A long Welsh Weekend - Conwy Castle

So here we are, on a lovely campsite in Wales. Our surroundings are beautiful, the campsite is really pleasant, and I could smell onions frying whilst Peter cooked the dinner. It sounds just like our holiday to Skye dunnit? There is one MASSIVE difference though.  Whilst we had sunshine nearly all the way in Skye, here, it's absolutely chucking it down. There are bucket loads of water coming out of the sky, putting the dampers (literally) on everything, especially at the campsite. The people in tents are probably the most more fed up with the wet stuff, but all of us are wishing it would clear off.

If the weather had been better, we'd have been here a day earlier to be honest, but the weatherman said it was gonna chuck it down, and it did. So, although we were gonna be here for four days, we've cut it down to three, and today, Sunday, is day one.

So today, knowing that the clouds were gonna spend all day emptying themselves on our heads, we decided to drive down from Yorkshire in the morning and spend a few hours in Conwy in the afternoon. I'd seen some pictures of Conwy Castle on the Walkersforum, and after spending a little time on the Tripadvisor site, I thought it looked like a lovely place to visit.

And it is. Here are the pictures.

We started with a visit to Conwy Castle.  I have to admit idea of visiting Conwy was prompted by a Walkersforum member who wrote about the walls.

I'd come up with a list of things to do in the town, researched through Trip Advisor - Things to do in Conwy, and walking the Castle walls was on that list. 

Sadly, we never got to walk the walls, cos it rained too much.

But the castle was brilliant, although I have to say getting up and down the stairs in those towers is telling on the legs.  Worth it for the views though.

Looking North West from the castle, over the River Conwy as it joins the sea.  

A South East view

The estuary again, 

Looking over to Conwy Town. 

Me n Peter love an old ruin.  And Conwy Castle is a good 'un.  As usual we were in our element. We got a good view of the Suspension Bridge too.

Just as we finished our tour and left the castle,  it started to rain. Showers at first, but enough to send us scuttling first into shops and then into the tents of a craft and food fair down on the quay.  Mmmmmm Mmmmmm.  May I recommend lamb hot dogs..........  Absolutely delicious.

The trouble with shops, and food and craft fairs is that they empty the purse!  But I did spend it all on presents.  Honest!

We took a walk along the quay

Visited The Smallest House in Britain

And then went to have a look at Aberconwy House, a National Trust property.  I'll be honest, we only went in to get out of the rain, but it was a fantastic old building.  The loft space was amazing. 

And then it stopped raining and started absolutely chucking it down, so we made for the campervan.  Next stop our campsite in Beddgelert and back to the beginning of this blog post and pity for the campers in tents. 

Tomorrow the rain is supposed to stop, and we should have a good day for a walk.  We've got a big one planned (big for us that is).  Keep yer fingers crossed we get some sunshine. 

Natures Garden on the River Ure

Click on the pictures to get a full screen version. 

Looking back along the the path from Wensley Bridge to Scaw Bottom

Peter and I first did this walk Along the River Ure back in 2011, and I've been looking forward to doing it again ever since.  And the reason?  Well, it's the flowers......They are varied, abundant and beautiful in the Spring.

Cow parsley>>
Also known as wild chervil, wild beaked parsley, keck, or my favourite, Queen Anne's lace.

The walk is about 9 miles and dead simple.  You start at the bridge at Wensley - walk up the South side of the river, cross at the stepping stones, and after a bit of a meander into Redmire, you come back past Bolton Hall and back into Wensley.  And it's flat!  Another reason to really like it.





<< Crosswort, also known as smooth bedstraw.

And nature didn't let me down.  The flowers along the path side were wonderful, all vibrant and colourful.  I took loads of pictures.  Not because the flowers were especially rare, or particular favourites, but simply because they are pretty.

Red campion >>

It's amazing how lovely they really are when you look at them properly, even the boring every day ones, so I make no apologies for the MASSES of flower pictures.



OK.  I confess, some flowers are particular favourites, such as these
<< Water avens, also known as nodding avens, drooping avens, maiden hair, indian chocolate and many more.  I love that last chocolate reference

Greater Stitchwort

<< Wood cranesbill


From Wiki:

"It is the city flower of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.

The flowers yield a blue-gray dye that was used in ancient Europe to dye war cloaks, believing it would protect them in battle. For this reason it was called Odin's Grace."

Hawthorn. 

With lovely white and strongly scented flowers, hawthorn is also known as the May-tree, due to its flowering period, it is the only British plant named after the month in which it blooms.

"In Britain it was believed that bringing hawthorn blossom into the house would be followed by illness and death, and in Medieval times it was said that hawthorn blossom smelled like the Great Plague. Botanists later learned that the chemical trimethylamine in hawthorn blossom is also one of the first chemicals formed in decaying animal tissue, so it is not surprising that hawthorn flowers are associated with death."  (From The Woodland Trust.)

My little compact camera did pretty well to get these pictures I reckon.  I just point and press, and Hey Presto!


<<This is charlock, or field mustard, or wild mustard.  Farmers hate it when it gets amongst their crops.

Cowslips >> 

I ought to point that the Hey Presto bit doesn't just happen straight away, and I've learnt to compensate by taking around 5 photo's at a time, using the point and press method, in the vain hope that one of them will come out well.  The sheer numbers of photographs taken means that at least a few come out well.

And all the time we are walking, we have the wonderful River Ure alongside. 

Redmire Force. 

Eventually we got to Redmire Force where we stopped for lunch.  It's a popular spot and we were joined by many others.  Hardly surprising considering what a beautiful day it is.

