Round the Island

May 2025

Sadly my time in this wonderful country was nearly at an end. Yesterday I successfully completed my walk around Barbados. When I planned this trip I expected it to be around 4 full days of walking. In the end it was 6 full days. This was partly because of issues with buses and also that I had to walk at a slower pace than expected in the heat.

However that was a minor issue. I had loved exploring a new country that has a coastline quite different from the UK, with white sand beaches, palm trees and wonderful turquoise sea. It was also fun to find it was also familiar in other ways, most notably the place names, but also things like red telephone boxes and the fact the language is English.

I had really enjoyed my time here and very glad I came. So much so I was already thinking seriously about a return to the Caribbean next year (2026), although probably to explore a different country, as I had now seen all the coast of Barbados.

Anyway this morning I had to check out of the hotel by 11am. I made an early start as I had every day, to try and minimize the time difference, since I was room only and not dependant on waiting for breakfast I tended to go to bed earlier than at home and get up earlier.

So I wandered west along the coast to some souvenir shops where I got a few souvenirs and then enjoyed walking back slowly on the glorious white sand beaches again. I will miss them!

I liked this photo in particular, Barbados 2025 is on a sign attached to the tree. A nice ending.

Anyway I then headed back to the hotel to check out. I was able to leave my suitcase at reception and headed to Worthing Beach for about an hour. But then it was time to return and make my way to the airport.

This was an expensive trip for me. I was on a tight budget. So I had allowed plenty of time to get to the airport in case plan A didn’t work out. I planned to take the bus to the airport, rather than fork out for a taxi or the expensive transfer BA offered. So I collected my suitcase and headed to the bus stop. Almost immediately one of the ZR mini buses pulled up and asked if I was going to the airport. I was pleased about that as I think it is a bit frowned upon to use the buses with heavy luggage. I confirmed he had no problem taking me and my suitcase, so that was a good result.

The bus never filled up anyway but when we got to the airport I volunteered to pay double the usual fare since I’d taken up the space of two people with my suitcase. The driver was grateful and I was grateful because I had got here safely and at far lower cost than if I booked a taxi!

I had allowed time in case the buses didn’t let me on and I had to organise a taxi. Since they had allowed me and I’d had to wait only about 30 seconds I had now arrived early. In fact the check in desk wasn’t even open yet, so I headed to the “Chefette” to get some lunch (this seem to be a Barbados chain of fast food restaurants) and sat outside to eat it. By now the British Airways checkin was open. I had already checked in on line but needed to drop my suitcase off.

Rather oddly, at the airport here the check in desks are outside (but under a roof). This means with all the traffic behind (they love to beep the horn in Barbados), it is hard to hear what the staff were saying at times. But once that was negotiated I headed inside and had no trouble getting through security and into the departure lounge.

The airport was quite busy and only parts of it were air conditioned, but I found somewhere to sit by the window and soon saw a familiar sight. A British Airways plane arriving, that would be taking me home.

Well at least it was on time. This time I had an aisle seat next to a couple and it was an overnight flight. I was not looking forward to it, but that is the only option available.

We were soon getting on board. As on the way here to be honest I was pretty impressed with the service. A snack and drink when you get on, a main meal and later a warm snack as we near the UK, as well as regular drink service and plenty to watch on the in-flight entertainment screens. It left on time and arrived early. As expected I got very little sleep, probably only about 20 minutes as I was in the cheapest seats at the back (Economy, or World Traveller, as British Airways call it) so it was cramped.

Fortunately at Heathrow, I didn’t have to wait long for my suitcase and headed outside to catch the coach back to my local station. Rather than walk home with a suitcase I opted to wait for the bus, but since this was early on a Sunday morning I was about 20 minutes before the first bus, but waited it out to save the walk.

When I got home, I went to sleep for a few hours and got up mid-afternoon, then went to bed earlier than usual in the evening. I slept through to my alarm in the morning and this seemed to largely resolve any jet-lag issues, as I was due to work again the next day, Monday so was glad to not be suffering too much.

I considered the trip to be vey successful and had a wonderful time walking the coast of Barbados. It was a beautiful coast line and I will remember those wonderful beaches for a long time. Hopefully I will go back in future.

May 2025

Today was my last full day in Barbados so I was hoping to complete my walk around the coast of the country. As I’ve had so many problems with buses I decided to start from Worthing since that is where I was staying and doesn’t need me to use any buses to start the day. I crossed the road and first headed down to the beach.

This is a nice beach when the tide is low, but it must be high tide because the waves are reaching the back walls of the houses this morning (this does make me wonder what it must be like in storms and whether those houses flood).

As the tide prevented me getting further along the beach I headed back to the Worthing Main Road then took the access to the next beach. I am not 100% sure what this is called, Openstreetmap just calls it Sandy Beach. Well it’s certainly that.

A few small boats were moored just off shore.

The beach is reasonably long, so I can walk along it for a while. There are storm clouds just off the shore, but I only get a few drops – it just missed me.

At the end of the beach there is a path that takes me back to the Worthing Main Road which here is just beside the coast. I only have to follow this a short distance and I can turn off on the more minor St Lawrence Gap road.

This and Ostins, a little further to the east are I think the main areas of nightlife on the island, at least outside of Bridgetown. I pass a part with some enticing special offers!

Beyond the bars is soon another fine beach, Dover beach. It’s a bit better than the Dover beach I know of in the UK!

I love how the trees just grow out of the sand here (there are many beaches in Barbados like this).

At the end of the beach I have to briefly rejoin the road (Dover Road), to get to the next beach, which again is un-named on the map.

I peer round the wall back to where I’ve come from. If the tide was just a bit lower I could have walked along the beach.

I thought the tide was high enough I can’t get around the corner to the next beach. But if I take my shoes off, well it’s no problem!

This brings me to the next beach, Maxwell Beach. This has a very large Sandals resort behind it, with lines of sun loungers on the beach but as often seems to be the case at this time of year, there aren’t many takers.

The yellow tower is a coast guard lookout.

At the end of the beach I briefly have to head back to the road (Maxwell Coast Road) and then reach the next beach. This is called Sea Breeze Beach. I bet it took someone a long time to come up with that name!

I have to head back to the road at the end then follow it (Welches Road) to the next beach, Susan’s Beach. Well I’m sorry Susan, but there are much better beaches on the island than this!

So let’s move on past this one to the next beach, Welches Bay.

That’s better!

This is a lovely beach and it stretches for at least half a mile. It ends at the Ostins fishmarket. Despite the name this is one of the main places to be of an evening where there is a stage and music. It is quiet at this time of day though. Beyond is a small beach with the Ostins bus terminus behind. I think it’s called Fish market beach whilst the pier behind is attached to the fish market (presumably where the boats laden with fish arrive).

It’s a nice beach, but there are better too.

Beyond this is a small beach with some food stalls behind it. I think it is called Enterprise Beach, the enterprise presumably being the food stalls.

Again the yellow tower is used by lifeguards I believe. Around the corner is Miami Beach. I’ve never been to Miami, but I am pretty sure it doesn’t look like this!

It is another lovely beach.  At the end I head up onto Enterprise Beach Road and follow the grass in front of the road, along the low cliffs.

There aren’t many beaches ahead now. The road runs along the cliffs but soon I turned off Enterprise Coast Road, which leaves the coast and so follow residential roads through a housing estate. They have some nice palm trees, but apart from that to be honest it’s not very interesting because now there are houses on the coast side of the road, blocking the view of the coast.

However I soon come across something interesting and unexpected. Another lighthouse, right in the middle of a housing estate! I can only assume the housing estate wasn’t here when the lighthouse was built, because it’s quite far back from the coast!

I guess it’s so called because I am pretty much at the southern most point of Barbados here.

Eventually the houses end and I can see the sea again, although there are just low rocks now and no beach.

However just ahead there is a beach again, Silver Sands Beach.

It is a small but secluded little beach and a short distance past that Silver Rock beach, where I follow a path round to the beach.

After that I have to head a bit inland on roads. It is a bit of a maze and I have to back track a couple of times but eventually I reach the next beach, Long Bay Beach.  It lives up to it’s name, but unfortunately has a lot of sea weed.

I think the beach ahead is about a mile long so I am looking forward to a long beach walk. It will also be my last beach on the coast of Barbados as at the end of the beach I have to follow paths up and am then at the back of the airport, so my walk around Barbados is almost complete.

As with a lot of the beaches on the east coast of Barbados there is a lot of sea weed but the shoreline is generally free from it, so I walk there.

Sadly I soon reach the end of the beach. In the middle of the beach is the Chancery Lane swamp. This makes me think of the road and tube station in London. I am sure they are very different! Anyway at the far end a path is marked as heading uphill, where I hope to rejoin the road. I am pleased when I get to the end of the beach to find there is indeed a path so I can follow that uphill. It’s more uphill than I expected and it’s hard work in this heat.

Still when I am finally at the top  I am rewarded with a wonderful view. Unfortunately I got something (sun cream I think) on the camera so the photo hasn’t come out too well.

The path soon becomes a track and I can follow that to a road on the south of the airport. It’s called Fairly Valley Road, which makes it sound nice, but it isn’t. It is quite a narrow road with no pavement and I follow it between the houses and the perimiter fence of the airport. I follow it with the fence, to curve north around the west end of the runway.  Google tells me this is good for plane spotting. Well perhaps but there aren’t even any planes to spot just a surprising amount of traffic!

I take the first road on the right, Pilgrim Place which brings me ot the main road in front of the airport, Pilgrim Road. This bit is a bit of a trudge. It is hot, the road is dusty, there is nothing very interesting to see and a lot of traffic although there is at least usually grass beside the road to walk on. I am relived to soon see the airport terminal coming into sight. When I get there I am hot because I was walking fast to get this bit over with so now I need another cold drink.

I’ve made it! Another country I have successfully walked around. It’s just a shame really I finished at the airport. There are much nicer places to end and in hindsight perhaps I should have taken the bus here this morning and finished at Worthing and a beach rather than an airport, but it’s too late now. I’ll be back here again tomorrow when unfortunately, it is time to head home.

For now I needed to get back to Worthing so I headed to the bus stop where I first caught the bus when I arrived. This time the first vehicle going the right way was one of the ZR (Route Taxi) mini-buses so I took that instead, haven given up with waiting for the Government run buses that had given me so much hassle! To be honest it was fine, I should have started using these buses sooner!

This had been a lovely walk exploring the beaches of the south coast of which there were a lot and Barbados certainly has some stunning beaches. Coming here was very different from the sort of walks I usually do but I had a wonderful time and considered it a great success. It was great to try something new and different and I was glad it worked out so well. That also adds another country to my list of countries I’ve walked all the coast of.

That means my list of countries walked around is:-

• England
• Wales
• Scotland (excluding most of the islands)

As well as the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, if they count as separate countries. Then outside of the UK I’ve walked all the coast of:-

• Monaco (that doesn’t take long!)
• Gibraltar (though that is a British Overseas Territotry rather than a country)
• Belgium
• Slovenia
• Malta (Malta, Gozo and Comino)
• Barbados

(I hope to add to this list soon!).

May 2025

This walk I actually did after Part 5 (Speightstown to Pie Corner). It was my intention to return to Pie Corner this morning. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen so I ended up making alternative plans.

I had planned to take a bus from the hotel I was staying at in Worthing to Bridgetown. This would take me to the Fairchild Street bus station (just beside the bridge). However to get to the north of the islands, buses departed from a different bus station (of course, how convenient), specifically the Princess Alice Bus Terminal, which was a little over half a mile west and, of course, no buses run between them.

I had planned it out with the timetable, so I could comfortably make the connection but of course, the bus did not come at the time I expected. I preferred to stick with the blue “Transport Board” buses (a mistake). Eventually one did come going to Bridgetown but I suspected it was going to be too late to make the connection.

However to my surprise the congestion was less than usual and we arrived at the bus station I walked very briskly (which is not pleasant in the heat) to reach the Princess Alice Bus Station. I made it in time, with a little under 10 minutes to spare in the end.

Now on entering the bus station there seemed to be a little information desk on the left, with staff sitting behind a desk. So I asked them when the next bus was to Pie Corner. They looked it up and confirmed the time I was expecting and directed me to the appropriate stand, so I went there to sit and wait. And wait. They also seemed to have a member of staff designed to help by walking around asking people where they are going. He came round and told me the bus would be here in 10 minutes. 10 minutes came and went and no bus came. He came back to assure me it would be here in another 10 minutes. This happened a couple of times, but no bus ever actually arrived going where I wanted to and I think in that time, over half an hour, only one bus arrived at all. I was doubting very much the bus was going to come.

I headed back to the information desk who then conceded “I don’t know when it’s coming, you might be better off taking a bus to Speightstown and getting a van from there”. So I asked does this mean the bus isn’t coming? I got a shrug of the shoulders and a comment “well if no buses arrive, I can’t send any buses out, can I?”. Well I suppose that’s true (and obviously meant, as I suspected, the bus was not going to run) but now I realised why I had so many problems with the buses. The timetable is a work of fiction and they don’t have anything like enough buses and/or drivers to provide the advertised service. Instead what seems to happen is when a bus DOES arrive at the bus station they decide what route it’s going to run next based on how many people are waiting and that is where it goes to.  Since I wasn’t aware of anyone else waiting for the bus to Pie Corner it was clearly not going to run and I had been mis-led.

This was very frustrating, I’d spent about 40 minutes waiting for a bus at a bus station that was never going to run despite the staff largely assuring me it would. I had had enough of the buses and decided to give up waiting for only the Transport Board buses and just take the first thing that turned up, as most of the locals do.

However I realised by now it was too late for me to get to Pie Corner and complete the walk I planned, even if I could get there. So I decided to abandon it for today and try again tomorrow. Instead I’d try and do the next walk south.

So I headed back to the Fairchild Street bus station to see if there were any buses going east. Fortunately one was shown as departing shortly and so I headed for that. It had the right route number however it said it was going to College Savannah not Fortescue as I expected. I got in anyway and hoped it was right.

I followed the route on my phone. For a while, we were going the right way. But then the bus diverted off and started taking roads to the north before eventually returning to the correct route. It took over an hour and I was soon the only passenger left on the bus. When we did enter Fortescue I wasn’t sure where the bus stops were so just got off early on and made my way back down to the coast. I had made it, eventually, but it had taken almost 3 hours since I left the hotel.

