearings. However, my phone was lost. By that I don't mean that I had lost it, but that it thought it was in another country. Up in the wilds of West Wales, signals are patchy, but all the same, I was very surprised to receive a text reading “ Welcome to Ireland.” I refused to pay roaming charges when I was in Wales, so I decided that any mobile use would be strictly for emergencies only.

At this stage, I looked right towards the north coast and realised that this is a place where I could be doing to spend a week – the Welsh language learning centre at Nant Gwrtheyrn. As I found out 21 years ago, Welsh by full immersion is by far the best way to learn.

Walking up the hill was slow, hard, hot work, and I realised that I was not going to make it to Morfa Nefyn today. That did not matter, Nefyn is the official finish point for today, but as tomorrow is the longest day of the walk, a couple of extra miles start would have helped. From the hills, the road drops down to Llithfaen, where a minor road leads the final 3 miles through Pistyll to Nefyn and journey's end for day 1.