Day 36: Aberdaron to Llanengan

Our guide book was not much help today. The path had changed since printing, however we were fortunate to get some directions from a Welsh painter and decorator in Aberdaron before starting out. He had relatives in NZ and had visited a few times. He mentioned he had visited the stone store in Keri Keri and remarked “so what”. After seeing so many stone buildings of great antiquity here we totally understood what he was saying.

Looking back towards Aberdaron

Island at Porth Cadlan

After making our way up the road from Aberdaron we crossed some paddocks to reach the coast. The path for the most part traversed the narrow corridor between a farm fence and cliffs. There were amazing views in both directions. Highlights for today included encountering a couple of beautiful white ponies and the ruins and tunnels of an old Victorian manganese mine.

The path took us along the cliff tops though a number of paddocks

Some friends we made along the way

Old quarry buildings associated with the manganese mine

We had lunch at a little sheltered cove with a lovely waterfall. Coming into Rhiw we lost the path, however after traversing a number of muddy paddocks and clambering up rock stiles we found it again at Plas-yn-Rhiw, a National Trust property with a 16th-century manor house with Georgian additions. We had a quick look around the house and garden before following the path again only to discover we were heading in the wrong direction!  

Plas-yn- Rhiw

Headland at Trwyn Talfarach

 

The 7km Porth Neigwl to the rear

View back towards Bardsey Island and the Braich y Pwll headland

Back on track, we headed down to Porth Neigwl otherwise known as Hell’s Mouth. The guide book notes that the path follows the road for some way before crossing some farm land along some muddy tracks. It recommended this in preference to the “tedious” walk along the beach. After the earlier advice from the guidebook we decided to take our chances and opted for a walk along the beach. Fortunately, the hard packed sand made for pleasant walking and we observed some interesting cliff formations due to the effects of coastal erosion. We made good time covering nearly 7km of beach in just over an hour. 

The eroding slopes of Porth Neigwl. Our destination for the day is located just before the headland.

Eroding cliffs at Porth Neigwl (stayed well clear of this one with it's big crack!)