I then headed along roads down to the coast near Bell Point. The coast here was lovely, lush and green with a rough sea and cliffs. It could easily be Britain!

Although there was quite a lot of sea-weed washing in I could see. In theory I could use the Barbados Trailway to head south it was shown on OpenStreet map but unfortunately it was invisible on the ground. So instead I followed roads south, a longer way around, to reach the next beach to the south, Skeets Bay.

I had hoped this would be a nice beach but I was disappointed. The entire beach and sea had been taken up by absolutely masses of Sargassum sea weed. The entire beach was buried under it as was the sea for quite a way out so it was just slow moving brown waves.

Oh dear, that was a shame and it smelt a bit too, so I wasn’t really keen to linger. Time to move on. Unfortunately there isn’t a coast path here, so I headed back up the dead-end road from the beach to Highway 5B and followed this south into Marley Vale, the next village and then along to Ragged Point.

This promised to be spectacular with a lighthouse marked on the map. Thankully it was, as I soon approached the lighthouse. It was quite a pretty lighthouse, like ones in Britain although the top was somewhat rusty.

Sadly it is not open to the public, at least not today, so I could not see in side. It is alongside the headland of Ragged Point and a path goes out to the end, so I followed it.

It’s a pretty spectacular spot. Blue waves crashing into the rocks, it reminded me a little of the coast around Lands End in England, which has a similar type of rock I think. That too is facing the Atlantic, albeit the other side of the ocean. It was wonderful watching and hearing the waves crashing into this spectacular coast.

To the south there is a rocky bay and beyond that another headland. I couldn’t see a name for this on Openstreet map or Google (the bay is called Spring Bay), but I think it might be called East Point. Whatever it was called it was lovely. Again however there was no path from here south so I headed back to the lighthouse and back to highway 5B.

I headed south along this to the next village, called Industry Hall.

A path was marked as going from the end of the road from here back to the coast, so I followed Coles Road. At the end as a track so I followed it back down to the coast. Well this is more like it!

Lovely rocky cliffs with the waves crashing in and lots of small caves. There didn’t seem to be a formal path going south but it was easy to walk along the edge of the cliffs on the rocks, so I did just that.

This was a glorious bit of coast, with the waves crashing in. In places, it had undercut the cliffs too. I also passed the eastern most point not just of Barbados but the entire Caribbean here. I guess that means I was the closest point in Barbados to the British coast, too!

I made my way south from here along the coast until I was now nearing the next beach, the spectacular Palmetto Bay.

The geology here was quite curious as the beach is quite a bit below the cliffs and has trees and bushes growing at the back. So first I wanted to get down there. This meant following a steep path through the trees to the beach.

The beach is lovely, backed by palms and a nice sandy beach. Although there is sea weed here it’s not as much as I saw further north along the coast and it was clear at the waters edge.

Having explored the beach it was time to head back up again.

I followed a track heading south to Bottom Bay House where I got a fine view over the next beach, called Bottom Bay.

Having rounded the house a path lead down steps through the trees to the beach. A vendor was at the bottom and asked if I wanted to buy a coconut or rent a sun lounger. I think he was disappointed that I declined but I wasn’t planning to spend long here.

This beach had more seaweed than Palmetto Bay but the south end of the beach was clearer, where it was possible to get to the waters edge where it was free of seaweed.

I stopped for a rest on the beach ready for the steep climb back up to the top.

A track continued along the coast to take me to the next beach, this one called Harrismith Beach but above it is the ruins of a once grand house, Harrismith House. This was once a hotel but is now very much derelict, lacking a roof or windows.

I am not sure how it ended up abandoned like this it would have been a lovely place to stay. The beach here is another lovely beach backed by palms but again sadly there was a lot of sea weed.

The next beach was only about 500 metres further along the coast and called Long Bay, but it is backed by an ugly hotel, the Wyndham Grand Resort. Or is it Cave Bay. To be honest I don’t know because Google calls it Cave Bay and openstreet map calls it Long Bay. But anyway, it’s a nice beach.

 

Again there is a little sea weed, but thankfully not much. I walked along the beach to the south end and then followed a path up to a place called Sam Lords Castle.

It is another historic house that was used in the past as a hotel (I’m sensing a pattern here) but was gutted by fire in 2010 and seems to have been abandoned ever since. I can see the remains of a small pool too in what I presume was once the garden. A shame.

Just next to it is another beach which Google doesn’t name and openstreet map claims is also Long Bay. So I don’t know. Again. But it’s another good beach, though as you can see from the houses close behind I am reaching a residential area again.

I’ve now entered a built up area that stretches pretty much all the way to the airport. The first part seems to be called Atlantic Park with American sounding street names like 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue.

I followed the roads through the housing estate to reach the next beach, which was a small one called Deborah Bay (sorry, no idea why) but at least both Google and Openstreetmap agree on the name, so that’s a start!

It is a small but rather lovely rocky cove. There is a a rocky path along the foreshore that I hope will bring me to the next beach, called Beachy Head. The path climbs up onto the cliff tops.

And then back down to Beachy Head. The sea is crashing over the rocks, so I get covered in some of the spray. Sadly to get to the beach means clambering over wet rocks covered in more sea weed but the waves are reaching the cliffs at the back of the beach, so I decide to give it a miss.

So instead I headed back to the road (Union Road) and followed this south to the next beach. This is called Ginger Bay. I am not sure why, but I can hazard a guess because it’s completely full with sea weed. Yuck. But it is a sort of Ginger coloured sea-weed so perhaps this is a common problem here.

It’s a shame because I suspect it would have been lovely with that little rocky island if it was free of sea-weed. From here a hotel blocks the route south along the coast so I have to head up to the road (Limpet Avenue) and followed this south to Crane Beach.

This beach looks like it mostly only exists at low tide and I guess it must be near high tide. To the south it seems to be split into two parts with a walkway between them over the rocks.

So I follow it to get to the other part of the beach, as I could not get to it along the cliffs from the other direction. It is a nice beach but again has a fair bit of sea-weed.

Sadly at the south end of the beach is another very large hotel that blocks access to the cliffs beyond. This is The Crane Resort, Barbados (a 4 star hotel). So I have to follow the road the landward side of this. I have to walk on roads for about half a mile but then I can turn off along a track leading to another lovely beach. Although the name is not so lovely – Foul Bay!

Well it’s not Foul. A lovely sandy beach it stretches for about 500 metres.

 

I walked the length of the beach, enjoying the crashing waves and soft sand. Like many of the beaches I’ve seen today there is hardly anyone here despite there being a large hotel and houses close by – it is not in a rural area.

Sadly this is the last beach for a while. My onwards route is along roads through the residential areas of Foul Bay, Ocean City, Greenpoint and Rock Hall. In some cases I have to walk further inland than I’d like because the roads closer to the sea are dead-ends. Some look like they might have paths between them but I’ve been followed by non-existant paths before. So I stick to the main road as I know I can get through.

Unfortunately access to the coast ahead, after these residential areas, owing to two things. The first of these is the islands airport, Grantley Adams International Airport. It doesn’t run right down to the coast and there is what looks to be a track that goes the coastal side of this. I might have been tempted to try and follow this but for something else marked on the map. It shows the track leads to Barbados Defence Forge Paragon Base. So an army base. I very much doubt I will be able to walk through that. I don’t particularly want to walk a long way on a dead-end track or be told off for trespassing on military property, so this means I have to head the landward side of the airport.

I am tired now. I had hoped to get past the airport, but the walk has taken longer than expected, owing to the number of diversions along dead-end roads I’ve taken to get to the various beaches. I’m glad I did, they were worth visiting but it does mean I’ve made less progress than I’d hoped because of it. The long delays in getting here after my abortive journey to Bridgetown and back also didn’t help as I had less time than expected available to walk after that.

The walk around the airport is not very nice. There is no pavement for most of it, though fortunately there is grass I can walk on in most places. The airport itself is, obviously, surrounded by a high barbed-wire topped fence. I can at least see through it and see a Virgin Atlantic plan taxiing. Another connection to the UK!

It is not a pleasant walk along the roads as they are busy with airport traffic so I am soon glad to reach the terminal. I popped inside to get a drink and use the toilet and decided to call it a day here.

The airport itself is quite curious. Whilst you can’t see it on this photo the check in area and check in desks are outside! Whilst there is a roof over them it is open to the elements at one side. I have never seen an airport with the check in area outside before! It doesn’t seem ideal as it can get very hot and humid, especially if you are lugging a heavy suitcase about.

Anyway I headed to the bus stop beside the airport that I used when I first got here, where I can get a bus back to Worthing. For once I don’t have to wait too long and am soon on my way – the advantage of being on a busy road, I guess.

After a frustrating start to the day with my abortive plans to reach Pie Corner (and the resulting reduction in the distance I walked today because of the wasted time), it was still an enjoyable day with some lovely beaches to explore and quite a contrast to the south and west coast, with the crashing waves of the Atlantic, it was just a shame about how much sea weed there was on some of the beaches. (I think this is less of a problem in the winter).

Here are the complete set of photos from this walk : Main Link.

August 2015

I was staying for the August bank holiday weekend in Llandudno. On the first day I walked up mount Snowdon , on the second I did a coast walk (more on that soon) and on the last day I decided to have a gentler day and spend the day riding around on trains, so that is what this post is about.

Whilst I am writing about Snowdown I thought I’d also include this long loop around it by train, which was also very enjoyable. I was staying in Llandudno at the Travelodge there (which was actually pretty good, it was in a traditional Victorian building), however this morning I was checking out as later I’d be making the long drive home.

The Welsh Highland Railway was a narrow gauge railway that ran from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, running just to the west of the summit of Snowdon. I don’t think it ever made much money and after passing through several owners and with financial problems, it was mothballed in the late 1930s. The Government requestioned much of the assets for the Second World War in 1941.

In 1961 there were efforts to investigate restoration of the line. Work soon got under way and a limited service begun to run on what is now the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway. The nearby Ffestiniog railway (that had once conrtolled the line) became worried about this line competing with their own. This resulted in the Ffestiniog trying to buy the line, so as to prevent it being restored and competing with them. This caused a public backlash. A year later there was a change of leadership and now the  Ffestiniog  Railway decided to take over the restoration of the line. This resulted in a legal battle but eventually, restoration began in 1997. It was completed in 2011 (4 years before I did this trip) and the 25 mile long line re-opened.

I wanted to travel the line but found it is possible, with careful reading of the various timetables to make a lovely circular route. This involves travelling on the Welsh Highland Railway from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, around the western side of Snowdow. From there I can travel onward and eastwards along the narrow gauge Festiniog railway from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog. Here I can change onto the Conway Valley Line (a standard gauge line that is part of the National Rail network) to Llandudno Junction. Then change onto a train on the North Wales Coast line (again a standard gauge line that is part of the National Rail network) to Bangor. Unfortunately here there is a gap.  So the small gap between Bangor and Caernarfon has to be closed by bus, so it’s not quite a full loop by train.

Ideally I’d start this loop from Llandudno or nearby Llandudno Junction but on Bank Holiday monday the public transport did not allow it. The timetables of the various railways only made this loop possible anti-clockwise and I could not get to Caernarfon by public transport in time to get the first train on the Welsh Highland Railway, which I’d need to do to be able to complete the loop.

So this meant first I had to drive from Llandudno to Caernarfon. Fortunately the roads are quite good on this route so it did not take that long. I parked beside the railway in Caernarfon and headed for the station.

Now it’s worth noting that at the time both the narrow gauge heritage railways ran a fairly convential timetable (only in summer) and there was a ticket available that covered the journey on both lines. I think it might have covered the Conwy Valley Line too although to be honest I can’t remember. You could (as I did) just turn up at the ticket office, buy the ticket get off the train and go. Since Covid however this ticket seems to have disappeared and now you are recommended to book on both trains. I am not sure if it is even possible to turn up and buy a ticket on the day anymore. This probably makes this day out much more expensive too, which is a shame.

Anyway I turned up at the station and bought a ticket that covered the journey on both railways and even though this was August bank holiday there were no problems finding seats on both trains.

The Welsh Highland Railway has a few different carriages. As the weather was good I opted to sit in one with open sides to enjoy the views and hopefully get photographs without any reflections.

I was in time to watch the locomotive run round to couple up to the front of the train.

Soon we were off and I was enjoying the views from the train. There are quite a few pretty restored stations on the way, some of which the train always stops at and others are request stops.

I can soon see the mountains of Snowdownia (possibly Snowdon itself) from the train window, but as is common the peak is covered with cloud.

It is a very enjoyable journey although I do have to listen to a group of 3 friends, clearly train enthusiasts, who are recording the entire journey on a camcorder along with what sounds to me a very tedious commentary with details of various locomotives, carriages and so on. I am glad I won’t have to watch it! Still it is a lovely journey.

Soon the train reaches the station of Snowdown Ranger.

This is named after another of the routes up Snowdown, the Snowdon Ranger path which begins from here. I think the station is particularly useful because the parking here is quite limited, too.

 

The next station is Rhyd-Ddu, another of the routes up to the Snowdon summit (which I also haven’t walked) so the railway would be useful to travel between the route of the two paths to make a nice circular route – but not today.

The trains also pass here and there is enough time to get out onto the platform before we are due to depart, so I do just that.

Soon we are on the move again.

There is even a campsite along the route with it’s own station!

Not only is it an enjoyable ride for those of us on the train people beside the line also seem to enjoy it!

I am joined at the bay of 4 seats I am sat on at Beddgelert by a lovely couple who clearly know and love the area and Snowdon well and it is nice talking with them. They are acting as a bit of tour guide to me, too! I know something about the area, but not as much as they do.

The mountains soon seem to be getting a little distant as the line heads south.

The train is soon heading along the flat land beside the river Glaslyn, as we near the coast.

As we near Porthmadog I am surprised to see this out the side window.

This isn’t the line our train is on, it is the Cambrian Coast line (part of the National Rail network), the lines cross on the level at a 90-degree junction. It is interesting to see narrow and standard gauge lines crossing like this.

A short distance ahead, we reach the end of the line at Porthmadog harbour.

It has a fine view!

Well what a lovely and varied journey that was! I really enjoyed it and was very lucky with the weather too, the cloud soon lifted to sunshine. I am surprised at the number of tracks here too, though most of them don’t have a platform.

Anyway this marks my lunch stop on the route, I think from memory I had about an hour break here, so I find a shop to get some lunch and sit beside the estuary to enjoy the view whilst I eat.

