Pirouetting on the path - the joyous approach to the Wales Coast Path

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North Cardigan Bay is the second in a series of ten booklets each describing ten circular walks on the 870 miles of the Wales Coast Path. It’s highly practical, pocket-sized and has a sturdy cover with a handy fold to bookmark your page.

A great selection of walks makes it into the top ten. Portmeirion combines fantasy and escapism with a walk across the Cob, perfect for steam trains and what must be the ultimate view of Snowdon. A mile south at Ynys is the start of the next walk, down the estuary and back through the churchyard, with the grave of Richard Hughes of High Wind in Jamaica fame. (If you want a bit more background on this area there is an article titled Aberdwyryd.)

In between those two walks is of course Maentwrog-on-Sea which for the time being is an honorary coast path resort; being the lowest point at which you can officially cross the Dwyryd until the new Pont Briwet is built.

The tenth walk is down my memory lane from Borth halfway to Aberystwyth. In 1960 I think ours was one of only two caravans in the village and the sun shone all through the summer. In subsequent student days the walk along the coast was a popular Saturday evening prelude to sampling Borth’s pubs before catching the last bus back to Aberystwyth.

At £4.99 it’s excellent value .... that’s less than 50p a walk!

The other booklet currently available covers Llŷn

Natur Cymru winter edition

Artwork based on a papier mâché model
of Llŷn by Annie Horsley 

Coast Path – the idea of all-Wales coastal access becomes reality. Jane Davidson

Life after conifers – practicalities and rewards of removing a plantation. Celia Thomas

Ceredigion Coast Path – the making of a path, its wildlife and scenery. Nigel Kelly

Castlemartin Corse – restoring a great wetland and duneland system. Richard Ellis

Art Competition – the 2013 Inspired by Nature competition.

Wet, wet, wet: natural water treatment at Denmark Farm. Angie Polkey

Gwylio adar ar lwybr arfordir Cymru. Kelvin Jones

Snow on a Raven’s Wing – Writing competition winner. Liz Fleming Williams

Just do the walk – and write about it: the challenges of writing footpath guides. David Perrott

50 Years Ago – some Welsh Marsh-orchids. James Robertson

Woods and Forests – afforested deep peats in Wales, the 100,000 ha challenge.

Nature at large – taking a closer look at the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

Green Bookshelf – Andrew Lucas, David Saunders, Huw Jenkins, Gwenllian Rowlinson, James Robertson

Discoveries in Science – type fossils online.

Marine Matters – a legacy and a muddle.

Wales at Water’s Edge

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The book opens at the south eastern corner of the Wales Coast Path and finishes 870 miles later in the mouth of the Dee. But of course you can start wherever you like in any of the ten segments.

Photograph seems such a mechanical word for the fantastic images captured or created by Jeremy Moore; a diverse range of subjects sometimes from an unusual angle. Lots of natural beauty as you’d expect and ugly things portrayed with panache.

The words by Jon Gower are personal, such as his timely good deed of alerting British Rail to a breached sea wall, thereby averting a disaster, and in reward for which he received The Collins Guide to British Birds.  Some words are not obvious  ....‘this wondrous coast is a place to walk, prog or beachcomb....’? According to the freedictionary.com, to prog is to prowl about for food or plunder. Or did he mean to say jog?

Alliteration abounds with the coast described as ‘crinkled, crimped, crenellated and corrugated’ – I suspect he wanted to go on to say ‘caravanned’ but instead continued with ‘.... holidaymakered and lighthoused, dolphin-blessed, wind-sculpted and always wave-surrounded.’  

There’s humour, interesting titbits and pictures to inspire – it’s a catalyst to get you out walking or as close as you can get to being an acceptable armchair alternative to the real thing.  I’ll be putting it on my Christmas list.

Wales Coast Path – Llŷn Peninsula

870 miles of Wales Coast Path stretching into the horizon is something to be proud of yet can be a bit daunting, but this pocket sized book serves up an exciting 10% of it in ten circular walks of between two to four hours. I can manage that - no problem.

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The book is handy in every way: robust covers on front and back with folds to tuck into the page you’re going to refer back to; sections of ordnance survey maps that avoid the need for carrying a full sheet (unless you want to); enough background information to whet the appetite and clear directions provided you can remember your right from your left.

I can’t fault the choice of walks that make it into the ‘top ten’. Aberdaron, with screaming choughs and views to Bardsey, had to be there. Porth Dinllaen with the pub on the beach where I once spent a wonderful New Year’s Eve. Whispering Sands, Nant Gwrtheryn and Borth y Gest – they are all spectacular.

It’s one in a series of ten books planned to cover the entirety of the coast path. I’m sure the rest will be just as good. It looks useful, not a glossy gimmick, and at £4.99 it’s a bargain.