Caernarfon Castle

Carnarfom Castle was built by King Edward the 1st of England after he had conquered Wales in 1277,
building started on the castle in 1323 and cost a massive £22,000, but it never ever got finished.

Here is an aerial photo of the castle to give you a better idea of just how big it is!!!

It was built on the mouth of the River Seiont that flows into Caernarfon Bay.

A view of the Towns Square on market day from one of the towers.

And another view taken overlooking part of the old town.

In 1911 the future Edward v111 was invested at the castle, as was Prince Charles, in 1969, which made him The Prince of Wales.

Newborough Warren

Newborough Warren is on the south edge of the Isle of Anglesey, on the opposite side of the Menai Straits from Caernarfon.
Newborough Warren is an ancient forest, and it is populated by Red Squirrels. There are lots of paths for you to walk through the woods, but the main attraction is the glorious cresent shaped beach.

As you leave the car park you have to walk through the woods on a very well made path.

As you walk you keep getting glances of the sea through the trees.

Until you finally come out of them onto the edge of the beach, the beach carries on to the left of you, there is around a mile of beach altogether, but looking to the right you can see what is known locally as Lovers Island, or Lovers Walk.

As you head toward the little island, if you turn around and look behind you at where you have just come from you get a very good idea of just how long this beach is.

Straight in front of you is the Irish Sea.
But if you make your way to towards the Island there are a couple of billboards and one of them tells you of the legend of the Island.

Once you get onto the Island you will see just what a beautiful little place it is!! covered in wild flowers with rabbits running about, butterflies hovering over the flowers, and the sound of the waves running up the many wonderful little coves all around the Island.

Lovely little out of the way places where you can sit and enjoy the peace and quiet, or perhaps have a picnic with the family.

As you walk along the main path you will come to this white path that leads you up to the large stone cross that dominates the east side of the Island. The stone cross was on the path toward the Sanctuary
back in the year 450.

 The path then carries on towards the old Lighthouse

It was built in 1873, but now no longer functions.
It was used in Demi Moore's film Half Light, in 2004, and in 2009 a scene in the hollywood blockbuster Clash of the Titans was also filmed there.

                                            All thats left of St Dwynwen church on the island. St Dwynwen died on the 25th January, and is Wales St Valentine, the welsh people give flowers and cards to their sweethearts on that date.

A very beautiful and peaceful scene overlooked by the Nantlle Ridge and Mt Snowdon in the background.

There are lots of paths all over the island, but please be aware it is a tidal island and before venturing on to it, get a tide timetable, because if the tide does come in you will be stuck on the island for around 6 hours before the tide turns again, and if you have children with you, the crisps and sweet won't last that long!!
I'm not trying to scare you, but 6 hours is a long time to be stranded, no matter how beautiful the island is.

Llyn-y-Dyvarchen Reservoir

This is such a small but very beautiful place on the country lane between Nantlle and Rhyd-Ddu.
Just before you turn the corner to the village of Rhyd-Ddu  there is a small pull-in and a gate in the wall.

Just go through the gate and walk a few yards and suddenly the reservoir is there and  the views take your breath away!!!
Fishing is allowed on here but only Fly Fishing, I find it quite fasinating to sit on the banks and watch them with the lines flying through the air, and very peaceful too.

You can stand and turn full circle and at every turn the views are there, it is very quiet, you cannot do anything really except stand and stare and take in the beauty!

In the background here you can see that the Nantlle Valley is overlooked by Mt Snowdon, this is looking towards the Horseshoe!





On the day we were there, there wasn't even a ripple on the water, the sky was reflected in it just perfectly!

As I said it is only a very small place, but it would be such a shame to pass by and not even know it was there.

Legend has it that this very small island floats!!!!!
If I remember rightly a farmer saw one of his cows stranded on it a long long time ago, and when he went to get help to get his cow off to safety, the men got back to see the cow grazing on the grassy banks and the island was just up near the bank!! the next day the island had floated back towards the middle of the reservoir again!!!
If you have 10minutes to spare and you are on the way to the Rhyd-Ddu path take the time and have a look at this little piece of heaven, believe me it is worth it.

Southstack

At the top of The Isle of Anglesey is a small island on which stands Southstack, a lighthouse built in 1809 it is 28mts((91ft)) tall, and its light can been seen for 28 miles out to sea, to warn ships of the treacherous rocks that surrounds the island.

To get down to Southstack you must walk down over 400 steps!!! but take my word for it, it is worth the effort, as the views are outstanding. To get over to Southstack you have to walk over a bridge, it was built in 1997 I think, but once upon a time way back in the 1800s the only way to get across to it was by a basket which was suspended on a hemp rope!!!!!! can you imagine????????lololol.