After lunch it is time to travel on the second railway line of the day, this time the Ffestiniog railway. This shares the same station at Porthmadog Harbour and runs to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

This line opened all the way back in 1836 and the Ffestiniog Railway Company that owns the line is the oldest surviving railway company in the world.  It was a commercial railway and carried both passengers and freight but began to struggle and closed to passengers in 1939. Freight trains (mostly slate) continued until 1946, after which only a small section of the line was used and the line was no longer used.

Enthusiasts began to attempt to restore the line and raised money to by the railway the company and clear the outstanding debt, which took place in 1954. Restoration began in 1954 and the line gradually began to re-open. However a section had to be diverted due to a hydro electric power station and it’s reservoir running over the old tracks, this was a 2 1/2 mile long diversion.

The line continued to be extended and finally reached Blaenau Ffestiniog in 1982 where a new shared railway station was built, also used by trains on the Conwy Valley Line. Trains have run for much of each year since then.

When I got back to the station the onward train was in the platform and waiting.

The views from the station are spectacular, too.

Soon we are off and the line runs along a causeway beside the A497.

The train stops at Boston Lodge and then Minfford where we cross over the Cambrian Coast line once more, which also has a station here.

We also pass another train going the other way.

The line now runs through woodland, with the A487 far below.

The line soon turns away from the fairly flat land of the Vale of Festiniog and heads north into the more mountainous area.

The mountains are soon visible, possibly including Snowdown, I am not really sure.

Soon the reservoir that the line had to be diverted around comes into view.

At the north end of the reservoir there is even a waterfall visible.

 

Finally, the train pulls into Blaenau Ffestiniog. The town is known for it’s slate mining and now surrounded by the spoil heaps of this industry, though it provided a lot of the income for the railways which were used to transport the slate.

I head across the platform to the side used by the Conwy Valley Line. This is a standard gauge line that is part of the National Rail network.

Sadly I won’t be travelling by steam train on this line, but a rather tatty 1980s train.

Soon after we set off the train heads into a long tunnel so there is obviously nothing to see here. But soon we emerge and it becomes clear this it is another beautiful line as soon the train is passing beside mountains again.

The line is quite notorious for flooding, it used to get washed out quite frequently during the winter and have to close for months for repairs, but works done a few years ago seem to have greatly reduced this.

Soon the line descends from the mountains into gentler scenery.

It soon runs beside the river Conwy which causes the flooding in the winter.

This widens considerably to an estuary approaching Conwy and Llandudno Junction.

I can just make out the bridge at Conwy on the left side of the river.

At Llandudno Junction I have to change (the train continues to Llandudno).

Here I changed onto a train bound for Holyhead. It also gives some fine views, here passing Conwy Castle.

The line soon hugs the coast passing Penmaenmawr, where I can also see the Great Orme.

With trains running at higher speed on this line it doesn’t take long to reach Bangor. Here I have to use the bus to close the gap of a last few miles and get back to Caernarfon and my car. Happily this is at least fairly well integrated with the train as it stops close by and runs frequently.

Once I reach Caernarfon it is time for the long drive home after what has been an incredibly enjoyable and varied weekend, featuring coast, mountains and trains! Fortunately the journey back is not as bad as I feared (it is Bank Holiday monday after all).

Whilst this trip is quite expensive I really enjoyed it and highly recommended it, if you can make the connections work. These are beautiful lines and with the exception of the main line the trains go slowly so you have time to enjoy the scenery, especially if you can get a seat in an open-sided carriage as I did on the Welsh Highland line.

Here are details of the various railway lines and buses needed to make this journey.

• The Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway. (The Welsh Highland line runs from Caernarfon to Porthmadog and the Ffestiniog line runs from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog). Trains run between 2 and 4 times per day for most of the year depending on the season.
• The Conwy Valley Line (Blaenau Ffestiniog to Llandudno Junction and Llandudno). Part of the National Rail network, trains run 6 times per day Monday – Saturday and 4 times per day on Sundays year round. Trains are operated by Transport for Wales.
• The North Wales Coast Line (Chester to Holyhead). Trains run 2/3 times per hour Monday – Saturday and hourly on Sundays, year round. Trains are run by Transport for Wales and Avanti West Coast.
• Arriva Buses : Buses run between Bangor and Caernarfon. Bus 5C runs approximately every 20 minutes Monday – Saturday and every 30 minutes on Sunday.

When I walked the coast around Fort William I was keen to walk to the highest point of Scotland (and indeed the UK), Ben Nevis, which is what I did. Although I didn’t originally walk to the highest point of England, Scafell Pike I did later go back and walk to the summit of Scafell Pike too. So now it’s the turn of Wales!

Mount Snowdown (Yr Wyddfa) is the highest point of Wales (at a height of 1085 metres) and close to the coast, so I wanted to include it too.  Unlike the other peaks it has many different routes to the summit, 6 to be precise of various difficulties. This means it is possible to go up one way and come back another and choose easier or harder paths. This makes it an excellent walk because you can have quite different experiences, depending on which path you choose. This also makes it very popular.

However weather conditions can make it difficult so I have had several attempts on the summit.

Attempt 1 – May 2009

This was my first attempt at reaching the summit of Snowdon. A group of my friends had the idea that we would go to North Wales for a long weekend with the intention of climbing Mount Snowdon.

One of my friends picked me up and he drove us up to Caernarfon via the scenic route via Betws-y-Coed. Since I was not driving I could also enjoy the beautiful scenery on the way. My friend had previously walked to the summit of Snowdon, so it was good to be in the company of someone who had done it before.

We stayed in a Youth Hostel on Caernarfon High Street, where we all had a shared room which worked out well so we didn’t disturb, or get disturbed, by others in the same room. The Youth Hostel we stayed at is still a Youth Hostel today, called Totters. I can’t remember if it was called that at the time however but it was definitely that building.

We travelled up on Friday and after arriving had a wander around the town, and a few pints at the Anglesey pub beside the castle. The next morning my friend drove us to Llanberis and we parked in the car park opposite the mountain railway. I can remember my friend being surprised at how expensive it was to park, but we split the cost between us.

As I mentioned there are several paths up Snowdown. On this walk we intended to sample two of them, the Miners Track on the way up and the Llanberis path on the way back. Since these start from different places, we took the Snowdon Sherpa bus to Pen-y-Pass where the miners track starts. The idea was we would walk up this and return on the Miners track back to Llanberis, where our car was parked.

So we took the bus to Pen-y-Pass and began from there.

The weather was a mixture of sunshine and showers, but quite windy, so we set off towards the summit. Things went well initially, but soon the weather worsened.

Despite this, the views were still stunning.

The path was relatively easy initially, with climbs but mostly not to steep, as we passed the reservoire of Llyn Llydaw, which the path crosses the eastern end of. The rain was becoming more frequent and intense.

After leaving the reservoir behind, it climbs more to another lake, Glaslyn. After this the path begins to climb more steeply.

Unfortunately the weather began to really deteriorate. We were now high enough that the rain when it came was hail. As it was also very windy, this was actually painful as the hail was blown at us.

The summit had of course disappeared into cloud. We pressed on for a time, but others began to turn back and a group coming down who had made it to the summit advised us not to continue, as it was very windy, to the point it was almost impossible to stand, combined with the hail.

We discussed if we wanted to continue and after a few minutes, the consensus was no. Whilst we all wanted to make it to the top, it was now very cold, progress would be very slow and it was potentially dangerous with visibility reduced to a few metres at times. If we made it, it would not be enjoyable but basically turn into a box ticking exercise. Yes, we could say we’d been there, but I don’t think we would have enjoyed it.

So reluctantly, we turned back. The conditions were still pretty unpleasant for a time, but improved as we descended to lower altitude and the mining remains beside the path.

Still you can see from this photo it was still very windy.

As we neared Pen-y-Pass there was even some sunshine.

Here we are nearly back at the car park.

From here we stopped at the small cafe to warm up with a drink and then await the bus back to Llanberis because of course having not reached the summit, we could not return via the Llanberis path and hence had to use the bus again to get back to the car and onwards back to Caernarfon.

By the time we got back everything was sodden. I left the now soaked Ordnance Survey map (that was in my bag) folded out on my bed in the hope it would dry out and not be completely ruined. It did and whilst crinkly and a bit damaged, it was still usable. Hopefully I’d get another chance to use it.

The weather was no better the next day and we had to head home. So we didn’t have time for a second attempts. Was it the right decision to turn back? Probably, but I admit it was hard once the sun started to come back out, not to think of trying to head back up! However we didn’t.

Result: Fail

Attempt 2: August 2015

Attempt 2 was a solo trip, which was  a little over 6 years after the last failed attempt. This time I was heading for North Wales for the August bank holiday weekend, staying in the Travelodge in Llandudno for 2 nights.

I decided that of the things I had planned the walk to Snowdon was probably going to be the shortest day so ideal for the first day as I first had to drive from the south of England to Snowdown, which would take several hours I knew I would not be able to make a very early start. It was also the August bank holiday weekend, so probably the busiest day of the year. This meant I could expect heavy traffic and difficulties parking.

Whilst the journey was a bit slow at times, it was not as bad as I feared. This time my plan was to use the Watkin path to the summit. I drove via the A5 and Betws-y-Coed onto the A4086 and then A498 to Nant Gwynant near the base of the Watkin path. As I descended through the valley there was absolutely torrential rain of the bouncing back off the road sort. This was not an overly encouraging start.

Now the other problem is Snowdown is very popular. There is limited parking and I’d picked a path where there was only really one car park that was suitable. So I knew I was taking a risk and suspected I was going to find the car park full and have to find an alternative route, all of which would take time and so might make my plan impossible.

When I reached the entrance to the car park I pulled off the A498. as did the car in front of me. I followed them towards the entrance to the car park where they just stopped so I could not get in. After about 30 seconds I was about to beep the horn when they seemingly made their decision and turned away from the car park entrance to the service road beside it. I assume they had decided there was no space. Un-deterred I drove into the car park and found there was in fact one space free. So I gladly took it! I am not sure why the others had missed it, but I was pleased that they had as otherwise my plan would have been thwarted. Yes unfortunately parking is quite expensive but I hoped it would be a price worth paying for what promised to be a wonderful walk.

So here we go! Wish me luck.

The path initially climbs through woodland, but soon I get fine views back to the rolling countryside below.

It is already very beautiful and I am glad to see the sun is beginning to make an appearance after the heavy shower on the way here.

The path continues to climb as the landscape begins to change to heathland and the trees get smaller.

The path itself is very easy at this point, as wide as a road, which climbs steadily but fairly gently.

The path is soon running beside the Cwm Llan river, a fast flowing stream and I can see numerous other little streams that feed it.

The path soon crosses to the other side of this river and now follows the east bank of the river instead.

The mountain was once quarried and I am soon passing the remains of one of these quarries or at least the houses where the workers lived.

The spoil heaps can also be seen.

The path has become much steeper now and it is hard work, but I am rewarded with wonderful views.

The landscape is now very much becoming mountainous with sheer rocky cliffs appearing beside the valley.

The path climbs and climbs with the landscape becoming every more spectacular and other peaks further away now also becoming visible, as I near the top of the valley.

However whilst there is some son I can see that ahead, the path is disappearing into the cloud.

Snowdonia is notorious for poor weather. I don’t know how many days a year the peak is clear of cloud, but it looks like today isn’t one of them. Still for now I can still enjoy the view back where I have come from. It is clear I have already climbed a long way and the summit is near.

There is soon another path joining my route from the east. This seems to be un-named, I don’t think it is one of the 6 main routes, but it appears to connect the Miners Track with the Watkin Path. It certainly doesn’t look an easy route! I won’t be going back that way….

I am now among the lose scree as I near the summit.

Sadly the views are starting to disappear as the cloud descends.

Sadly I soon disappear into the cloud and visibility drops to a few metres, whilst the temperature also plunges. The last part is quite hard. I am not entirely sure if I am on the right path or if I somehow lost it, but I figure if I keep going up I can’t go wrong. Sure enough I emerge beside the Snowdown Mountain Railway.

Well that is the easy (but expensive) way up, I guess.

Still that means that I’ve made it to the summit.

Well nearly.

You see with 6 routes up, all of them busy and everyone wanting to stand on the summit this leads to queues to reach the final trig point.

Can I be bothered to stand in the cold for half an hour or more to go the last few metres.

Well no not really. I mean look at the crowds. I don’t feel the last couple of metres matter so I’ll call this success. Instead I head into the cafe. Snowdon is I think unique in having a cafe at the summit since the food can be bought up from the adjacent mountain railway and of course those using the railway might not be dressed for conditions at the summit so will need somewhere warm to wait.

As I come out I relent. Yes OK I suppose I should really go to the very summit. So here is the view from the trig point.

I can’t see anything much but the cafe, but oh well. I have at least made it. But the cloud shows no sign of lifting. I am pleased to make it even if I am a little disappointed that I didn’t get the view from the top. I’ve still had some excellent views but I haven’t seen the view in all directions that I would have got from the top if I had made it. Still after failing a few years before, I am pleased just to have made it and ticked that off my list.

Now it’s time to head back down. My plan is to return on the Miners Track where I will take one of the Snowdon Sherpa buses back to the car park.

This initially follows alongside the track of the Snowdon mountain railway.

And here comes one of the trains.

I am pleased that it does not take long for me to descend through the clouds.

At last I can see the scenery again!

However this path is much busier, as you can see below.

This means it is taking longer than I expect because I keep getting stuck behind others that are going slower than me. In places queues form. As the path is narrow and I don’t want to hurry people I have to wait quite a few times until there is space to safely pass. I suppose that is the issue with coming here on one of the busiest days of the year.

Still it gives me plenty of time to enjoy the wonderful scenery.

Soon the path beside the reservoir comes into sight. I can remember from my previous failed attempt that things will get much easier once I reach that.

When I reach the banks of the reservoir it is time for a rest. It was too cold at the top, in the clouds, to stop for long but it is much warmer here now and makes a nice place to stop for a rest.

After a rest I continued on the now much easier path.

Soon the familiar site of the cafe at Pen-y-Pass comes into view.

I can see the road and a bus goes past. Well I know my bus isn’t due for about 20 minutes, so it won’t be the bus I plan to catch.

I continue down to the road and the bus stop and check the timetable. Oh dear. It seems I’ve made an error. The time I’ve got in my head as to when the bus is due is wrong. The bus I was was the bus I wanted. And it was the last one of the day.