Stepping Stones at the river crossing between Stony Stoop Lane and Slapestone Wath

From Redmire Force, it's a short walk to the stepping stones.  You can't tell from the photograph, but these are actually quite massive. You could easily fit two or three people on each one. 

From the stepping stones, you eventually make you way down Thoresby Lane and a farm track to Low Bolton and Redmire. 

<< Common vetch.  And the wonderful Orange-tip butterfly flew into shot just as I took the picture.  Awesome!

Another of my favourites, wild garlic>>

<<White deadnettle

This nettle won't sting you. Bumble bees love 'em, and you can eat the young leaves.  Much nicer than it's cousin the stinging nettle, eh? 

From Redmire the path becomes a wide track that runs across the Bolton estate.  A very pleasant walk through the woods until you get to Bolton Hall. 

 Bugle>>

<<Wild Violet

We even got to see a deer in the grounds of Bolton Hall. 

Bolton Hall, one of the last features on a walk.  Not far now until Wensley. 

And then we were back to the car.  A quick change, and tidy up of hair, and we were in The Three Horseshoes for a well earned pint........  of orange juice and lemonade.   

This really is a wonderful walk if you fancy a change from all the ups and downs of life and fell walking, and very definitely best done in the the spring.  

Gayle in The Dales - Dodd Fell and Wether Fell.

I tried to do this walk a few weeks ago, but the weather got the better of me and sent me back to my car drenched through to the skin.  But today,  the weather was better, and I set off with a smile on me face, all ready to enjoy the sun and the Dales.  

It's a good walk, starting in Gayle, right next to Hawes.  Hawes is a brilliant little town which always seems full of people, especially at the weekends.  The motor biking community loves the place, mixing with tourists and walkers, everybody visiting The Rope Factory and the specialist shops, enjoying Wensleydale cheese and of course a drink in one of the pubs.

Gayle on the other hand is a pretty little village which is too small to be popular........you'd never get the people or any more cars into the place or on narrow windy roads.  Methinks it must be a wonderful place to live, judging by the happy faces of the people sitting on garden walls and the riverside, enjoying a drink in the sunshine.  (This was in the late afternoon by the way, as I returned from my walk.......  I don't want to make it appear that they all started drinking before lunch!)

Anyway, I found the walk here Walking Englishman - The Sleddale Horseshoe.  Starting from Gayle it's around 10 miles and reaches the summits of Dodd Fell and Wether Fell.  So with my camera battery charged, off I went.

Actually, I didn't start the walk straight away, I popped down to bridge to take this picture of Gayle Beck.  It really is very pretty here. 

The walk follows the Pennine Way along Gaudy Lane up to Rottenstone Hill. But I didn't take any pictures until I was approaching Ten End.  I loved the way these stones had been scattered across the landscape.   

A beautiful day

Ten End is marked on the OS Map with loads of Shake Holes.  In fact there are so many, you wonder why the whole hill hasn't collapsed in on itself.  There must be hundreds of caves and holes underground. 

This amused me. A tree plantation that has been cleared.  I wonder in aliens looking at us from above are trying to translate the meaning?

There were plenty of people on the Pennine Way, all walking the opposite way to me.  Just after Ten End, I broke away from the path and people and made my way towards the summit of Dodd Fell.  There didn't appear to be any path through the heather, and I just aimed for the highest point, taking advantage of any 'sheep paths' or trails I came across.

It was as I was walking along one of these tiny thin lines through the heather that suddenly a bird ran out in front of me, dragging it's wing and looking very distressed.  

It only took me a second to work out that this was a ploy, and the bird was trying to distract me from it's nest, which must be very close. A quick check around, and there it was, just a foot away from me

I never saw the bird enough to work out what it was, but these seem to be Lapwing Eggs

I was pleased to see the nest. I was also pleased that I hadn't trodden on it!

After that, I continued the trudge through the heather up the hill, until I came to the trig point.

The Trig Point on the summit of Dodd Fell. 

The summit of Dodd Fell is a good view point.  That's Pen-y-Ghent in the distance.

And this is Ingleborough.  You can also see Whernside from here, but I didn't really get a good enough photo. 

So once you've got up, it's time to go down, and following the route of the WE, I cut across the top of Sleddale to join the Cam High Road heading towards Wether Fell. It wasn't an easy area to make my way across. After lunching in the shelter of a peat grough,  I battled through heather, walked this way around one bog and that way around another, and then clambered around more peat groughs.  Eventually, there was nothing but grassy tussocks and deep dark peaty ground

So many Peat Groughs.  Quite a spectacle to be honest. 

 By the time I reached Cam High Road,  I was grateful to get back on a level path.

I took this picture from Cam High Road. I love the way the Limestone had been weathered away to leave these rock formations. 

It's easy to quickly nip off the Roman Road to get to the summit of Wether Fell.  

After Wether Fell the route heads North East towards Gayle.  This is Yorburgh, a very flat hill looking over Gayle and Burtersett.  Wouldn't this be a brilliant place to build a castle.  And it's so flat! I wonder why no one ever did?

Making my way back to Gayle, there are lots of little waterfalls on Blackburn Sike

And I couldn't resist getting a picture of these tiny little lambs. 

And then I was back. Walking through Gayle, seeing villagers out in their gardens, or sitting by the river, enjoying the sun and each others company.   Brilliant.  (As I said, it must be a nice place to live).

I don't know where I'm going next.  I just hope the weather is a good when I do.