Date walked: 6th April 2014

Distance walked: about 9 miles

Cumulative total of miles walked along The Wales Coast Path: 556

The official website of the Wales Coast path is http://www.walescoastpath.gov.uk/default.aspx

OS map required:  OL 18 – Harlech, Porthmadog & Bala

I get all my maps from Dash4it. They are well discounted, and delivery is free and fast.

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According to the Cicerone Guide – “The Ceredigion and Snowdonia Coast Paths”, the village of Maentwog stands on the line of the Roman road of Sarn Helen, Twrog was a British saint of the 5th century and the village developed to its present size on the back of the nearby slate quarries.

I had stayed last night at Bryn Maen Bed and Breakfast in the village an excellent place and I had had a good breakfast. My friend Paul was joining me for the day’s walk and he had very kindly offered to drive me back to my car afterwards, which I had left at Aberdovey 5 days ago. So I felt rather bad that since he had come all the way from near Swansea I couldn’t lay on better weather. It was raining. We kitted up and set off  at our usual brisk pace.

We stopped at the end of the village where the listed The Old Rectory boasted a new looking pair of gates that are a near copy of those designed by Clough Williams-Ellis at nearby Plas Brondanw. (Sadly this very special garden has had the magic of the place diminished  in my opinion by it’s recent “restoration” and by commercialisation but it is still worth visiting).

Gates of Clough Williams Ellis' design at The Old Rectory, Maentwrog, photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

This requires some further investigation

I had seen these yesterday and the rather brusque owner could not enlighten me as to their origin or if  Williams-Ellis had any connection to this building. The wikipedia  entry listing all known Clough Williams-Ellis’s work does not mention this house.  The Trust looking after the affairs at Plas Bondanw are aware of the gates but were none the wiser.

We followed the A487 over the river Dwyryd and round the corner where a sign directed us (we thought) into the Tan-y-Bwlch estate.  Whether it was the fault of the signing or our inattention but we arrived at the house and could not see how we were intended to proceed. As you will have guessed, I was reluctant to go back down the long drive so despite a sign saying that the woodland walk was closed we decided to try it anyway.  We found ourselves walking in the wrong direction but we pressed on, coming after a while to the Plas Halt station, belonging to the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway.

We still were not confident of our route and I suggested that we might walk along the railway track. Paul gently pointed out that we would probably meet a train coming the other way, so we took a path instead that went in the right direction but climbed above the line.  A little while later Paul was proved right as we heard the sound of the steam locomotive and glimpsed it through the trees.

Train on the Ffestiniog railway near Plas Tan-y-Bwlch, photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

I should have given you a little video clip

We emerged from the wood at a wide track where we were reassured to see the Wales Coast Path way-mark badge attached to a post, showing us how we should have approached this point. (which would have involved passing Llyn Mair – an artificial lake created in 1886 as a birthday present for the daughter of the owner of Plas Tan- y – Bwlch).

Woodland about Plas Tan--y-Bwlch, photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

Paul understands that if we went wrong its his fault for talking so much

Undeterred by our lost view of the lake, we managed we get ourselves off the official path again very quickly finding a little reservoir in compensation.

Reservoir near Plas Tan y Bwlch photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

Hardly as impressive as Llyn Mair, for which Paul apologizes

 We continued our uncertain way along a reassuringly well walked path that was going in the right general direction……

Walking the wales Coast Path near the Ffestiniog railway, photographed by Charles Hawes

It is a jolly nice path even if (thanks to Paul) it’s not the WCP

……until we saw the embankment of the railway line high above us.

Ffestinion railway embankment near Penlan, photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

Credit where it is due:it was Paul that realised that we must be looking at the railway embankment

We left the woods a little further on, re-encountering a WCP way-mark and passing through a farm where we had our first sheep encounter of the day.

Sheep in field near Penlan, photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

John now understands the significance of liking sheep

We stopped  for a hot drink –  prematurely it seemed as we missed the opportunity a little further on of taking advantage of a bench with a fine view, albeit under very threatening skies.

