Today’s walk was intentionally short, to recover from the long previous day. We started with the mile walk from our hostel back into Penygroes, with a stop at the Co-op for food supplies.
Our food supplies may have included pastries. We needed some way to fill our time with such a short walk, right? So we had a little morning snack at the edge of the village, along with some geocaching.
It was a relatively easy day of walking, mostly on lanes and through fields. We could also see Yr Eifl (called The Rivals in English, although that’s just an anglicization of the Welsh name) come into sharper focus — we’ll be going over one of its saddles tomorrow.
There’s also a diversion still in place in this section of the walk, due to a closed footbridge over the Afon Llyfni:
We got a couple nice surprises as a result of the diversion. First, we decided to make an impromptu stop to see Craig-y-dinas, a hill fort that conveniently isn’t on a hill (so no extra uphill walking required!). It has a notable open space with a small stone wall around it, along with a center mound. On a couple sides the land drops off into the river, and on the other sides there is a sizable ditch surrounding the wall.
Because of the diversion we crossed at the Pont Y Cim bridge, our second surprise. According to the sign it was built in 1612 for 20 pounds:
Soon after that we rejoined the official path and ended up in Clynnog Fawr a couple hours earlier than expected. We decided to make the most of the afternoon and visit St. Beuno’s church and well in the village.
The church was founded in the 7th century and pilgrims have long passed through here on their way to Bardsey Island. I was especially interested in the 17th century map of this part of Wales inside the church, showing which places were noteworthy at the time. The church building is from the 15th century, and a sundial outside predates it (from around the 10th century).
Our B&B hosts graciously welcomed us (the only guests that evening!) early in the afternoon, so we relaxed and enjoyed the view of the sea. This is our only stop on the path that doesn’t have any restaurants or other food options nearby, so we’re eating dinner in Pwllheli (a bit of an exception to our foot travel, as well).
Expat Linguist 