North Wales #Cultural Drives

I'm history mad, mostly churches and the weekend is when I jump into the car and go on a church crawling trip, dragging my son along who generally enjoys it too, the anticipation of not knowing exactly what we will discover . Chill Car Insurance are putting together a book of Creative Drives and this got me thinking about a drive that I would recommend. 

For me it would be a history drive along the North Wales coast along the Express Way taking in the scenery of the seaside towns and headlands from Flintshire through to Anglesey.  Although in parts industrial, along the Dee Estuary with ports and remains of coal mining, the coast here is a wonderful blend of past centuries with castles and churches aplenty and wind farms and collieries. A short journey off the Expressway and you are immersed in history and reminders of the Welsh fortitude and resilience in this rugged and beautiful landscape.

Holywell
First stop is the enigmatic shrine of St Winefride. With vaulted ceilings above the reputedly healing waters you can follow in the footsteps of pilgrims like so many have done for hundreds of years. Less than £2 for a family ticket that incorporates the small museum and access to the chapel above the shrine. Look for stone carvings, graffiti of people seeking cures and remembering their spiritual experience. There are tours and you can of course at certain times have a dip into the spring waters. One of the Seven Wonders of Wales

Talacre
Not far off the Expressway is  the village of Talacre with its sandy beaches and broad dunes popular with families and great for waking dogs. Part of this area is Point of Ayr,which is the most northern point of the Welsh mainland and the 18th century lighthouse on the beach is the oldest in Wales. No longer an operational lighthouse but reportedly haunted by one of the previous lighthouse keepers. Stop here for salt water paddling, sandy adventures and a bag of chips afterwards.

Bodelwyddan
A familiar sight along the Wales Expressway, the Marble Church due to the fourteen different types of marble used within. The towering spire rising to 202ft is visible from afar, a Gothicly wonderful church to stop off and have a look at inside and out. Built as a memorial commissioned from a wife, Lady Margaret to her husband Henry Peyto-Verney and completed in 1860. The graveyard has more than 80 war graves of Canadian soldiers who were based at the nearby Kimnel Park army camp where they sadly died in the Spanish Flu epidemic after the end of World War 1.

Rhos-on-Sea

A small coastal village with a puppet theatre that is a permanent fixture and shows are at 3pm. Founded in the 1950's the small theatre has over 1000 marionettes. The current show is Hansel and Gretel.  

The smallest chapel in Wales is on the promenade by the beach with amazing views across Colwyn Bay. St Trillo's chapel founded by the 6th century Celtic saint is a rough stone structure, enough room for only a few people and the altar has a holy well underneath. Nearby are the remains of a weir built by Cistercian monks to catch fish which you can see at low tide. 

Also for children, there is an outdoor paddling pool and crazy golf, a quieter resort stop off to entertain little ones. 

LLandudno 
This Victorian resort has a beautiful pier to walk along and is overlooked by limestone headlands on either side of the famous Great Orme and Little Orme - Orm means serpent's head and was named by the Vikings in the 9th century. Famous for this being the place  where Lewis Carroll met the little girl that inspired Alice in Wonderland so there is a trail of white rabbits, Mad Hatters and caterpillars on mushrooms that you can do. The pier is full of the usual amusements and small shops, Punch and Judy by the beach and go on a boat trip on the Sea-Jay. It's a fun filled stop on this cultural drive through North Wales and well worth staying over to experience a full day here. The cable car up the Great Orme will offer superb views and then you can catch the tram back down. Llandudno beach is part sandy and also pebbly with a  huge ridged sea break, this is a great spot for practising skimming pebbles across the sea. There are plenty of places to eat and then it's back into the car to head further around the coast.

Bangor
A bustling university town with a very interesting pier, quiet and nostalgic. Through iron gates are many memorials which are fun to read as you walk along. The beach here is muddy and a great place for watching birds such as oystercatchers and comorants. We have watched mottled brown turnstones on the iron steps underneath the pier, chattering away.

Anglesey
Deserving a whole post of its own is Anglesey but I couldn't not mention it on this road trip for the grand finale is the awesome sight of the Menai Bridge. We often just drive over so we can stop off and see this view from the other side. On Anglesey there is a lot to see, beaches, the colourful village of Beaumaris or the spectacular kite surfers of Rhosneigr.