All around the lighthouse are craggy cliffs and nesting on them are over 4,000 birds, they cling on to the side of the cliffs row upon row, it is a sight not to be missed, and if you visit at the right time of yr, you might be lucky and see the Puffins!

If you look at this photo you can see just a few of the birds that nest along the cliffs there, they are amazing to see, and there are also lots of walks from there, as the Angelsey Coastal Path passes Southstack as does the Cybi Circular Walk.

This is the Gillemot Colony, it is truely a sight not to missed!

Our Village

Our village is in the Nantlle Valley, and it is just on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park, we have the Nantlle mountain range on the south side and hills on the north, at the top end of the valley is Mt Snowdon it's self, and finally on the west side we have the sea!
 On the edge of the village we are lucky enough to have a large lake, that once upon a time was a huge quarry, but is has been filled in and landscaped for the enjoyment of our village and the surrounding villages also!
Here is a wonderful aerial photograph of the whole of the Nantlle Valley, with our village just at the bottom of the photo, and the beautiful  Mt Snowdon at the top!!

As you can imagine our village has a jackpot view of the whole of the surrounding area, right down the valley to Mt Snowdon, there are lots of walks leading from the village as well, that takes us up high onto the Nantlle ridge, and if you are feeling really adventurous, you can walk the whole length of the ridge, 15miles in all, but take some advice, the best thing to do is come with friends and bring 2 cars, drive to one end of the ridge, and leave a car there, then drive back to the other end to start your walk, that way after doing 15 miles you won't have to turn round and do it all again in the opposite direction!!!!! 30 miles is a long long walk!!!!lolololololol.
The views from the top of the Ridge truely do take your breath away, on a clear day you can see Ireland, The Ilse of Man, and some of the mountains in the Lake District!!!

Here we are on the far side of the lake looking back towards our village, very few people know we are here, and even less know what fabulous views we all enjoy!!!

 Another view from the other side of the lake,
as you can see it's a very pretty place to live.

We have spent many happy hours walking round here with our dogs, sitting on one of the benches and have enjoyed having a chat with some of the other villagers out for a walk.

 Our view from the garden, looking towards The Nantlle Ridge, as you can see we are up on a hillside so the views are spectacular, and every day it looks totally different with the light and shade, as I said there are lots of walks leading from the village.

A beautiful Place!

Well good day to everyone, I hope all the snow has disappeared for you, it rained all day yesterday and all night, and this morning the snow and ice has vanished!!! no one would ever think that 2 days ago we had 4 ft snowdrifts and couldn't get out of our village!!
But anyway I want to take you to a truely beautiful place today, and the only place you will be walking around is a garden!!
It's called Bodnant Gardens, and it is truely heavenly! Not far from here,  Caernarfon, only about 3/4 of hour away, but well worth the travel time, it is a place not to be missed, especially in the months of May and June, thats when all the Azalea's and Rhododendron are in bloom!
Just come and have a look!

 Look at the wonderful colours here in this first photo, the first time we came to Bodnant we couldn't believe our eyes at the sheer beauty of it all, there are acres of gardens, a wonderful pond full of the most gorgeous waterlillies you could ever imagine, but I will show you those later.

See how vibrant the colours are, these are Azalea's in these two photos, and as you can see the colours simply glow!!!

There is a walk way that is like a terrace, and along there are a couple of viewing places where you can sit  and look down into this small valley, what it lacks in size it surely makes up for in glorious colour!!
As you walk along the top terrace you come to a path that takes you down into the valley so you can see a wonderful waterfall and a path follows the rivers all the way through it!! Plenty of places to sit and enjoy the lovely surroundings.

As we walked along one of the many paths in the grounds I couldn't help notice all these blossoms that had fallen off a Rhododendron, making for a really pretty carpet of petals.

I can't think of enough adjectives that will do this garden justice, it is a place we find ourselves coming back to time and time again, and never tiring of it!

Just one perfect spray of blossom from a Rhododendron.

This Rhododendron was around 15 ft high, and just as wide, a solid wall of amazing colour!!!

You would think that putting all these different colours together would just make a terrible clash wouldn't you, but No! they look fantastic!

If you do come to visit North Wales in the spring, whether it is for a long weekend or a full week, make a point of paying Bodnant Gardens a visit, it is a must see, from the wonderful Laburnum arch to the pond terrace with trees that are hundreds of yrs old,to the spectacular river valley, you will be glad you did.

I always envy the people who have never been to Bodnant before, you can hear them oh-ing and ah-ing as each corner gives them yet another surprise, or opens up a beautiful vista to feast their eyes on.
You never know we just might see you there!