Coast Walking (Wales): Barmouth to Tonfanau 23 June 2014

Miniature train, Fairbourne

Bee orchid

Speckled yellow moth

From Fairbourne we took a trip on the miniature railway, run by a voluntary group, to Barmouth Ferry, thus connecting with the end of our last trip. We walked back along the sea-edge, on sandy shore or on the dunes above. In places the shore is occupied by boulder pebbles that make walking difficult. The dunes were disturbed, with much hound‘s-tongue, but there were lots of bee orchids, pyramidal orchids and sea bindweed. Dune chafers were common. In a few places were sea holly and yellow horned-poppy. The only birds were the usual herring gull, meadow pipit, starling, jackdaw and, at Fairbourne, house sparrow, although there was a dead razorbill on the dunes, perhaps a casualty of winter storms. There were a few butterflies about, including dark green fritillary, and a crescent plume moth. The area is well-used by holiday-makers, who were particularly crowded on the beach at Barmouth across the estuary.

At Fairbourne there is a concrete promenade above the beach, where someone had been practising the art of standing pebbles on end. Progress is halted southwards where a massive hill comes down precipitately to the sea, although room had been found to take first a railway and then, just above, a main road around the headland. No room has been made, however, for a footpath and as the road has no pavement and is narrow, enclosed by stone walls, walking is a problem given the heavy traffic. The official coast path goes inland here over the steep hill. Following our rule of staying close to the sea as far as possible, we were left no choice but the 3km length of road to Llwyngwrl. The only break was a lay-by halfway along with views over the coast, from which we watched fulmars, oystercatchers and a cormorant.

In the centre of Llwyngwrl we took a lane between rows of pretty, low cottages with flowery verges that descended close to the river down to the shingle shore. We could walk at the top of the shingle around a flat headland occupied by farmland and caravan parks. Cliffs of boulder clay began leading to a headland where the shore was strewn with large rocks and the tide comes up to the top. We rounded this to Llangelynin Beach, which had a variety of rocks and pebbles, with yellow horned-poppy and sea campion at the top. It was not very far from high tide, however, and we decided that we could not be sure of walking the shore the whole way at this time. We found some stone steps up the cliff, helped by a rope, and passed over the railway, by some solitary holiday cottages and up to the road. A path was signed opposite, although the direction was not clear, but we did eventually manage to find paths up the slope that led back to the official coast path. We crossed acid grassland (with wood-sage and the speckled yellow moth that feeds on it) and sheep pasture, and stopped for lunch where we could watch red kites and buzzards flying around. The path eventually led to small lanes back to the dreaded A493, but a footpath, which started along an ancient way between two hedge banks, eventually took us across the road to the much quieter lane leading down to the coast and railway station at Tonfanau, which seemed to be nothing more than a couple of farms, and one of these apparently in ruins. We had passed other small ruined farmhouses on the way, including one on top of the hills that had just one living room and an animal shed attached, the latter now replaced by an elder thicket because of the fertility! From Tonfanau we caught a train to Fairbourne. The roadsides were very flowery in places, including swathes of broad-leaved everlasting-pea.