For some days now the
weather forecast has suggested that today was going to be the best of
the week. On this basis we planned a walk on our way down the Lleyn
Peninsula.
We stopped off at the
church at Clynnog-fawr dedicated to the Celtic saint Bueno. The
church was an important stop on the pilgrimage to the holy island of
Bardsey off the tip of the Lleyn and said to be the burial place of
20,000 Celtic saints. As a result, the church became very wealthy and
is the reason why such a large church is to be found in such a small
village. We appreciated the many display panels that told us a great
deal about the history of the church and the pilgrimages.
Just outside
Clynog-fawr close to the sea is a cromlech that has a capstone
covered with 110 enigmatic cup marks. We took the short walk to it
from the church. There are no signs to it and the footpath is not
even marked from the main road so the OS map was very useful.
We drove to the car
park on the way to the Nant Gwrtheyrn Welsh Language Centre from the
village of Llithfaen. After lunch we skirted the main peak of Yr Eifl
to climb the slopes of Tre'r Ceiri. We definitely chose the correct
day, there was very little wind and the views were great. We could
see right down the length of the Lleyn Peninsula, across to Anglesey
and even the mountains of Snowdonia were clear.
Tre'r Ceiri is one of
the most spectacular stone-built hill forts in Britain, having walls
up to 4.5 metres thick and containing more than 150 huts. At a height
of 485 metres, it also has fantastic views. The slopes here and the
neighbouring Yr Eifl are covered with boulders so the raw materials
for wall and hut construction were readily on hand and it could be
argued that the reason that the walls were so thick was because it
was necessary to clear huge volumes of boulders on the summit it
order to make it habitable. The mystery is why there are so many huts
here and why was it occupied for such a long time – from a few
centuries before the Roman invasion right through to the end of the
fourth century AD. There are apparently no signs of corn grinding,
although there are literally hundreds of rocks on the summit that
have natural concave dips in them making them look just like quern
stones. So that suggests that the inhabitants were keeping stock but
they couldn't possibly have kept enough stock to support the
population suggested by the number of huts. Perhaps the women got fed
up with their old huts and insisted that the men built a new one
every couple of years. Or the men were obsessive builders – I know
one of these – Hi Les! After that I am out of theories so let's
just put it down as a ritual site, the standard fall-back for
archaeologists who can't think of any other explanation.
We spent a long time
looking at the views, quickly spotting Snowdon – we could even see,
with binoculars, the railway station just below the summit.
Definitely the clearest views since we started the sojourn.
We walked back to the
car park looking at the views down to the bay and beaches of Nefyn,
our next stop. We chose Ty Newydd Lan Yr Ysgol, a Caravan &
Camping Certified Site, because of its location in Edern, within
walking distance of Morfa Nefyn and the bay. The site is pleasant
enough but the shower block is very tired and not the cleanest that
we have seen.
Photos: Dog Tongs dated
to 1815 from St. Bueno's church – these were “used to catch
unruly dogs and expel them from the building”; The walls of Tre'r
Ceiri; And some of the many hut circles; View of Snowdon from Tre'r
Ceiri.
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