Another year, another walk. Having scratched the surface in most of the UK (but by no means got even close to completing) decided to have another look at North Wales this year, and, why not the second highest mountain they have, Carnedd Llewelyn, which I believe means Llewelyn’s Cairn, and it stands a respectable 1,064m high.
Accommodation was rather tricky, no where near by had any room, so, by design rather than misreading a place name, we booked a fantastic place in Bangor. I was quite pleased to be going here as I’ve never been onto Anglesey, and Bangor has two bridges across so it ticked a few boxes for me. Anglesey is also home to the UK’s longest train station name, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch so was nice to see that.
We set off and had a steady run down to Bangor. It reminded me of going to Butlins at Pwllheli and going along the coast road. My brother was driving, and we had some good music on, so a very pleasant trip down.
We arrived at Bangor, and it looked deserted, the students had just left for the summer. The rain had just started, so we had a brief wander around, and found a cafe for a cup of tea.
We had planned a shorter walk on Anglesea for either the Friday or Sunday, but the rain was heavy and set in by now, so had a drive around Anglesey, tried to find Red Wharf Bay, which we did eventually, but it was far too wet, so drove a bit further, before calling at the train station, then Beaumaris castle, which was closed, but nice to have a look around the outside in the rain. The afternoon ended by skimming stones from the beach near Beaumaris.
After we found the B&B, which was a lovely place, unfortunately, the lady who ran it had been called into hospital for a knee replacement the day before, so was limping around on crutches but ever so helpful. The B&B was called Plas Trevor, and definitely worth a look if you want to stop in that area. We settled in, plotted a route for the next day then went to find something to eat, which coincidentally was my dad’s 62nd Birthday, so indulged in a few local brews. After this, we decided to walk across the bridge, just to say we had, and as we got to about the middle of it, a massive firework display started up on the hill, so we watched that, made our way across the bridge, then at the middle point coming back, the ISS shot by, under a 3 quarters moon.
The next day, it was much brighter, so we set off to the start. To say the start of the walk was steep is an understatement, I think we did nearly 800m of climbing in the first 2kms, it just kept going up and up. Finally reaching Carnedd Dafydd at about 1,044m, then having a dip down the ridge and making the final climb to the top. The views were spectacular, and it wasn’t too busy, a few people reached the summit whilst we were eating lunch. Then it was a quick fly of the Yorkshire Rose, and start to head back down.
When we were about half way down, we got to a goit and walked along it, until it petered out to nothing by a farm. The farmer was possibly clearly not happy we were in her yard, and where as usually, I’d be on the farmer’s side, and aren’t one of these right to roam trouble causers, footpath signs had been either left to disintegrate, or deliberately moved, so you can’t have it both ways. Begrudgingly, she allowed us to walk down her track. The it was a few more miles over fields until we reached the road, and back along that to the car. I think the whole walk was around 14 miles, and after the initial ascent, wasn’t too strenuous!
The Sunday, we had breakfast and packed up, then headed for the Great Orme near Llandudno, which was a very pleasant area, beautiful views out to sea, the weather had brightened up even more, although there was a bracing wind. We got up onto the top, then did a lap around the whole thing, stopping for a cup of tea mid way obviously. Saw a great church on the other side of the Orme, I’m not religious at all, but there was a balance of the old Celtic symbols, the traditional Christian ones, and also of nature. I quite liked it. The sky was starting to darken at this point, so it was a dash back to the car, then a steady drive back and another great walking weekend ticked off. I believe this one was the tenth anniversary for weekend walks for the three of us, and I hope this tradition carries on for years to come! Next year is potentially another Spanish climb, but nothing has been finalised
