Coastwalk , Isle of Anglesey Coastal Path

Llanedwen → Caernarfon

Distance: 13.5 miles
Ascent: 139 metres
Duration: 4 hours 40 minutes

Between the coast paths
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There were two goals for today's walk: finish our current long-distance path and walk on to the start of the next one.

The official guide to the Anglesey Coastal Path recommends taking a bus between Moel Y Don and Pwllfanogl but we felt that would be cheating so the day started with just under two miles of playing chicken with fast moving traffic on the A4080. Hopefully a new path will be constructed here in due course, but for now the book's advice is probably for the best.

The remaining three miles of Anglesey toured the mythical "full name" of nearby Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll. The suffix -gogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in fact applies only to the railway station and was a Victorian contrivance constructed by referring to features in a wide area; we passed many of these today: the rapid whirlpool - chwyrn drobwll - in the Menai Strait is the famous Pwll Ceris, also known as The Swellies; a little further on (and frankly, nearer Menai Bridge rather than Llanfair), Saint Tysilio's church - Llan Tysilio - stands peacefully on an island.

So after five miles we completed our circuit round Anglesey and Holy Island and headed across to the mainland once more. (There are two bridges across the Strait, but only one allows pedestrian access. This is a real shame since there is space on the Britannia Bridge for a walkway, either alongside the road or beneath with the railways. If recent plans for a revamped or even new crossing here come to fruition, it looks likely that pedestrian access will be allowed to Anglesey in two places.)

Back on the mainland private land once again forced us inland and onto main roads. This time a pavement gave us some protection on the A487 out of Bangor before we descended into Y Felinheli, taking a beautiful footpath down into the village by the dockside before crossing the swing bridge near the river mouth.

The remainder of the route into Caernarfon was along a disused railway line that has been converted to a cycle path so provided a relatively quiet end to the day.

There's little that can be said about Caernarfon that can do the town justice. Finishing a walk beneath the immense castle walls reminded us of our previous visit to North Wales when we spent the best part of a day exploring this most extreme of British castles.