Well I’ve had a lovely day, I am determined not to spoil it now. So what do I do now? Well there is no mobile signal here, so I can’t call for a taxi. I suppose I could try hitching a lift or asking around the car park if anyone is going that way. But I don’t really like having to do that, so I get the map out. Perhaps I can walk back.

I’m not going to walk back via the summit of course! But I do spot a lower level path that runs beside the river Afon-Trawsnant then turns south and runs along the west side of the lake Llyn Gwynant and then onwards to a path back to the car park and the A498. I estimate this to be very roughly 8km. So it will probably take about 2 hours.

I have some drink left, but not much and no more food and I know this will mean I will not get to Llandudno until quite late but it seems like the least worse option, so that is what I do.

The path is quite rocky but at least well defined.

But it soon narrows.

n the valley I pass close by the ruins of a village. It is just marked as “Settlement” on the map so I don’t know what it was called.

Later the path descends to run beside the river that feeds into the lake of Llyn Gwynant. It is a shallow but quite fast flowing river.

As I head out of the trees I can see the sun is getting low and hence much of the valley is now in shadow.

Soon the path comes down to Llyn Gwynant. I am tired and hungry, but I must press on.

My hunger isn’t helped by the fact there is a campsite just the other side of the river. It is very busy. The smell of sausages, burgers and other food being cooked on the numerous barbeques on the go in the campsite waft towards me. Oooh it smells nice. Sadly it is the wrong side of the river so I can’t get to the campsite without doubling back and so I press on, the smell now making me even more hungry. Still the lake is beautiful.

The path heads in and out of woodland with the low sun causing long shadows. This might be a part of the walk I hadn’t planned on doing, but it is beautiful.

At the western end of the lake the path water narrows back to a river again.

Not long now and at last I am back at my car. It is still quite a long drive to Llandudno where I am staying so I don’t hang about and get on with getting there.

I am staying at the Travelodge near the centre of the town. Unlike many Travelodge this isn’t a modern building but a Victorian hotel. I understand it was derelict and in very poor condition for many years with the locals expecting it would be demolished. Happily, Travelodge repaired and refurbished the building and it is now in use as a hotel again.

A downside of this is most Victorian hotels don’t have car parks because cars hadn’t been invented then. That is the case here. Whilst there is parking out the front it is all full. Llandudno is a busy town and in this part of town it seems most of the buildings are hotels and most have no or very little parking so everyone parks on the road.

As a result it takes me a while to find a space, 3 roads away. Now if I am going away by car I tend to take far more than needed, because I can just put it in the boot. Now I am regretting this as I now have a heavy holdall to carry to the hotel too!

The staff are friendly and check me in. My room is on the top floor.  Of course it is. Still when I get there it is partly under the eaves and feels quite cozy, which isn’t something you can often say about the Travelodge. Having finally checked in I head out in search of food and settle on a takeaway. It is around 9:30pm by this time, so this is about the only option as most places will have stopped serving food.

At least I got something to eat. So it had been a tough and much longer day than anticipated. But I very much enjoyed it. Fortunately I had a day planned tomorrow that did not involve much physical activity as I’d covered a lot of miles today and I suspected I’d feel it in the morning!

Result: Success

Attempt 3: May 2025

Having succeeded in 2015 you might wonder why I had a 3rd attempt. Well a discussion with some friends (many the same friends that I did the first attempt with in 2009) we hatched a plan for a repeat attempt over the first May bank holiday of 2025.

Since our last attempt in 2009 some of my friends were already married and had since had children and some had since married and had children. So this time it was more of a family affair and it was thought the youngest children should be old enough to attempt it and certainly wanted to try and walk to the highest point in Wales, Snowdownia.

We knew that doing this over the bank holiday weekend (as I had done previously) would be tricky as it would be very busy. Snowdownia (or Eyri as I think it’s now called) has become much more popular in the last few years, especially after Covid. This had made parking much more difficult and we would be at a busy time.

However between us we found a nice looking Air BnB in Llanberis. It used to be a bed and breakfast and was right on the High Street. The price was reasonable and it looked ideal because it had parking and we could start the walk from Llanberis, so avoiding any issues over parking. It also helps that Llanberis is a lovely town!

Having booked that we looked forward to the date. We had all opted to drive up after work on Friday evening. I suspected traffic would be heavy, but it was not as bad as I feared an d I made it to the house I think a little after 9:30pm, although most of my friends had already arrived by that point.

Fortunately for us the weather forecast was for good weather and this time we had two full days available so we could, if energy levels permitted, try again if we weren’t successful at the first attempt.

This time we were trying the Llanberis path. This is the easiest path and it started from where we were staying and with young children in tow (the youngest was 6) we didn’t want to pick one of the harder trails so it made perfect sense.

The path initially follows a minor road south out of Llanberis until the path forks off the road.

We soon get fine views back over the village.

The weather is dry and cloudy. Already we can see the much lower peaks are covered in cloud so it seems unlikely we will see much from the summit.

The Llanberis path also runs close to the Snowdown mountain railway (which also starts from Llanberis) so we can watch the trains. I think it is Hebron station we can see.

The path itself is pretty easy. Fairly gently uphill and very wide and well surfaced.

As we gain height the views begin to open out again.

After a while the path passes under the railway.

Another train passes by just above us, now the railway is on the other side of the path.

The Llanberis path has a luxury not found on the other paths. The halfway house!

I didn’t stop though I think one person in our group did and then we continued on up. As we continued to gain height the small lake of Llyn Du’r Arddu comes into sight on our right.

As we continue to gain unfortunately we are nearing the level of the clouds, which are now over the hill tops on the other side of the valley.

Around here we stopped for lunch beside the path and the cloud did start to lift a bit.

After lunch we continue on up, passing near to Clogwyn station. The weather is certainly improving with some sunshine and breaks in the cloud appearing.

As we continued to climb there was a harder ares with scree that was quite steep, but fortunately it is not very long.

The views were really starting to open out now, as we could see beyond the valley.

As well as back down the way we had come, including the lake back at Llanberis.

The cloud was coming and going, here we were very close to disappearing back inside it.

The views were opening up in other directions now too.

Soon we were nearing the point where the Llanberis path, Pyg Track and Miners Track all converge, only around 500 metres from the summit. We could see the lakes down that valley as well as the crowds of people coming up that way.

The children in our party had coped very well (better than I expected) but although they had slowed a bit they soon picked up the pace when the summit came into sight. Not far now – and it’s clear of cloud. I was also looking forward to getting there and hopefully seeing the view, for the first time.

In the distance I could also now see the coast (this blog is supposed to be about the coast after all!). I think this is Abermenai point, at the western end of the Menai Strait.

It wasn’t much further before we all reached the summit. I think we were all very glad and the children in particular were excited. I was also very pleased because for the first time I could see the view.

OK sometimes a bit of cloud came in and obscured parts of the view but it usually cleared again in a few minutes. It was however very windy if you were in an exposed place. For example, in a queue to reach the very top.

But yes eventually we reached the very top and here is the summit.

After that it was time to enjoy the views. The children also wanted souvenir’s from the shop/cafe (mugs and T-shirts). It was however also welcome to go inside and warm up for a few minutes, as whilst we were all warm coming up when it is cold at the top and you are not moving you quickly lose body heat.

(I do have a group photo at the top but haven’t included it as not sure if any of my friends would mine me posting it and I can’t be bothered to check with them).

Of course, what comes up must go down and so after about 45 minutes at the top it was time to head back down again, initially beside the railway.

Although it is a bit quicker going down, you still have to be careful as it is easier to slip when going downhill. Unfortunately we were soon to discover some people seemed to have found that out the hard way, as the coastguard helicopter came into view.

It turns out some unfortunately person had fallen near one of the lakes and broken a bone and so had to be carried off the mountain by helicopter. We watched them struggle and eventually find somewhere suitable to land. A reminder that mountains can be dangerous and need respect – the weather can change very quickly (although happily it hadn’t today).

Fortunately none of our party suffered any falls on the way back down.

Soon safely at the bottom, we stopped for refreshment at the Pen-y-ceunant Isaf Tea House at the road at the bottom and then back into Llabneris where we stopped at The Heights pub for a couple of pints. Curiously this had a self-service launderette in the car park! I have never seen a but with a launderette before. Then we continue back to our Air BnB further down the High Street for dinner.

It had been a very enjoyable day and I think everyone involved enjoyed it. So much so that many of us went for another weekend away to the Peak District a year later (last weekend as I write this, May 2026), to go to Mam Tor and Kinder Scout. We are thinking about Scafell Pike next year. Personally speaking I was very pleased to finally see the view from the top free of clouds as well as going up a different route to the top so the majority of the walk was also new for me too, and it means I’ve walked 3 of the 6 routes to/from the summit, which isn’t bad going.

Result: Success

September 2012

On this walk I am heading west into the Menai strait, the strip of water that separates the Isle of Anglesey from the mainland. Once again I was doing this as a long day trip from home in the South of England. That might sound odd but once again I had booked a cheap ticket, London to Penmaenmawr for £14 and Bangor back to London also for £14, so less than £30 return from London (such bargains are sadly long since gone), although that does mean I am committed to the specific trains I booked.

This is the 08:10 train from London Euston to Chester and then I change there for another train to Penmaenmawr. Amazingly, my journey went smoothly, so I arrived on time at 11:20. Penmaenmawr is a request stop (it isn’t any longer) so I had the fun of getting the train to stop just for me, too.

This is the first walk I did after the Wales coast path opened, so I am pleased to see after passing through the railway subway to get to the coast I spot a shiny new Wales Coast Path sign.

Last time I was here (3 years earlier) it was low tide and the beach was mostly sand. Today it’s high tide and the beach is entirely pebbles and the wind is whipping up the waves a bit so they are splashing onto the pebbles.

The Great Orme still looks like an island from here. The path is initially along a flat promenade, with the A55 and railway line to my left. The promenade feels more like a road really, it is very wide.

By this point the beach has disappeared entirely, there is just rock armour beside the promenade, presumably to protect it and the nearby road and railway from erosion. Sadly soon the road takes over the most coastal route and the promenade ends, so the path is routed first under the A55 onto the High Street but then just before this merges onto the A55, I am directred up to the left on a footbridge to now cross over the A55. Or at least half of it. This area is not particularly nice. On one side is the roaring traffic and the other side the scars of a working quarry.

Once again the A55 is quite curious here, the west bound carriageway goes under the hills and quarry in a tunnel, whilst the east bound runs along the edge of the cliff! Hence the bridge I am on only crosses the west-bound carriageway.

Now the path heads down as a separate tarmac track alongside the landward side of the east bound A55. The onward official route is to follow a tarmac track which runs alongside the A55, on the landward side. It is segregated from the road. But I spotted that later this takes me the landward side of both parts of the A55, but on the other side of the A55 is a pavement. So I decide to ignore the official route and cross the A55 to the pavement on the north side. It is at least signed as a pedestrian path albeit not the official coast path. Interestingly there is a large sign “pedestrians look both ways” yet it is a one-way road. Whilst looking both ways is still good advice I suspect it might be because if there is work being done on the tunnel the road is reduced to one lane in either direction and so traffic on this part becomes two way.

It is not very pleasant walking right next to the dual carriageway but at least I can see the sea from here, which I wouldn’t be able to on the official path. The road winds it’s way alongside a headland and below I can soon see the railway having emerged from another tunnel.

I am quite surprised to see that part of it is basically built over the sea!

There is water passing under the arches to reach the road. I wonder if this railway line also suffers from damage from the sea during storms, as it certainly reminds me of the railway line around Dawlish (which certainly does get damaged by storms).

Looking further west I can make out the north east corner of Anglesey and Puffin Island just off the coast.

After a while the road begins to descend back down towards the coast and a path takes me under the railway line. Well I need to time it carefully along this part of the path!

Still here is where my route has worked out well. I can now join a promenade alongside the small beach in the town of Llanfairfechan.

Meanwhile the official path is still meandering about the landward side of the A55 and railway about half a mile from the coast! (It turns to follow the road through the village and back under the A55 and railway). So I am pleased with the route I took.

It is a small town and I’m sure I’m not saying the name correctly (especially the last six letters!) and feels like one of those towns that is just a town that happens to be beside the sea rather than a resort.

Looking back where I have come the view is spectacular.

The beautiful mountains (albeit quarried in places) come right down to the shore, I can see how much of an engineering challenge it has been to get a railway and dual carriageway along this coast.

The path soon passes over the small River Llanfairfechan which flows out to sea.

From here on I am back on the official coast path which has rejoined me after it’s inland routing. A sign soon tells me the marsh beside the path is called the Traeth Lafan nature reserve. Beside the path is a rather wind-swept boating lake.

No takers today! I am enjoying the views again looking back over the town and the mountains beyond.

Although I am heading into the Menai Strait there is still some beach although I think from the map it is muddy at low tide.

Still the promenade was very pleasant and made for easy walking, running right behind the beach.

Again I can’t stop turning round to look at the magnificent view behind me too, especially now the sun is catching this side of the mountain.

The tree line is very obvious! Directly inland the views are glorious too with wild green hills though it looks like there is a shower not far away.

A train soon passes below, adding some scale to the scene.

This is such a nice bit of coast, it is hard to know which way to look. The coast is gradually changing and the beach soon gives way to an area of marshland.

There is a small footbridge to cross over a stream here with a single rather grand looking house beside it.

However having checked the map I think it’s right next to the sewage works, so perhaps not so nice!

Now the path runs beside a nature reserve, Morfa Madryn.

The beach is very much now a mixture of beach and marsh. The path runs right along the back of the beach.

Once again there is a stunning view back the way I have come.

This is one of those walks where you seem to be able to head through what is mostly a mountainous area without really making much effort! The path has been remarkably flat.

Again the views inland are also stunning over the nature reserve to the mountain beyond.

Soon the coast has changed back to a beach again, though it is muddy further out.

For a time I drop down to walking on the sands again, it is nice to be beside a beach again. The beach ends at another river, it is not that wide but fast flowing.

The coast has changed again now there is about a mile of flat marshland and then it becomes mountainous, quite a contrast. There are some sheep grazing on the marsh, one of which seemed to want to pose for a photograph, so here it is!

Today it is quite windy and hazy sunshine, so I like watching the different patterns as the sun illuminates different parts of the mountains inland – it is ever changing.

I soon pass a lone tree that seems to be battling against the elements but is so far winning the battle!