View from near Penlan, photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

We wouldn’t have wanted to sit there long in the rain

The path meets the A4085 and then drops down through Penlan, (where Paul had had a nice holiday but which I thought pretty drab, but then it was still raining). As we came into Penrhyndeudraeth we passed a chapel, the railings painted in Plas Brondanw’s turquoise…..

Chapel in Penrhyndeudraeth photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

I searched around but couldn’t work out what the name of this one was; interesting about more use of the CWE turquoise, though

………… before reaching the cross roads with the A487 .

The Griffin at Penrhyndeudraeth photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

So that’s the road closure that led to the detour around Maentwrog

This village doesn’t appear to have a lot going for it on the best of days; on a wet one it was a bit depressing to trudge through it beside the busy A487 in the rain.  (The Cicerone Guide – “The Ceredigion and Snowdonia Coast Paths” offers an alternative route to avoid this road walking section which sounds preferable to me, so I am not sure why Natural Resources Wales did not adopt it for the “official” route – inquiries will be made). We did pause to admire the splendid gravestones in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, many of them decorated with a stylized tree which we failed to identify from our combined bible knowledge.

Headstone in churchyard in Penrhyndeudraeth, photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

Lovely slate headstone sad about little Henry

At a chemists a bunch of  wilted flowers on the doorstep made us think it rather bad luck that the deceased didn’t make it inside, where they might have been treated or resuscitated or given a seat or something. Perhaps it was closed.

Chemist in Penrhyndeudraeth, photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

Someone needs to remove these flowers when they get to the depressing stage (not very long)

 A little further on we passed this adventurous front garden.

Front garden in Penrhyndeudraeth, photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

Proving beyond doubt that Monty Don is right about us being a nation of garden lovers

After a mile on the road we were directed off the road into the entrance of the Portmeirion estate. The path takes you round the back of the village, giving us a few glimpses through the chain link fence of the place (Paul was all for climbing over for a coffee but I restrained him) before passing a rather ramshackle farm.

Farm near Porthmadog, photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

Actually this is pretty tidy by most farm standards

We’d gained a little height so although it was pretty misty we had a good view out to Porthmadog.

View to Porthmadog and The Cob from The Wales Coast Path, photographed by Charles Hawes

Yep, I think its still raining

The best view of the day, though, was just a little further on as we dropped down the hill to see the swirling pattern of the salt marshes below.

Marshland by The Cob, Porthmadog, photographed from The Wales Coast Path by Charles Hawes

Nature at its best making wonderful patterns

We arrived at the A487, again, which now shares a a crossing across the edge of the estuary with the Ffestiniog Railway line, just as a train was pulling out from Boston Lodge Halt.

The Ffestioniog railway, leaving Boston Halt station, photographed by Paul Steer

Paul’s pic here is better than mine.

Another mile beside the road/railway on a raised embankment called The Cob brought us the the rather wet but bustling town of Porthmadog. The very helpful lady in the Tourist information office printed off a bus time table for us to get back to Maentwrog. We had a hour to kill and browsed the high street for a cafe, Paul chiding me for being very particular about choosing the right place (I’m with his wife on this one). We chose “Big Rock” .

Big Rock Cafe, Porthamadog, photographed by Charles Hawes

I took this on my return visit

The wonderful range of breads in the window was enough to persuade us in. It was difficult to choose between all the scrummy looking things on the counter and on the surrounding shelves and I must apologize for not remembering what we had for our main bit but afterwards I had the most delicious Churros and chocolate sauce.

Big Rock cafe, Pothmadog, photographed by Charles Hawes

Paul’s not especially good pic of the cafe, but he didn’t want to get up from his chair

It was great to be sitting there in the warm and dry, and good to get out of my walking gear and even better to think that in a months time I was going to be back to walk another stretch of the path and that I would start here at this most excellent of places.

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