Walking Wanders 3
Llandudno Great Orme
Who: Me, myself and I
Why: For various reasons I ended up holidaying alone in Llandudno for a few days at the end of July. It was a beautiful day and I wasn't going to let it go to waste. In the morning I had taken the tram to the Great Orme 'summit' with my newly-made friend from the hostel, so rather than do a repetitive summit walk I decided to walk around it.
The Walk: (See my beautifully drawn map below - it was drawn with a touchpad so the wiggles more likely represent my finger wobbling rather than actual route detours!) From Llandudno Hostel I headed to the entrance to Llandudno pier before picking up the Wales Coastal path.
| Llandudno pier |
I was disappointed to discover that at this point the path follows a road and there is no alternative route as it is cut into the rockface. I had committed so I continued, and it was a quiet road and the scenery made up for the tarmac underfoot.
| Out of place road markings - the gate leads to a cliff... |
At a point where I thought I was approximately half way round I detoured sharply up hill and found a nice spot for some reading and getting sunburnt. I continued uphill and found Llandudno's graveyard which is shared between two small churches, very isolated from the town.
| Llandudno's graveyards |
Realising I was in fact nowhere near half way round I followed the road back down to join the coastal path (see big wiggle on map!) Continuing round the path is very peaceful with just the sea for company, with beautiful cliffs and coves below. Concerningly I came across an empty car with no-one to be seen, until I noticed two little figures far below on one of the (almost) inaccessible beaches. Coming around the head of the Orme one is greeted by a view across the bay to the mountains of Snowdonia, quite impressive for a walk that doesn't involve much uphill. Onwards I plodded when I noticed some odd concrete things below along the sides of a road to nowhere. A helpful sign explains that this was a army training base in the 60s(?) which was built to look like an ordinary village. It's now gone but the concrete foundations remain. The path then drops to join more roads and follows above the beach of Llandudno's West Shore.
| Llandudno's West Shore (Why I didn't take a picture of Snowdonia (just off the picture to the right) I'm not sure!) |
The road is popular with cyclists and along this section they were considerably faster than cars! At this point I made a rooky error of taking the less-trodded path, an error as I was wearing a skirt and so had ankles susceptible to the nettles and brambles that comprised this 'path'. However, as before, I had started so I continued and hopped my way through the undergrowth until I popped out into civilisation.
I headed into town to find food and wandered along the promenande to find a spot to sit and eat. I then was drawn further along by the faint sounds of music and discovered the local wind band playing at the bandstand. A lovely end to a beautiful walk.
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Coming up: Ladybower Reservoir, Peak District
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