The path is easy running right along the coast beside this marshy area, sometimes between fences.

Ahead I am soon approaching a small estuary, the River Ogwen.

Here the path goes onto the road in the hamlet of Aber-Ogwen.

Now since I did this walk things have changed, but unfortunately not in time for me. Beyond here is the National Trust owned Penrhyn Park and castle. This has an admission charge, so the coast path was routed inland around it. Since I did this walk it seems in 2023 the coast path was re-routed around the edge of this estate and so now walkers get a free pass to walk around the edge of the estate, beside the coast.

However I did not, as at the time I did this walk this part of the coast path hadn’t opened (perhaps a reason to come back) so I had to head inland of this.

Instead I followed the road south from Aber Ogwen to the more main road and then turn right to cross the river on the road bridge.

Once again it is a fast flowing river (presumably due to the mountains just inland) and the trees are just starting to turn for autumn, it is very beautiful.

Once over the river the path turns off the road, to pas under the railway line, which goes through a tunnel here. Beside the path is a strange castle-tower like structure.

It turns out this is an air shaft for the railway which goes through a tunnel under here. The path soon joins a minor road again and follow this to the river Cegin. Here I can turn north back alongside this river back to the coast (this path is signed as the North Wales Pilgrims Path now, as it’s no longer part of the coast path).

It has the feel of an old railway line and sure enough it was, once built to serve the small Porth Penrhyn Port, but no longer used.

After a while the path is right beside the fast flowing water, I try a low-level shot, I think it came out quite well!

The old railway line I am following soon passes under the modern day railway of the North Wales Coast line which crosses overhead on a viaduct.

Sometimes it can be frustrating to have to go all the way inland but this path is lovely, soon running right beside this pretty river.

It is a lovely stretch through the woodland, passing under the A5 and then under a private road which crosses the old railway on quite a grand bridge.

This soon brings me down to the quay side this railway was built to serve, Porth Penrhyn.

Across the small harbour I can see Bangor, my destination for today ahead.

From here the path heads west initially beside the A5 and then alongside the coast. There are fine views over the harbour, with the mountains beyond and in the other direction to Anglesey.

Soon I come to Bangor Pier. Bangor feels quite a strange town, a bit of a resort yet it has no beach and although a small town it has quite a large (and I think well regarded) university, so it has a lot of students too.

Anyway despite the lack of beach I can’t resist walking along the pier over the Menai Strait. Indeed from the head of the pier it almost look like it’s a bridge that crosses it.

There is a small charge to walk on the pier (I think it was a £1) but I thought it was worth it.

There are good views from the pier.

The Menai strait itself is very muddy! It almost looks as if you could wade across.

Leaving the pier behind I followed the road and path around Garth, soon passing the university.

This bit almost looks like a cathedral. It is certainly a grand university.

I then headed into the centre of the town in order to get to the railway station.

It has more shops than I expected I suspect due to the presence of the University. From here I headed to the station and my train home.

This had been a really enjoyable walk. It was a rare walk where the path itself was very easy (being mostly flat and much of it tarmac) yet passed through some magnificent and very rugged scenery. I had also been lucky with the weather with a fair amount of sunshine which had helped make it so enjoyable.

Here are details of the public transport needed for this walk:-

Transport for Wales North Wales Coast Line : Manchester Airport – East Didsbury – Manchester (Piccadilly) – Manchester (Oxford Road) – Newton-le-Willows – Earlestown – Warrington (Bank Quay) – Runcorn East – Frodsham – Helsby – Chester – Shotton – Flint – Prestatyn – Rhyl – Colwyn Bay – Llandudno Junction – Conwy – Penmaenmawr – Llanfairfechan – Bangor – Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch(!) – Holyhead. It takes around 13 minutes to travel between Bangor and Penmaenmawr. Trains run broadly hourly Monday – Saturday. On Sundays the service is much less frequent with 3 hour or so gaps between the trains, so check the timetable carefully.

Here are the complete set of photos for this walk: Main Link.

Here is a map of the route of this walk:-

September 2009

To continue west from Llandudno, where I got to on my last walk I’m going to need to get around the Conway estuary which means heading about 1 1/2 miles inland but that will turn out to be no hardship! I was once again doing this walk as a long day trip from home. The reason being by booking in advance I had got some bargain train tickets.  £9.50 for a ticket from London to Llandudno which is certainly not a price to complain at (such bargain tickets have long since disappeared, unfortunately).

Now I am writing up this walk in 2026 but did it in 2009 and for some very strange reason I booked a return ticket back from Rhyl to London (for £12.50). That is strange because I walked west from Llandudno and Rhyl is east and I have already walked that part of the coast. Unfortunately I didn’t keep any notes as to why I did that and it’s long enough ago I can’t remember. So I am not sure if it was for some reason much cheaper to book a return from Rhyl than Penmaenmawr (where I ended up ending this walk). Or if I just made a mistake or got confused when planning the walk. Or I had swapped the ordering of walks after booking tickets (and since they are not refundable I could not change them without losing money). Or perhaps I booked the tickets after coming home from the pub after too much to drink. Or maybe I had the map upside down or something. Who knows! Anyway the ticket was still a good deal even if it wasn’t quite where I would be going (but the train goes via Rhyl so I would have just had to by another ticket to cover the bit between Penmaenmawr and Rhyl).

I took the train to London Waterloo then the tube to London Euston. A train from there to Chester, another train from there to Llandudno Junction and finally another train from there to Llandudo. The train from Chester to Llandudno Junction was very crowded and I had to stand for the first couple of stops, but I did manage to get a seat later. Anyway despite this I did arrive in Llandudno more or less on time and headed back to the beach on the west side of the Great Orme.

It was near high tide so the beach was a mixture of pebbles and soft sand. Sadly I was not so lucky with the weather today it was dry but overcast.

Looking west I can see the mountains of Snowdownia (I presume) ahead. The coast ahead certainly looks demanding and perhaps a little daunting (I had walked very little of the coast of Scotland at this point!).

There is a small breakwater ahead, I am not really sure what purpose it serves other than to break the waves and so presumably reduce erosion.

Or possibly to shelter the waters of the Conwy estuary. The sand is hard to walk on but after a while there is a good track at the back of the beach.

Ahead I can see the small town of Degawny ahead and the Conwy estuary.  Looking inland I have good views of the Great Orme that dominates the town of Llandudno. I know from my previous walk it is a lovely hill with a great view from the top.

The beach is now turning from sand to shingle and as I near Degawny it largely ceases to exist entirely, with a low wall separating the track I am on from the sea. It might also be to help protect the railway that I can see runs right along the coast here, as a train soon passes along the track ahead of me.

I will soon be entering the estuary but for now I can still enjoy the views of the stunning cliffs further west. They certainly look high!

Zooming in I can see there is a nice sandy beach, backed by dunes, on the far side. I should be there in a couple of hours – this is one of those walks where I don’t cover much distance along the coast.

The estuary is only about 150 metres across here near it’s mouth, but it widens for a time as I head further south. So it’s a bit of a surprise that the lowest bridge is at the A547 which is more like 500 metres wide. It makes me wonder why the estuary wasn’t bridged here where it is narrower but instead further south where it was wider. I assume it was so as not to be an obstruction for shipping. The town of Conwy on the west side of the river isn’t much of a port now, but perhaps it was.

I can also see that the river is flowing very fast with a strong current. Perhaps that is another reason there isn’t a bridge here.

If the river here was once industrial it seems to be mostly leisure traffic now, with a large marina visible behind the beach on the far side of the estuary.

A jumble of boats soon lines the path. You could describe them as stored or abandoned, but the latter seems more likely with the dunes now growing around them it is clear most haven’t been moved in years.

I am now approaching Degawny and the path is now squashed between the railway line and the estuary and I am reaching the station. It looks very traditional with a signal box and old-style semaphore signal.

Beside the estuary there is now some sand again although I suspect it gets muddy if you got into the water here.

It really is a beautiful estuary. After being squeezed in beside the railway line there is now a modern marina on this side of the estuary too, surrounded by modern housing.

It is rather bland and as it is a dead end I have to follow the landward side of the marina, beside the road and railway again. About now I have passed from Deganwy to the town of Llandudno Junction. I presume this is basically a railway town, named after the railway station here.

Across the estuary I can now see the wonderful sight of the beautiful little town of Conwy on the other side of the river with it’s impressive castle dominating the scene, along with the unusual bridge alongside it.

There is a lot of transport infrastructure here. The railway and the A546 are alongside, but the main A55 dual carriageway goes in a tunnel under the Conwy estuary here. So the coast path ahead is routed onto re-claimed land that now houses the eastern portal of the tunnel. Fortunately this means I can pass over the road, then walk the coastal side of it. Or at least that’s the theory. The path is blocked with a barrier and a sign telling me it is closed for works of some sort. The alternative looks like heading back, finding a way to cross the railway and along the A547. I decided to do what I usually do when faced with such things, ignore it and go around anyway. It is Saturday, I doubt they are doing any work today. This proves to be correct. A small part of the path is clearly in the process of being resurfaced, but there is no work taking place today so I can easily get along the closed section. The path gives a view of the stunning castle at Conwy across the estuary.

It is a beautiful sight, especially with the mountains behind it.

The path now follows another man-made structure, Conwy Cob. This is reclaimed land that almost, but not quite, crosses the Conwy estuary. The final bit (the gap) is crossed by a bridge. Or more accurately, three bridges, parallel with each other. The view from the Cob is wonderful as the coast path runs on the coastal side of it.

Soon I am reaching the three bridges. These are very impressive and two of them are listed. The firs and oldest of these is the Conwy Bridge, built as a road bridge by Thomas Telford in 1826 and is a suspension bridge. The second is the Tubular Bridge. Another listed bridge, it carries the railway over the estuary and was engineered by Robert Stephenson and opened in 1849 (and was begun in 1846). It was originally also going to be a suspension bridge but that was considered unsuitable for trains so the unusual metal tube design was used instead. Another similar bridge was built nearby over the Menai straight to Anglesey but it has since burnt down so now this is the only surviving example and still used by the railway today. The last bridge is the A547 road bridge, which was built in 1958. (At the time this was the A55, which now instead runs in a tunnel here).

As a result of the new road bridge, the original suspension bridge was closed to traffic, so happily for me it now provides a beautiful traffic-free way of crossing the Conwy estuary. These days it is is owned by the National Trust but they do not charge a toll to use the bridge, though it was historically tolled. I tend not to enjoy the sections of coast around rivers and estuaries as much as the open sea parts, but the Conwy estuary is certainly proving an exception – it is beautiful!

The bridge was also designed to complement the castle alongside, which it does very well.

Although I can see why it was replaced, as regardless of any weight limits the bridge had it is also very narrow!

Once on the bridge, it does look a bit like the drawbridge leading into the castle, it works very well.

Peering through the gaps I also got an interesting view of the estuary under the arches of the more modern road bridge, alongside.

Looking back you can also see the unusual tubular bridge alongside, that carries the railway line.

I can’t say it’s particularly attractive but again it has stone columns that look very similar to the castle. I wonder if at the time trying to route a main road and railway right beside this ancient castle would have been controversial. It certainly would today but it was done very well and almost makes this suspension bridge look like it was built at the same time as the castle.

Once over the bridge, the road turned sharply to avoid the castle walls (another reason it was unsuitable for modern traffic) but looking back I can enjoy a wonderful view of these two bridges from the modern road bridge.

The view back to the mouth of the river was fantastic too.

I also had a fantastic view of the castle to my left.

Now having turned off the bridge I cna follow the minor road alongside the estuary through this beautiful town.

I can’t resist diverting a little inland to look at the town centre, too.

This is a beautiful town (although also very busy). I regret in hindsight not allowing time to visit the castle because it is very impressive, but on with my walk.

At the end of the town centre is a small harbour.

Then the path goes through the city walls, through this small arch.

It certainly looks like a tight squeeze for traffic! At the very left is what is claimed to be the smallest house in all of Britain, but it is no longer inhabited and now a museum.

Now having left the lovely town behind, the path continues as a tarmac path right above the estuary. With the palm trees it looks quite tropical.

As I get further away the magnificent castle comes into view again, too.

I can also see back to Llandudno junction and Deganwy on the other side of the estuary, where I was earlier.

Soon though I come to another small river. The first bridge across this is unfortunately private and locked, so I have to head up to the road bridge a little further inland instead.

This soon passes over the A55 dual carriageway which emerges from it’s tunnel under Conwy. Once over this I can return to the coast and another large marina.

In the distance, across the estuary I can still make out the Great Orme. Beyond the marina I have reached a nice sandy beach. This is the one I was looking out at earlier from Deganwy and now I am looking back over to Deganwy .

It’s a reminder that whilst I’ve been walking for a few hours because it has been rounding the estuary I haven’t made much progress along the coast. However that will change, as I soon round the corner to the open sea and can look ahead.

Yes those big cliffs I saw earlier are getting close. It will soon be decision time. The beach is lovely and deserted, a contrast to the busy town centre of Conway. I guess most of the tourists that visit the town don’t get this far – their loss!

Another reminder I haven’t progressed very far – I can still see the Great Orme which looks more like an island here and is clearly not very far away.

I haven’t failed to notice I am heading towards a very large cliff.

This is Penmaen-bach Point. Now at the time I did this walk the Wales Coast Path hadn’t opened. So I had two options really. To try and follow the A55 along the coast or go inland. Now curiously here the A55 going west goes through a tunnel. But going east it comes around the end of the cliff (you can just make out the bridge in the photo above). Now the A55 is not very pedestrian-friendly, being a dual carriageway and the main road to Holyhead. I doubted there was a pavement so it didn’t seem a good or safe route.

As it happens I was probably wrong here. the Wales Coast Path IS now routed along this road. It turns out the road does have a pavement (I assume it did when I did the walk and it wasn’t added to create the coast path). Although walking next to all that traffic is still not going to be very pleasant.

The alternative next route further inland is a path called the North Wales Path. That goes the long way right over the top of the cliffs, although nearly a mile from the cliff edge. I suspected it was high enough I’d still see the sea even though it isn’t a true coast path. I had been mulling over these options and instead came up with third option.

The tide was going out. The map suggested at low tide it was possible to walk around on the beach, so I was going to give that a go. It would be the most coastal route, after all.

Nearing the cliff the beach began to turn to shingle again.

It turned out as I neared the end of the beach there was a path through the dunes.

