In via iterum

Wales Trip Day 4: Caverns and coast

Before leaving the UK we intend to do a fair amount of sightseeing. This is an account of a week we recently spent travelling in Wales. Its not a live-blog, but I noted a few observations each day so that the posts read a little as if I had had a computer with me. (And its not as if anyone reading this cares where I actually am sitting when I post this!)

After breakfast we loaded the car and checked out. It took us a little while to get going as we needed to stop at a supermarket for ice and provisions, and the road system is a bit confusing, but finally we were on the way. We had two objectives for the day - to visit the Corris Craft Centre / King Arthur's Labyrinth just inside the boundary of the Snowdonia National Park, and to get on to our hotel for that night, just outside of Barmouth.

When we stopped at the supermarket I noticed the headline on that day's Telegraph which was that rural speed limits were to be cut. While Wales will doubtless be spared most of this thanks to devolution, somehow being so far from London crystallised this issue for me and I was more irritated by it than I might normally have been. The reasons given for the reductions (for our own good don't you know) were to reduce fatal accidents on rural roads (because its only speed that is responsible for that statistic and not, er, distance from a hospital) and to reduce the UK's carbon emissions. Leaving aside the completely bogus nature of the global warming scare, this story typifies how Britain is misgoverned today. A review driven by the pre-occupations of London ('green issues' and safety-obsessives), will impose additional inconvenience and cost (once they erect the speed cameras) on country-dwellers. For government to be truly representative it needs more than the charade of regular elections. Decisions must be taken in ways that the decision making process and those affected are as close as possible, to ensure that all those involved feel some affinity for one another. Naturally this means some decisions will be taken at a national level on behalf of our nation as a whole, but others should not. It is no business of Whitehall and Westminster what the speed limit is in Wiltshire, or whether it is different in Westmoreland. And people who need to drive between rural locations do not need to have their journeys made longer just because city dwellers who are used to crawling along anyway say so.

The drive north was a pretty one - through the hills outside of Aberystwyth to the pretty town of Machynlleth, where we were unable to make a stop and then into up to the village of Corris, which lies in a tree lined valley, below Cader Idris. By now we were into the County of Merioneth. Interestingly enough, the councils in Wales have done a very good job of marking the true county boundaries. Would that those in England would follow suit.

The Corris Craft Centre was an enjoyable place to spend a day. The setting is beautiful, and when we were there the weather was perfect: bright blue cloudless sky but a gentle breeze. The centre itself consists of three attractions combined into one. There is the craft centre which offers the usual rustic arts: candlemaking, quilting, wood carving and jewelry. To be honest the same sort of thing can be found in tourist traps the world over, but it is always fun to wander around such places.

The second part of the stop was King Arthur's Labyrinth, which is a sound and lights tableaux telling some of the Welsh parts of Arthurian legend located in a disused slate mine. A guide leads you underground and into a boat which takes you to the part of the caverns which have host the show. All three of us went underground - the boy was a little alarmed at first by the total darkness and the cold and held on tight, but as soon as he figured out there was nothing to worry about he was his usual self: at one point he demanded to be set down during one of the displays and cheerfuly set off at speed down a tunnel into the dark with us chasing him! The rest of the time he strenuously objected to wearing a hard hat and would dislodge it at inoportune moments. As to the content of the tales they were interesting, though there could probably have been a couple more told.

The final part of the centre was called Bard's Quest. It was basically a garden with a set of paths running through it that led to little groves where you could press a button and have a Welsh myth read to you via a tape recording. This area could do with a little improvement, since the recordings could not be stopped once started which meant that if someone wandered off and left a grove, when you reached it you might have to lurk out of earshot waiting for the tale to stop so as not to ruin the ending.


After departing Corris we drove along the spectacular road that runs below the southern side of Cader Idris and then on past Dolgellau to Barmouth. Barmouth occupies a stunning position, perched on the north side of an estuary at the precise point the estuary reaches the sea, and nestled in the cliffs above it. It is a popular tourist destination on account of its sandy beach and the railway, so it was extremely busy there and we fought our way through to the other side. At a less busy time it would be a nice place to visit, but it was too much of a stramash when we were there. Our hotel was in the village of Llanaber just outside of Barmouth and up a steep hill.


This was Llwyndu, a converted 16th Century farmhouse and another good choice. We had a big room with a four poster bed and an ensuite bath that had actual water pressure! The view of the mountains on one side and the sea on the other was beautiful - though bare, as witnessed by the windswept trees at this spot. We were booked in for bed and breakfast and the breakfast food was excellent, with local butchers providing much of it (though I opted for Isle of Man kippers). Another hotel we'd be happy to recommend.

We took a quick trip to the Morfa Dyffryn beach before dinner on Day 4 as well, but I'll cover that in another entry.

To be continued...

posted by j @ 4:03 PM