I hope this brief guide has shown you some of the interesting things to see along the north Wales coast, there are many more and the castles of Conwy and Penrhyn are also notable. The gateway to my road trip starts once we have passed though Chester and it's always exciting to see the first Welsh road sign. 

*Collaborative post

Mysteries of Pendine Sands

A Limestone headland at Pendine, Carmarthenshire and a 6 mile long flat beach with heroic tales of attempted land speed records and tragedy - JG Parry Thomas died here attempting the land speed record in 1927 in Babs the car. The car was later buried in the sands here but then excavated and put into the Land Speed Museum.

Pendine in Welsh is Pentywyn, "end of the dunes" and the dune system edges the beach with drifts of sand and marram grass. Interesting geology to explore and fault lines in the area caused an earth tremor that registered at a magnitude of 5  in 1983. Follow the shore to the headland and below are caves, a mysterious place of chambers, rock pools of turquoise waters and sands of treasure. Bones and sharp pointed teeth have been found in them, antiquarian finds and the sounds of ghostly fiddler playing from inside the Green Bridge Cave. In 1603 there were reports of a mermaid seen here at Gilman's Point, frolicking and swimming

With the flatness of the sand it also meant that light aircraft could use the area as a runway and in 1933 aviator heroine Amy Johnson attempted an Atlantic flight from here to New York but unfortunately had to crash land in Connecticut. In World War II the MoD used the beach as a firing range and on parts of the beach there are still restrictions - be careful what you find.

South Stack coastal walk Anglesey

A seascape grey and icy blue, rain out on the horizon, lashing into waves and the swell tumbles and crashes onto the rocky island and up the ravine around South Stack on the western side of Anglesey. Irish Sea, cold and raging, dangerous conditions, a point taken forth by Captain Hugh Evans the harbour master at Holyhead when he campaigned for the now 197ft high white lighthouse so desperately needed on this shipping route in 1807. A feat of engineering with materials transported down 400 steps cut into the rockface and moved across by rope and basket to the island until a suspension bridge was eventually built. 

Cliffs surround and are home to colonies of seabirds with various screeches and cries, the Guillemots and the Kittiwakes nesting in the pre-Cambrian mineral rocks - perfect for viewing from the small white folly that is now an RSPB bird hide. Look out for dolphins or porpoise and keep an eye out for the chough, a shy relative of the crow, red billed and clawed, wheeling against brisk coastal breezes. Further up is a mass of maritime heathland like the waves carried on rolling and plunged into a floral sea of plum purples and sunshine yellows of heather and gorse. 

Carry on inland half a mile and the prehistoric homes are a special point of interest on this island which is so rich in archaeological finds. The low walled remains of round dwellings from an ancient settlement, the passage of time on a coastal walk.

Bodnant Garden in North Wales

 The glory of the spring garden in Wales, alongside the River Conwy and with a snow tipped view of Snowdonia, Bodnant Garden was the perfect day trip for us all and especially a recently poorly little boy. Fresh air and fluffy clouds, tulip blooms and trumpeting daffodils, all an excellent antidote to tummy pains and stress. 

80 acres to explore from terraces to glades and a thundering waterfall and mill 'race' in the dell. It's a beautiful garden to explore and this year is like a dreamy watercolour wash of azalea and rhododendron and a lushness of emerging green perennials and exquisite hellebores. The boys had lawns and paths to run around and plenty of stones in pockets picked up to plop into the cascading waters. View points are aplenty and there are some areas where my hand tightly gripped Little Bird for fear of him rolling over the edge into the fir tree abyss. I was happier back on formal bed territory with the tulips. 

A surprise was the family mausoleum, called the Poem that you could peep through the door of into a marble decorated room filled with memorials of the previous inhabitants of the estate. Of course this appealed to me and my church/graveyard tendencies, inside was a chair - who for I wonder?

Back in the land of the living, it was a picnic and tomfoolery and a promise to come back and visit in the summer to see how the gardens are flourishing.