However when this ended I returned to the beach. It was quite rocky and I had little choice but to make my way through the rocks and pebbles because further out I’d be in the sea.

I suspect I had timed it just right because the tide was just about out far enough I could get around, with a few metres of pebble beach.

As I began to round the corner, some sand returned and the weather was also improving so I could still see back to the impressive Great Orme, now glistening in the sun.

I was relieved to be round and now as the beach got wider it returned to be a relaxing beach walk along the deserted beach.

Looking inland I could now see the west-bound A55 emerging from it’s tunnel too.

I am now nearing the small village of Dwygyfylchi (how on earth do you say that?) which is the other side of the A55. The beach is a mixture of clear areas of sand, mixed with some large boulders, but there is always a way through on the sand. There is also rock armour at the back of the beach which I expect was put in place to protect the railway and A55. There are impressive hills behind the beach, though clearly suffering from erosion with a lot of scree near the bottom.

I am glad I was able to find a lower level route than going up there! Out to sea I can see an island.

Checking the map this is Puffin Island, off the coast of Anglesey, which means I can actually see two islands (Anglesey being the other) although that isn’t obvious from here.

Behind the beach now the mountains look more stable, with heather and trees growing on the cliff face.

Looking back the beautiful mountains are now catching the sunshine.

It’s hard to decide if these are cliffs or mountains but they seem more like the latter, without the sheer cliff face and with the road and railway in front.

The beach has now widened considerably again so I am at no risk of getting cut off by the tide here. The walking ahead is easy, just keep to this lovely beach.

Soon a train passes on the adjacent railway line. It seems to have a bit of an identity crisis, carrying the branding of both Virgin Trains and Arriva Trains Wales. That must be confusing if you have a ticket that is only valid on one of those companies!

Looking inland I can soon see houses again.

This must be Penmaenmawr. The houses have a sea view but between them and the sea they have to contend with the A55 dual carriageway and the mainline railway. It must be a noisy place to live, even if it does come with a sea view. I am planning to end my walk from here and as I get nearer the traffic noise which isn’t very noticeable near the shore becomes much more noticeable. The villages and towns along this part of the coast are certainly dominated by transport infrastructure.

Inland there are some green hills but others further east have suffered extensive damage from quarrying. The beach though is glorious.

Looking west there is another high cliff. As before, the road goes through a tunnel around this in one direction but not the other. I will have to worry about how I get past that on my next walk.

I decided to end the walk here and so headed inland in search of the railway station. All the village is the other side of the A55 and railway line so I have to through a subway to get to them.

It is not a nice subway but it has been decorated with some “artistic graffiti”. Talking of grafitti once through I spot these words of wisdom on a nearby building.

(If you can’t read it, it says “Life without dreams is like pizza without toppings, potentially great, but utterly disappointing”. I can’t disagree with that!

Anyway now I head to the railway station for the train to Rhyl.

Curiously and to my surprise this station is a request stop, as the screen confirms.

So I get to flag down the train just for me, which is always fun! Although the station is no longer (2026) a request stop. To be honest it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have request stops on a high-speed mainline like this anyway given trains would have to slow to crawl in case they need to stop. I always tended to think request stops were more something to find on a rural branch line.

Anyway the train did stop and took me to Rhyl. As I said earlier I’m afraid I have completely forgotten why it was I booked a ticket back from Rhyl and not Penmaenmawr. But it definitely wasn’t just to save money, I can see from my photos from that day that I did indeed get off there and take some photos of Rhyl too, so here they are.

Now if only I could remember why it was I went there! Anyway from there I took the train back to Chester, then on to Crewe and finally back to London Euston. It was a long day, but a very enjoyable one.

This had been a fantastic walk with spectacular coast line throughout. I really enjoyed the Conwy estuary and particularly the beautiful town of the same name with it’s huge castle. Returning to the open sea I loved the beautiful and largely deserted beaches west of there and especially the back drop of the mountains behind them. I was pleased too that I was able to get round on the shoreline and avoid walking next to the busy dual carriageway. It had been a wonderful day.

Here are details of the public transport needed for this walk. It is neccessary to change trains at Llandudno junction.

Transport for Wales North Wales Coast Line : Manchester Airport – East Didsbury – Manchester (Piccadilly) – Manchester (Oxford Road) – Newton-le-Willows – Earlestown – Warrington (Bank Quay) – Runcorn East – Frodsham – Helsby – Chester – Shotton – Flint – Prestatyn – Rhyl – Colwyn Bay – Llandudno Junction – Conwy – Penmaenmawr – Llanfairfechan – Bangor – Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch(!) – Holyhead. Trains run hourly Monday – Saturday but are much less frequent on Sundays, with gaps of 3 hours or more between trains. It takes around 10 minutes to travel between Llandudno Junction and Penmaenmawr.

Transport for Wales Landudno branch : Llandudno Junction – Deganwy – Llandudno. Trains run approximately every 30 minutes Monday – Saturday (most run through from Liverpool), but some operates only as a shuttle. On Sundays the services is also generally every 30 minutes, but there are some one hour gaps between trains. It takes 10 minutes to travel between Llandudno Junction and Llandudno.

Here are the complete set of photos for this walk : Main Link.

Here is a map of the route of this walk:-

August 2009

Once again I was doing this walk as a long day trip from home as I had booked (a few months in advance) a train ticket from London to Colwyn Bay for £9.50 and a return back from Llandudno to London for the same price. A return from London to North Wales for under £20 is a bargain (sadly fares are now a distant memory).

I took the train to London Waterloo, the Northern Line to London Euston to Chester and another from Chester to Colwyn Bay. The journey mostly went well except that the train along the coast was about 15 minutes late, but not a major problem, as it should still give me enough time to complete the walk (this is the downside of booking non-refunable tickets, if the outward journey is delayed you can’t come back on a later train so the time available to walk is cut short).

Today is exactly the middle of August (the 15th), right in the middle of the holiday season. However the weather is also fairly characteristic of the middle of summer in North Wales – drizzle! I emerged from the station near to Victoria Pier. The sign proclaims “Open All Day – Every Day”. Well not today it isn’t. I wrote this up in a previous post so I won’t repeat the same information again but the pier had been closed since the previous year due to unpaid business rates. It was in a sorry state. (The pier would never re-open and was later demolished).

Despite the run-down pier the beach is nice with a lot of sand visible today as the tide was low. I headed west along the promenade. Fortunately the noisy A55 road and railway soon turn inland, so the noise from these quickly reduces.

I suppose because of the weather the beach is practically deserted, although the drizzle has by now stopped and the sky looks to be brightening so maybe it will get busier.

As I head west the beach is becoming increasingly pebbly. Behind the beach are some attractive gardens with a curious straw man. Not sure what he is meant to be doing? Pulling up some vegetables perhaps.

I am now coming to the harbour, or sort of. Most harbours have a concrete wall, this one seems to be formed with a pile of rocks instead for some reason.

I have now moved from Colwyn Bay to Rhos-on-Sea although I am not sure exactly where one town starts and the other ends. Rhos-on-Sea also has some very pretty gardens and a fine view back over Colwyn Bay.

Rhos-on-Sea is not really a resort though, the beach beyond the harbour has now turned to pebble and rocks.

Behind the beach is a tiny little chapel that looks like it might be built from rocks from the beach. This is The Holy Well and Chapel of St Trillo. It is not open today but there is a list of services posted on a sign nearby – it is used regularly but I can’t imagine the congregation is very big given that it is barely longer than the park bench in front of it!

Rounding the corner I have now entered the next bay, Penrhyn Bay. This is a beautiful bay with a very large rocky headland at the far end, though it has clearly been heavily quarried over the years. This actually isn’t the Great Orme in Llandudno, but it’s smaller cousin, the Little Orme. It isn’t that little!

I continue west along the promenade, which soon rises up to the top of the cliffs, giving a fine view back over the beach, which now has some sand at the low tide line.

The path soon follows a residential road, a cul-de-sac for cars but at the end the path continues up to the Little Orme. I have only gained a small amount of height so far, but already the view is wonderful.

As I climb further the view continues to improve.

It is a long way up but certainly worth the effort as I am rewarded with a lovely view in the other direction to a small rocky bay with high cliffs surrounding it. This is called Porth Dyniewaid. There is a very steep path down to it but given it is rocky and I will have to climb all the way back up and I am not tempted to follow it.

Rounding this little bay the path then continues to climb until I have reached the very top. It is quite a long time but it is certainly worth it, as there is a stunning view.

I can see all the way back to Rhos-on-Sea, Colwyn Bay and Prestatyn in the far distance. I am glad the drizzle this morning has cleared or I might not have been able to see anything from up here.

The headland is (according to the map) 141 metres above sea level. That’s not really a massive amount but up here it does feel like a mountain, with craggy rocks to be seen inland.

Even more impressive is the view west, to Llandudno and the even larger Great Orme.

It looks wonderful and I am looking forward to getting there. Heading to the coastal edge and the trig point that marks the highest point, I can clearly make out the Great Orme and Llandudno. In the distance is more land – Anglesey? I think it is.

The weather is now improving all the time, almost unbroken sunshine. Llandudno looks absolutely lovely, a long way below!

This is spectacular and it looks like it’s only going to get better. I have really enjoyed the time at the top here but sadly it’s soon time to head down and so I take the path that descends down towards the B5115.

It is a long way down but eventually the path levels out to a track and emerges beside the B5115. It is about a half mile walk back to the coast, but at least this bit is flat. I have now reached Ormes Bay. Or is it Llandudno Bay. I don’t know because the Ordnance survey also don’t know (the map is marked as “Ormes Bay or Llandudno Bay” on the map).

As the path follows the pavement beside the road, I decided to head down to the beach for a nicer walk. Looking inland I can see lines of neat Victorian terraces as I near Llandudno.

Although most of the beach is pebble there is a narrow line of firm sand near the shoreline.

Behind the beach are more attractive houses. These ones catch my eye, I am not sure why about 1/3 of them are yellow and the other 2/3 a sort of minty green!

Llandudno is situated to the south of the impressively rocky headland of Great Orme so it has two bays, one to the east (this one) and another the west side. This probably helps the town attract visitors because if the wind is blowing from either west or east one of the two bays will still be sheltered.

At the far end of the bay on the east side is the pier which I am now approaching.

The town itself looks very pretty, but is dwarfed by the high cliffs beyond.

The town not only looks traditional but is traditional, with donkey rides on the beach.

Llandudno is much busier than Colwyn Bay and I can see why, as it is a lovely town. It has some very pretty flower beds too.

The traditional sea-side attractions continue as I soon come to Punch and Judy.

I can’t remember the last time I saw that! It looks like the show is about to start, with a patiently waiting crowd, but I think I am a bit old for that now!

I continued a short distance to reach the pier. Happily, unlike Colwyn Bay, this one is in good condition so I can’t resist heading out to it’s end. There are stunning views of the Great Orme ahead.

From the end I have wonderful views back over the town.

I can see from here there are more mountains behind the town too, it really does have a lovely location.

Llandudno was largely developed as a coastal resort in the Victorian Era. They built many of the towns facilities that attracted (and continue to attract) visitors and I am soon approaching another of these, the Marine Drive around the Great Orme.

Unlike the Little Orme, the coast path goes around the Great Orme, not at sea level but not at the top either. I think it was cut into the cliffs during Victorian times as a grand carriage drive, later being opened to cars although the road is I think still private and you must pay a toll to drive around it (though happily for me it is free for pedestrians).

I admit I am a bit torn as I expect there is a stunning view from the top too. The top can be easily reached too as there is a road and a tramway up there – another Victorian era attraction.

In the end I opt for the more coastal route of following Marine Drive. There is a great view back to the towns attractive pier.

The road is quite an impressive piece of engineering, cut into this huge headland and I am glad too that there is a pavement so I can focus on enjoying the view rather than watching for traffic all the time (it helps too that the road is one way).

You can really see how it has been cut into the cliffs. Whilst the views from here are probably not as good as from the top it is still high enough I can see most of the town now laid out before me, when I turn around.

Rounding the corner there are a number of beaches visible beneath the road, inaccessible other than by sea.

If it wasn’t for the road I think this would be a tough bit of coast to walk, as it is, it is actually very easy which means I get great views without a lot of effort!

I am getting somewhat mixed weather too as the sun briefly gives way to a short but heavy shower.

I can soon see on the horizon a building which I assume is the lighthouse at the end of the headland.

There is also a great view looking back and the route of the Marine Drive is very obvious, cut into the cliff.

I am soon nearing the lighthouse, but from here it’s hiding as is the building which seems to be trying to hide around a corner!

Sadly the lighthouse building itself is now a private bed and breakfast so this is as close as I can get without trespassing. Instead I pass the Rest and Be Thankful cafe and continue around to the west side of the Great Orme.

The scenery is extremely impressive with the cliffs seeming to form steps.

Whilst I am having an excellent day it seems not everyone is, as the RAF Search and Rescue helicopter passes overhead. I hope it is an exercise, but I suspect it isn’t.

Soon another heavy shower arrives, it makes for an impressive view, even if I am getting wet.

I am soon rounding the corner and now facing west again.

As I continue around the road I can soon see the western beach of Llandudno, Conwy Sands.

I can also clearly make out the mouth of the River Conwy which flows out into the bay. As you can also see there isn’t a bridge on the coast so I’ll have to head about a mile and a half inland to get across it, but that is for my next walk.

Below the road are the houses of Gogarth, which seems to be a small village separate from Llandudno. I wonder if the residents have to pay the toll to drive there or are they exempt?

A path heads inland from here up to the summit of the Great Orme. I did want to include both but didn’t think I had time. However checking the time, I think I can fit it in before the train I need to get home and the rain has eased again, so I decide to head up it to the summit.

It doesn’t take as long as I thought it might and I am very glad I made the effort.

I can also see the tramway approaching the summit.

However I hadn’t realised that apart from walking and driving there are two other ways to get up here. The tramway and a cable car.

I had somehow missed the fact you can also get a cable car to the top.

The headland has also clearly been quarried, but the quarrying is less obvious than with the Little Orme.

I can also see back to the town, though the rain showers mean it is quite hazy now.

I am very glad I made the effort to climb to the summit, but now I have seen the view I need to get on so I head back down the same way I came up.

I am soon back down on the road and this soon levels down back to the beach level, above Conwy Bay.

This is another mixture of sand and pebbles.

There is also a boating lake here. At least I assume it is, or was, it is mostly used by swans now it seems!

