Old Travel Just Coming to Light: Wales 2007

Llandudno, Northern Wales

Anne and I drove south from Crieff in central Scotland toward our stay in Wales on my 62nd birthday—so, besides Social Security I got Wales. I’d had a nice birthday breakfast at our Scottish home (Merlindale B&B) with songs and presents. The drive to Wales was six and a half hours with a couple of quick stops for relief and a fast food lunch. We checked in to the Bednobs B&B in Llandudno at 3:45 leaving us enough time to wander down the promenade, shop a little in town, and find tickets to a Welsh men’s choir concert in a local church later in the evening. Dinner—good pub grub—was in a local tavern, The Albert, which was only a block from the concert. Nice town, good B&B, easy drive, good food and music—al in all, a good birthday.

Red Kite near Carreg Cennan Castle in southern Wales

Thus begins our third trip to Wales (spring 2007 before the beginning of this Blog in 2011) and the subject of this post. We are only beginning our post-Covid travel, so I will try to regale you with photos and stories out of our daily journals from this trip where we were gathering information about golf courses, pubs and restaurants, B&Bs, and attractions for our second golf guide, Golf in Scotland II: Hidden Gems of Scotland and Wales, updated and still available on Amazon.

Road around Great Orme

Great Orme from the South

The Road around Great Orme. A toll road goes all the way around Great Orme (Y Gogarth in Welsh), a limestone headland (peninsula) on the north coast of Wales and northwest of Llandudno. Great Orme shows signs of human occupation for at least 4000 years, most in and around the remains of copper mines. The road is one-way and has pullouts which make good photo stops. About a third of the way around is a side road up to the top where there’s a gift shop and observation area. This road is steep, windy, and narrow. Part way up to the top is an ancient church dedicated to St Tudno. Today’s church has bits from the 12th century, but the foundation goes back as far as the 5th or 6th century. 

Parish Church and Rectory of St Tudno

Back around the perimeter road, about half-way around, is a cafe and a lighthouse which has been converted into a B&B. It would make an interesting, albeit inconvenient, place to stay. We finished our tour back on the edge of town. Although there is a cable car which runs up to the top, Great Orme is definitely worth the drive around. 

Anne Teeing Off at North Wales GC

North Wales GC

Isle of Angelsey GC, a True Links Gem

Playing in the Wind. The wind means tough golf for us, we’re not used to it, and it especially complicates playing courses new to us (which is our whole adventure). I’m not talking about little breezes, but at least moderate zephyrs every day, On parkland courses like Abergele GC (east of Caernarfron) 

Abergele GC

the trees will block some of the wind and the grass will stop the ball quicker. Links courses like North Wales GC and Isle of Anglesey GC exaggerate the effects of the wind and make it difficult to control your ball (as if I had any control of my golf ball anyway). Our first windy golf on this trip was the first course we played, North Wales GC, where the wind was a steady 20 mph with 30 mph gusts. The wind was a significant factor on most of the links courses we played on the trip. The wind was especially brutal at Royal Portcawl GC in southern Wales where four flag poles were blown out of their holes and laying on the greens

Anne tries to get Out of One of Royal Portcawl's Penal Bunkers

Royal Porthcawl GC on a Four-Flag Day

—the pro called it just a four-flag-day, but then he’s used to the wind. We did get some windless or light wind days and were especially grateful that one of those days was when we played Nefyn & District GC in Morfa Nefyn at Gwynedd near Pwllheli (sorry, I couldn’t resist including that lovely Welsh address). 

Nefyn & District GC

Nefyn & District GC is a beautiful headland course.

The smallest official village in Wales is directly beneath the cliffs of Nefyn & District GC.

The course is a spectacular headland course which plays out to a lighthouse and back and has a pub to stop in after the 12th hole. As much as we grouse about playing in the wind, it’s just a natural part of golf in the British Isles, and at the end of the day we love our golf here.

