Braving the cold on Black Rock Sands

Ever since we got here, I wanted to spend a day just down on a beach enjoying the sand and the sun. But on each of the sunniest days of our week in North Wales, we've had other places to see instead, so for our last full day of our holiday I was determined we'd find time to relax on the sands.

Our first attempt at finding some quality sand was Llanbedrog, just down the hill from our cottage. I was also keen to visit the beach here becase of a photo I'd seen of the colourful beach huts there on Google Earth, however when we arrived at the car park, the beach huts were already lined up, well away from the beach, to escape the winter storms. Only Dad was inspired enough to take their photo. Despite this anti-climax, we headed down to the beach past a very tempting cafe and onto a sweeping, but pebbly beach. After a brief walk we decided to seek out a better beach, so it was back to the car and off elsewhere.

A friend had recommended another spot at 'The Warren', just up the road from Llanbedrog, but although we found it easily enough, it had been developed into a large caravan and holiday home site, complete with automatic barriers, and not really for us.

And all week, Dad had been telling us about the magnificent, flat, sandy beach near Porthmadog - Black Rock Sands - were he'd played football 50 years ago in the sunshine. So we agreed to head back along the coast road once again to take a look.

Straight away, one good thing about the beach here was that the road opens out right onto the beach and cars can simply park up on the sand, which means all the necessary beachy stuff in the boot such as chairs, cool bag, kites etc was easily accessible. In late September, with a cool breeze blowing in off the sea, it certainly wasn't summer, as Carole demonstrates here in a perhaps slightly exaggerated photoshoot. Still, the rug didn't go straight back in the car afterwards.









After a while it seemed to be getting a little warmer (or were we just becoming numb to the cold?) and a combination of kite flying and frisby-throwing helped to keep our core temperatures up. Later on, the sun tried it's best to shine, and we took a stroll along the beach to take in the sea air whilst at the same time collecting driftwood for the open fire back at the cottage.


This part of North Wales was part of Edward I's 'ring of iron', a series of seven fortified castles around the coast to suppress the Welsh, and two of his finest castles, Criccieth and Harlech, are visible from the sands at Black Rock.

Back at the cottage, our week was nearly over, but as we lit our last open fire and began to gather our things, we could review our photos and reflect on a wonderful week in the Welsh countryside. I'm sure we'll be back!