Further south along the beach there are dunes too.

From here I have to tear myself away from the coast and head inland along Trinity Crescent to the station and the trains back home.

This had been one of my favourite coastal walks. There was so much variety and so much stunning scenery. I started out with the lovely sandy beaches at Colwyn Bay but soon it felt more like mountain climbing as I headed up to the Little Orme and then back down to Llandudno. This is a lovely town. Whilst some coastal resorts can feel run down and tired Llandudno seems to have avoided this and has something for everyone and also seems to have changed little over the years, which I liked, I enjoyed exploring it very much. However the highlight was certainly the magnificent Great Orme and I was very pleased to be able to find time to both walk around it and walk to it’s summit, it was a wonderful walk. I had been a bit disappointed with the scenery of my first couple of walks in North Wales so I was glad that this walk more than made up for that.

Here are details of the public transport needed for this walk:-

Transport for Wales North Wales Coast Line : Liverpool Lime Street – Liverpool South Parkway – Runcorn – Frodsham – Helsby – Chester – Shotton – Flint – Prestatyn – Rhyl – Abergele and Pensarn – Colwyn Bay – Llandudno Junction – Degany – Llandudno. Trains run hourly Monday – Saturday. It takes just over 15 minutes to travel between Colwyn Bay and Llandudno. On Sundays it is necessary to change at Llandudno Junction as trains to Llandudno only run as a shuttle between Llandudno Junction and Llandudno on Sundays, which means it takes a little longer depending on how long you have to wait for a connection. There are connections to Holyhead at Llandudno Junction.

Here are the complete set of photos for this walk : Main Link.

Here is a map of the route of this walk:-

May 2026

I am skipping to 2 days ahead from my previous walk as I didn’t walk this part of the coast of Barbados in order (which was not my intention). Yesterday I’d try to get back to Pie Corner and had to abandon it after the buses failed to run.

Rather than repeat that today I have instead decided to do the walk in the other direction, south to north (to end in Pie Corner again) so this walk is along much of the east coast of the island, which faces the Atlantic.

I headed out from the hotel and took one of the ZR Route taxi buses down to Oistins. I think I had to wait for about 30 seconds, as these run so frequently, at this time in the morning. From Oistins to my surprise one of the blue Government run buses turned up (as I have discovered a rare thing) for the rest of the journey.

This took longer than it was supposed to and also took a different route than the website suggested and also turned out to be a school bus serving Lodge School so it was soon full of school children to the point I don’t think any more could have got on the bus. They were however pretty well behaved and after they got off there were only 3 passengers left and soon the other two got off, so it was just me for the rest of the journey to Fortescue. I got off when the bus turned away from the road and made my way down to the coast, at a place called Bell Point, where there is a view point.

The coast on this part of the island is very different. Cliffs and lush vegetation. Although Barbados is not volcanic the rocks are black and look similar to volcanic rocks.

Fortescue joins up to a place curious named College Savannah which confused me when I took the bus as it showed that as the destination and I expected Fortescue.

I followed the residential roads around the village and then I planned to pick up a path called Consett Cutting, which is the coast path here. The path is amazing, like another world really with lush plants on either side.

A surprising thing about this track is that it used to be a railway! From here for the next few miles I will be intermittently following the route of the former Barbados Railway.

Barbados had a 24 mile long railway which ran from Bridgetown east to Consett Point, where I am and then up the east coast to end at Andrews Station, which was basically the middle of nowhere. The first part of it opened in 1881 and was initially successful but money was not re-invested in maintenance. However later storms and a lack of maintenance much of it had to be re-built to a narrower gauge. However financial difficulties continued and it closed in 1904. A new company was founded to start running trains again in 1905 but again went bust and closed in 1914. The Government intervened and took it over in 1916 and resumed running in 1917. This provided a reprise for a time with money invested, but again a subsequent lack of maintenance started to cause issues by the 1930s and the passenger service was ended in 1934 and closed entirely for goods too in 1937. So it has been closed for a long time but much of the route is now open as a footpath.

A gap in the vegetation on the right soon gives me a lovely view along the coast.

However soon it’s back to more jungle like scenery. It is an amazing path!

Soon it emerges from the cutting and then runs along basically the bottom of the gardens of some houses!

The path ends at the small beach of Conset Bay.

It is probably normally a nice beach but sadly today most of the beach itself is covered in the Sargassum seaweed and the sea is pretty much full of it. This tends to effect the east and south east coast of Barbados during spring and summer, which it is now. I gather it can come and go very quickly too so a beach covered one day can be clear another. However it doesn’t tempt me to go for a paddle today unfortunately.

From the end of the beach a track continues west along a track which Google gives the rather unfortunate name “My Ladies Hole”.

There is a small pier on the beach which serves the fish market at the back of the beach. I imagine at times this is busy, but there is no one there today.

The beach is small but this part is mostly free of the sea weed that effects the eastern part of the beach (I assume both are called Conset Bay, the only maps I have aren’t very clear on that).

From here I head back to the track which soon heads up through a lush green area which goes by the name of Windy Ridge, according to the map. Well the ridge part seems accurate but there isn’t much wind here today. It is not that steep but in the heat it makes it feel harder than I had expected.

The view from the top is lovely though, and much greener than I expected.

It could quite easily be in Briatin. I also have a nice view back to Conset Bay now far below.

You can see how the sea weed mostly seems to be on the far (eastern) part of the bay for some reason. I soon reach a small pile of stones. A cairn that marks the top perhaps?

I hope so and it seems to as the path now begins to descend. However it is descending a bit inland so it beings me down to Bath Beach Road and I can turn right along this to get back to the coast at the village of Bath.

The beach here is beautiful again, white sand and palm trees. Although it still has quite a bit of the sea weed at the back of the beach the sea and shore line part of the beach is clear, so I stop for a quick paddle to cool off.

Further along the beach there are more facilities in the shape of a car park, toilet and a yellow life guard tower.

Again it is a lovely spot but I only see one other person here. It seems not many tourists make it to the east coast of the island which is a shame, as I am glad that I made the effort. At the north end of the beach is a small waterfall in the shade of some trees.

A lovely and unexpected surprise. Shortly after this the route resumes on the old railway line, marked with a Bath Trail sign hanging above the path.

Now part of the reason the railway failed was frequent coastal erosion. That is still a problem today as in places the path is collapsing into the sea, though I can just get around it.

It soon begins to climb again too (is this really an old railway?) but a break in the trees gives a lovely view of the coast ahead.

There is another nice beach below, although it also has a lot of sea weed on it.

Soon dropping back down to sea level again I can see remnants of the old railway infrastructure, presumably this is a culvert taking a stream under the track.

I am approaching the beach of Congor Bay. There is strange geology here with some isolated rocks out in the sea. They are much thinner at the bottom than the top, presumably the effects of the sea eroding the rock and they will presumably collapse at some point.

I soon reach Congor Bay beach itself and well it’s a disappointment. The whole beach has been taken over by huge amounts of the Sargassum sea weed that is piled very thickly over the beach and also the sea is full of it. Sadly not a place to linger today. I expect it’s beautiful when clear of sea weed.

I soon pass another remnant of the old railway, the supports of a now gone bridge that presumably carried the railway over another stream.

The one on the east side has almost disappeared in the thick vegetation, but is just visible.

I continued on the path west from here which soon climbs again and at the end of the bay I have a nice view back down to the beach. It is still beautiful despite the sea weed.

The vegetation here is unexpectedly lush and in places the path is disappearing into it. Sadly I don’t know much about the plants here but I know that most of them are unfamiliar to me.

Below are small rocky beaches. The path has a bit of a camber in places so I have to be careful not to end up down there, unexpectedly.

In places the path is getting very close to the edge and the eroding cliffs.

Still it’s impressive to be just above the crashing sea. Again there are various large rocks along the coast here, presumably the rock is harder in places so the land around them has eroded away to leave the rocks.

The path soon becomes a track again as I reach the next village, Martins Bay.

Again this is another nice sandy beach but a bit blighted by the sea weed, but not as badly as Congor Bay.

I soon come to the centre of the beach where there is a picnic area and more Tsunami warnings.

Certainly the large number of leaves from palm trees scattered on the ground suggests there has been a storm recently though I assume not a tsunami. The coast on the east side is of course exposed to the force of the Atlantic so tends to take more of a battering than the west coast.

The path continues behind houses to reach some smaller and quite pretty beaches with a number of small rock stacks. The geology here is very interesting even if I know nothing about it.

The path is a bit tricky to find in places  – it does go through here even though it doesn’t look like it!

The beaches had become coarse sand and as I head further north are turning to pebble rather than sand. There are more impressive rocks stacks out to sea, too.

It is lovely walking passing these numerous rocky beaches, where the sea looks a bit like a boulder field! The path too is lovely, gently undulating through lush countryside, even though I don’t recognise many of the plants I am passing. The weather too has improved with the cloud lifting to give a largely cloudless sky. On this side of the island the wind always gives a breeze too, so it’s not too hot.

Some of the beaches though along this coast are also suffering with a lot of the Sargassum seaweed. It is a stunning coastline though with the large rocks continuing north along the coast.

This wonderful path soon ends as I come into the next settlement, which appears to be called Tent Bay for some reason. At least that is what the (deserted) fish market is called.

There are some grand houses here too, overlooking the sea.

There is also a handy bench.

I made use of that to have my lunch! It was a wonderful spot listening to the sound of the waves crashing in and a gentle breeze to stop it from getting too hot. There are more large rocks in the sea here, this one even has a hole through it.

After leaving Tent Bay there is another good path around the coast.

It is only about 500 metres before I emerge into the next settlement, the small town of Bathsheba. There is a road just inland. Now I’ve commented a lot about problems with buses and you know the old saying … well yes 3 did come at once though I wasn’t waiting for any. But it does show the 3 types of buses on the island, the blue Transport Board (Government) buses, a white ZR mini-van (official a Route Taxi) and the privately run Yellow “Reggae” bus.

Well at least I know buses come this way if I need to cut the walk short. The scenery continues to impress with this large rock in the bay.

There is a nice little picnic area behind the beach here, too. If it wasn’t for the seaweed (and so I could see the white sand) this would be a classic shot of the coast line too.

The path follows the road through this small town (or possibly a village), passing a pink painted church.

The path soon continues north through the lush vegetation alongside more fabulous beaches.

I am now back on the old railway line which continues north along the coast to Joes River.

Here a footbridge has been built to replace the former railway bridge so I can easily get across the river. It is surprisingly high with the river a fast-flowing rocky affair surrounded by palm trees.

Just after this the path emerges at the road, Ermy Bourne Highway here. Now I have a choice here. I could follow this pavementless road (which to be fair isn’t too busy) or I could follow the beach. It’s not a hard choice!

The beach it is. The beach now stretches for a few miles north (around 3 I think). I am not sure if it is called this but certainly further up, it is called Walkers beach and it’s lovely. There is some sea weed but the shore beside the waves where I want to walk is mostly free of it which is nice, whilst the beach is backed by many palm trees. Despite how beautiful it is, I can’t see any other people here.

Although there are fewer of the large rocks I saw further south along the coast, there are still some but they are mostly on the beach rather than in the sea now.

Around this point I saw one other person, but that was it.

I was enjoying this walk hugely, but I did know there was a potential issue. A river ahead that I wasn’t sure I could cross. Though it wasn’t a big concern, as the road was not that far inland so I suspected I could divert onto that if needed, rather than have to go all the way back to Bathsheba.

The waves continued to crash in beside me as I progressed along this beautiful beach. Unfortunately the spray from this often got on my camera lens and I didn’t always notice so some of the pictures ended up blurred.

A large cluster of palm trees ahead suggested the river was close.

Sure enough, here it is.

This is called Long Pond and as you can see crossing the first part was no bother because this bit dried up before it even reached the sea. I also saw a few other people here (you can see them beside the left side of the pond) so I hoped this meant there was fairly easy access along that side to the road, if I needed it.

However the river did flow out to the sea at the second part of the pond. There was also a lot of sea-weed but fortunately a thin gap of sand I could follow to get around it.

When I reached the river, well it wasn’t too fast flowing or deep but it was certainly going to be a wading job. Fortunately I don’t have to worry about it being too cold here. But I do have to hope the ground underneath is firm which is not that easy to see. Well it mostly was, but I did have to contend with waves coming in which made it briefly get much deeper, but I think it only got to a bit below my waist at the deepest part, so not too bad. I was glad to have made it over, though.

Whilst I did get wet, I knew it would not take long to dry in the heat and sunshine. I could also enjoy the view back along this stunning beach. I know there is some sea weed but the sea is mostly clear of it and yet hardly anyone seems to come here and enjoy it. I was glad I had.

One concern I did have however was that having crossed the river, if the tide was coming in it might to be possible to cross safely for much longer. An additional concern was it didn’t look like there was (legal) access to the road at least not immediately on this side, as there was a warning not to head inland as this was a designated Leatherback Sea Turtle nesting area. Well I certainly didn’t want to disturb them. I’d have loved to have seen some, but I never did on.

Anyway I continued along the beach, with some branches washed up onto the sand.

Sadly I was now coming to the end of the beach. Fortunately there were no worries with access, with a good but quite steep path zig-zagging up to the cliff top at the far end of the beach. It wasn’t that long a climb but it felt it in the heat because as soon as I was a bit away from the sea the temperature increased and the wind dropped.

At the top I could enjoy the view back along this wonderful beach.

The track bought me out to the road at the edge of the village of Boscobelle. It was a quiet village with mostly school children walking home from school. I am not sure if there is a school in this village but certainly some came by bus as I saw the school bus driving around the streets.

I continued north along the roads through Date Tree Hill and the rather ominously named Graveyard to Cave Hill. I didn’t see a cave, but I did see a church.

I had almost reached Pie Corner now (where I got to last time) but I had another bit of coast to see first. So I turned right off the road and down to a place called Cove Bay.

As I neared again the landscape was quite different – a fairly flat grassy area with cows grazing but large cliffs behind.

I followed the road, Cove Road passing this strange tower.

I had no idea what it is or was (I wondered if a water tower) but a later check on Google says it is Sugarcane storage. Well nothing is being stored there today!

Anyway by this tower I could turn off and follow the path to the beach. Here there are low and quite crumbly looking cliffs, with the waves crashing into them. I guess it must be about high tide now.