Rhuddlan and St Asaph—The Great and the Small. After golf at Abergele GC, we visited these two sites, each impressive in their own ways. Rhuddlan Castle in Rhuddlan, North Wales, is one of Edward I’s series of defensive castles, built to keep control of the native Welsh tribes. Master mason James of Saint George completed the castle 1282 when it became the temporary residence in Wales of Edward I. 

Rhuddlan Castle

Now managed by Cadw, the national heritage trust of Wales, the castle’s impressive two huge towers dominate the countryside as they were meant to. In contrast, the nearby St Asaph Cathedral in the village of Asaph is the smallest cathedral in Britain. 

Asaph Cathedral

The Anglican cathedral, barely a large church, dates back 1400 years. The building we visited was constructed in the 13th century and was home to famous Bishop of Asaph Geoffrey of Monmouth, 1152-1155. While the outside of the cathedral pales in comparison to Rhuddlan Castle, the interior is very interesting with many war memorials, a large number of which are to Joneses. I was particularly drawn to one memorial dedicated to Robert Jones—my Jones family connection is to this section of Wales. It was really strange to see someone with my name being described in terms that I hope would fit me--it was a little like reading my own  obituary. Spooky.  And that’s the great and small of our touring day. 

The Ancient Sites of Wales. On one of our golf days, we played our course for the day and had plenty of time to explore some of Wales’ ancient sites. 

Chapel of Din Lligwy

The first we visited was a small chapel, Capel Lligwy, an 11th century fairly complete ruin (there’s a good oxymoron for you). The chapel is associated with the Din Lligwy Hut Group nearby. Next we visited the monument which consists now of mostly hut foundations and stone walls (probably of workshops) dating back to Neolithic times. 

Din Lligwy Iron Age village.

This small Iron Age settlement was occupied into Roman times (2nd or 3rd century). A few miles away we explored our third ancient site of the afternoon, Ty Newdd, .a neolithic dolmen or cromlix (burial tomb). 

Ty Newdd Chambered Tomb

The partially reconstructed tomb was the oldest of the ancient monuments dating to about 1500 BC. When it was excavated in 1935 finds included flint tools and early pottery. All three of the sites we visited were well cared for and well signed.

Playing with Members of the Club. At St Deiniol GC (Bangor, Wales) we played with Iolo Williams who is the historian of the club and who edited the club’s centenary book. He was a great playing partner and guide, and he spotted us to a nice lunch in the clubhouse lounge after the round. We love it when we get paired with locals as we play their course and ask for local guides whenever we can.

St Dieniol GC in Bangor, Wales

Anne is visiting with Iolo Willams, Secretary of the club, after our round.

On this trip we had the best luck getting paired with locals for our rounds. At Tulliallan GC (Scotland) we had a couple, Dave and Eli, and at Kinross Montgomery GC (Scotland) we played with Jamie Montgomery, an Earl and the Laird and owner of the course. AT Pwllheli (Wales) we played with the Vice-captain Joe and his wife Glenda. 

Pwllheli GC where the first nine holes are parkland and the second nine are links.

Vice-captain Joe and his wife Glenda were our hosts when we played Pwllheli GC.

It was at Tenby GC in the southern Wales area called “Little England” that we played with the best golfers of the trip. Marvin was a 4 handicap (very good) and Heather was an 11 (very good for a lady), 

The tourist village of Tenby sits on the cliffs above the beach.

Tenby GC, Southern Wales

yet both we very understanding that we need to be good writers more than we need to be good golfers—at the time I had a 12 handicap and Anne a 22 handicap. When we got lost trying find Ashburnham GC (southern Wales), Keith Williams and Mike Jones who had planned to be our playing guides had to wait an hour for us. 

Along many of the seaside links holes of Ashburnham GC our guides pointed out leftovers from WWII. This is either a command centre, a lookout station, or a gun placement.

Not only were they understanding of our story about going to the wrong course, they also stayed late and treated us to a fine dinner in the clubhouse.

All of these pairings were wonderful. We’ve met nice people and gotten much more information about the course and the area than we would have by just playing the course. Our writing gig brings us great rewards.

Next: I Continue the Wales Saga