Soon I could get a view back along the coast towards Walkers Beach and the low cliffs I had climbed at the end of that bay.

Presumably because it was high tide there wasn’t really any sand on the beach as the waves were reaching the back and I could see the far side had a lot of sea-weed again too.

Just north of this there was a plantation of Palm trees, clearly laid out in lines. They were quite pretty but I am not sure why they had been planted like this.

Anyway from here I head back along the path to the road and continued to the end of Little Bay Road. This is where I got to on my previous walk when I walked along the road from Little Bay so I had now joined up my walks and now walked all but the south and south east part of the coast of Barbados. It had been a fantastic day. Now I had to get back to Worthing, pretty much the opposite corner of the island.

I had seen hardly any buses only the school bus. I soon found a bus stop and had decided to just take the first bus of any sort that came. I only had to wait about 5 minutes when one of the ZR mini-vans turned up. I had been avoiding these but come to realise only a fraction of the main buses actually operate so if I didn’t take it I could be waiting a long time for another bus or there might not be one at all. So I flagged it down. Fortunately unlike my last experience this one was not blaring load music. Instead it was quiet and the driver quite safe and calm.

He stopped to pick up and drop off people on the way and took payment after I got in. The people here too are very friendly an honest. One got in and asked if the driver had change for a $50 note. He did. When he gave the passenger his change a minute or so later he commented “you’ve over done me here”. The driver had given him the wrong notes in change so he’d ended up with a lot more money than he had handed over! It was nice to see how honest the people are here that he immediately bought this to the drivers attention and swapped for the correct amount of change!

Anyway this drive was much more pleasant without the loud music and tearing round corners and it took a little over 20 minutes to get back to Speightstown bus station. I did what I did last time and headed one bus stop down the road so I could take the first bus from there going the right way because I had discovered the bus station was confusing and complicated with some buses departing from stands that you waited for at inside and other from outside, which you couldn’t see from inside. This made it impossible to know which bus was going my way next (and I had learnt by now the timetable may as well not exist!).

This worked well and it was a bit over 5 minutes before one of the yellow buses came to get me back to Worthing. Again it was busy (and this one had a conductor that came round to collect the fares) but quieter than the previous day and I enjoyed the drive back, though it was dark by the time I got back to Worthing, but I was glad that this time the journey had been a lot smoother this time (though it took a bit over 90 minutes).

This had been a really wonderful day. I was able to follow right alongside the coast almost all day and often right on the beach thanks to the excellent Barbados Trailway I had been following, part of which was on the route of the old railway line. The east coast of Barbados was far more rural and less developed and had stunning beaches with crashing waves. I was glad I had made the effort to go to this side and given how few people I saw I don’t think many visitors make the effort.

Here are the complete set of photos from this walk : Main Link.

August 2010

My previous walk write up was for quite a short walk, between Mostyn and Prestatyn. The reason for that is I had done this walk about 3 years earlier, so I knew on that walk I only had to walk as far as Prestatyn to close the gap. (I did much of my earlier walks with a bit of a scatter gun approach often based off where I could get a cheap rail ticket, then had to fill in the gaps I left later).

For this trip I was once again travelling from home as I had got cheap train tickets with a ticket from London Euston to Colwyn Bay for £12.50 and another ticket from Prestatyn to London Euston also for £12.50. This meant it was much cheaper to do this walk as a (long) day trip than staying over in the area, so that is what I was doing. I took a train from my local station to London Waterloo, the Northern Line to Euston and then a train from London to Chester and finally a train from Chester to Colwyn Bay.

The trains were on time although the train from Chester to Colwyn Bay was only 2 carriages and packed full so I had had to stand as far as Prestatyn. I can’t understand the logic in running tiny 2 carriage trains on a busy route serving lots of holiday resorts in the middle of August, about the busiest time of the year. Oh well, at least I had made it, anyway.

Colwyn Bay feels quite dominated by transport infrastructure. The main A55 trunk road (a dual carriageway, the main route from the motorway to the port at Holyhead) and the North Wales Coast railway line run right along the coast here, so to get between the beach and the town you have to cross both. That also means you get a fair bit of noise from both, too.

When I reach the beach there isn’t a lot of it. It must be high tide because looking west the sea is reaching the sea wall and even directly in front of me there is only about a metre of sand. Despite being the middle of summer, the town seems quiet.

Directly in front of me is the rather sorry looking pier, Victoria Pier.

It was closed down with a large banner “Save Victoria Pier” on it. The pier opened in 1900 but was part closed (the seaward end) in 1987. It was later vandalised and suffered a fire. It was bought by a private owner in 1994 who restored some of the pier but not the shoreward end. He intended to restore and re-open all of it but ran out of money and put the pier up for sale in 2003. It was bought by the current owner in 2004 however he was declared bankrupt by the local council in 2008 due to unpaid business rates. It was therefore closed and still derelict when I did this walk in 2010.

It never reopened. The local Council bought the pier from the receivers in 2012. Their plan to restore it seemed to hinge on getting lottery funding, which they never did. They later announced plans to get the pier, a listed structure, de-listed so they could demolish it. The Welsh Heritage organisation, CADW refused permission to de-list it. However, as they usually do, the Council got their way. They did nothing further with the pier until there were several collapses during 2017 so most of it was subsequently demolished, exactly as the Council wanted. I was glad I had got to see it before it got demolished, even if I couldn’t go on it.

Only a small part of the landward end was retained and eventually restored. As it happens I was back in Colwyn Bay last year (2025) so photographed what it looks like now.

A small wooden jetty with no buildings basically. I am not really sure it was worth the effort!

Anyway it was time to begin the walk which was simple enough – turn right and follow the promenade.

To be honest the town felt very run down, with the railings beside the promenade all rusty.

However I was also puzzled by what on earth the Council was thinking with this cycle path. Why not just run it straight? There was a hashed off area of the road. So it can run straight down there. Instead it seemed to zig-zag between the lamposts for no obvious reason. I didn’t see anyone using it either, which is hardly a surprise!

After a while there was a lower and an upper promenade. I followed the lower until it ended abruptly with a pile of rocks.

So I climbed over the railings back onto the upper path. By this point the sandy beach had become pebble. At the end of the bay was a rocky headland.

Fortunately the path went behind this, between the headland and the A55. (The railway goes under it in a tunnel). However there was the option to onto top of the headland so I did to enjoy the view, where I could see in both directions. I think the high cliffs at the far end of the bay are the edge of Llandudno. It was a lovely view.

In the other direction it was less pretty.

There were what looked like abandoned old piers and jetties. Looking at the map I could see there is a quarry inland (I am not sure if it is still used) and I assume the piers were used to load the quarried stone onto ships. Right behind the beach traffic on the A55 thundered by whilst the beach itself seem to have been replaced with weird shaped pieces of concrete that I assume was built as coastal defence. It was not as nice as I had hoped it would be.

The path continued as a surfaced path over this bizarre beach of weird shaped bits of concrete.

Inland I could see conveyers that I assume were used to transport the quarried stone under the A55 and to one of these piers.

I’m pretty sure it was all disused now. The path I was following (I think it was just called the North Wales Path at this point, as the Wales coast path had not yet been completed) sometimes ran up high, alongside the road to get around various bits of old industry then dropped back down to sea level.

After a while it dropped down and seemed to stay there as I approached the next village, Llanddulas.

The railway too had re-emerged from tunnels and was now running right beside the coast again.

I didn’t really see much of the village, as it was the other side of the railway and A55 from the coast. However ahead the river Dulas flowed under the railway and across the beach. Fortunately, as you can see there was a bridge for me to cross the river by, so I don’t have to inland to get around it.

Once past the river the path is right back on the coast, now the coastal side of a caravan park. The weird shaped rocks that had taken over the beach had ended by this point and the coast was feeling now rather more natural.

By this time the weather, which had been overcast is improving too, as the clouds were now burning off to give some sunshine.

The water looked very clear, too. Ahead of me stretched the beach of Llanddulas. It was sand near the shoreline but rocks nearer the back of the beach. I think the rocks had been put here and aren’t natural I presume to protect the railway line and road behind the beach.

There are only a few dog walkers on the beach by this point.

The path ran right along the back of the beach which was very flat here, so progress was fairly rapid.

However soon the beach widens considerably. Rather than stick to the tarmac coast path behind the beach I can’t resist dropping down onto the now wide and sandy beach – I guess the tide must be going out now!

I am now approaching the town of Abergele, but again you would not really know it from the beach because the town is behind the A55 and railway again.

Behind the beach I can soon see an impressive ruined castle.

This is Gwyrch Castle and it has an interesting history. Originally a castle dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, most of what is there now was built in the 19th and 20th century, more as a stately home. It was rumored to be a very grand house and was visited by Queens Victoria. In the 1920s the castle was owned by Winifred Bamford-Hesketh, the Countess of Dundonald. When she died in 1924 she left the castle to George V in the hope it would become the official Welsh residence of the Prince of Wales. However this wasn’t taken up and it was re-purchased by her husband, but he never returned to live there.

It was used during world War II to house 200 Jewish children. The Dundonalds sold the castle at the end of the war and it was operated as a tourist attraction and hospitality venue after that, but closed in 1987. It became derelict and was frequently vandalised. That was the state it was in when I passed, but the since then there is some good news. The castle was bought by the Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust who are now restoring it and it is now open to the public again. If it was open when I walked past I would have stopped to visit.

The beach was becoming increasingly stony again though there was still sand at the shoreline.

Now I reaching the end of Abergele and reaching the neighboring town of Pensarn. The first thing I see of that is the bright lights of the Pensarn Pleasure beach. It certainly isn’t on the scale of Blackpool pleasure beach!

The A55 road turns inland here so at least this makes the coast quieter now (though the railway continues behind the beach). The beach is lovely with a large sandy beach though mixed in with a few pebbles, too.

However I had closer to the shore where it is easier to walk on the firm sand near the shoreline.

The sun is shining now and this part of the walk is absolutely lovely, with just the sound of the sea beside me. I knew from my journey here by train this morning that the coast here is lined by huge numbers of caravans, but these are the other side of the railway line from the beach so I couldn’t really see them from the beach. I was now approaching the town of Towyn.

As you can see the back of the beach is covered with pebbles whilst the shore line is still sand. The view ahead is rather dominated by a tall tower (which is actually in Rhyl).

After a while the railway starts to turn inland too and so now there are also caravans lining the coastal side of the railway and hence right behind the beach. They are packed in close together and stretch almost as far as I can see. It certainly seems caravan holidays are popular on this part of the coast. Beyond the caravan there are now many bungalows lining the coast instead.

This is the village of Kinmel Bay. This is on a small peninsula and soon the bungalows give way to more caravans until I reach the mouth of the River Clwyd. Behind this is a small dock area. I had to head inland a few hundred metres to the A548 road bridge to get across this river on a distinctive blue-pained metal bridge. Since I did this walk a new pedestrian bridge, called the Dragon Bridge was opened (it opened in 2013) so you don’t have to go so far inland now.

From the bridge I have a nice view over the estuary.

The tide is low as most of the boats are stuck on a sandbank! Once over the bridge I have reached the town of Rhyl (one of the few place names in Wales I can pronounce!). I have also crossed from Conwy Country into Denbighshire, which means when I finish this walk I have completed the coast of Denbighshire.

Once around the other side of the river I am now following the promenade through Rhyl. Behind the beach are lines of Victorian era houses (I think) most of which I suspect were once hotels and guest houses (some still are).

The town has a nice outlook with what I presume are the mountains at the edge of Snowdonia, visible in the distance.

The path and promenade soon passes another small fun park with a large tower. This is the Sky Tower. I didn’t take a ride!

Rhyl is quite a big town but there aren’t that many people on the beach – a surprise for a Saturday in August although it has clouded up again.

The beach soon gets wide again.

 

I soon dropped down on the beach again, it is much nicer than the busy promenade.

Soon I have reached the end of the town and it becomes more rural again, although a bit back from the beach are still thousands of static caravans. I don’t think I have seen so many since Skegness in Lincolnshire!

It is a lovely walk along the beach and soon I have reached the town of Prestatyn. Inland there is a large building with pastel coloured frontage.

This turns out to be the Nova centre which I think is a leisure centre. I have booked the train back from here so this is where I end this walk. I headed inland from the beach to meet the weird artwork that marks the northern end of the Offa’s Dyke path.

It is supposed to be a “stylised representation of the sun”. Well if you say so. It looks nothing like it to me! The path though is wonderful.

Anyway from here I headed a bit inland to the railway station and my train home. The train from Prestatyn to Chester is again very busy but I do manage to get a seat. This time I have to change again at Chester for a train to Crewe. Having complained about the length of the train (being only 2 carriages) on the way here I am shocked to find this one is even smaller – just a single carriage! I manage to get on, just, but I have to stand to Crewe and some are left behind. It is not a great service and I am relieved to get to Crewe because the train the rest of the way to London I have a reserved seat so at least I can get a seat for the rest of the way. Dinner had to be what I could get from the “shop” on board the train but it was better than nothing!

This was mostly a lovely and very enjoyable walk passing through the popular holiday resorts on this part of the coast. The coast was flat but still quite varied with some lovely beaches and lovely views to the hills and mountains of the coast further west, which I am looking forward to getting to. The only bit I didn’t enjoy very much was the bit past the disused quarries east of Colwyn Bay but at least this was only for a mile or so, so only a small part of the walk. I also seem to be making quite quick progress as I’ve now finished my second county of North Wales, Denbighshire.

Here are details of the public transport needed for this walk.

Transport for Wales North Wales Coast Line : Chester – Shotton – Flint – Prestatyn – Rhyl – Abergele and Pensarn – Colwyn Bay – Llandudno Junction. Trains then continue to either Llandudno or Holyhead (via Bangor). Most trains either start from Manchster Airport (via Manchester Piccadilly and Warrington) or Liverpool (via Runcorn). There are 3 or 4 trains per hour between Prestatyn and Colwyn Bay, Monday – Saturday. On Sundays the service is approximately hourly, with some additional services. It takes approximately 15-20 minutes to travel between Prestatyn and Colwyn Bay. There are also a small number of direct trains from Prestatyn, Rhyl and Colwyn Bay to London Euston via Crewe.

Here are the complete set of photos for this walk : Main Link.

Here is a map of the route of this walk. The batteries in my GPS ran out part way along and I didn’t immediately notice so this is why there is a small break in the track but I continued directly along the coast for the small gap.

Here is a map of the route of the walk :-