Exploring the beaches of the Llyn

After last night's meal, we got our heads together to work out where we we wanted to visit during the week. Whilst anywhere would be better in the sunshine, some of our choices would suit a sunny day much more than a cloudy one, so our proposed itinery for the week would have to be both varied and fluid.

Our first morning in sunny North Wales wasn't in truth so sunny. The forecast suggested that hopefully the sun should return by the afternoon, especially around the coast, and given we'd journeyed for three and a half hours or so the day before, we felt a leisurely day around the coastline would be best.


The Llyn coastline is pitted with little bays, rocky headlands and sandy beaches and several spots are recommended in all the guidebooks we've been accumulating in readiness for our visit. Our first stop was Morfa Nefyn, almost directly north from our cottage, about 20 miles away on the opposite coast. The village itself was uninspiring, but the views from the car park (on the clifftop, not down by the beach itself) were encouraging, looking up and down the coast and out to Anglesey.

A path led down to the sand, where we took the walk along the beach to the nearby hamlet of Porthdinllaen. In the 1850's a proposal was made here for a ferry terminus for Ireland, though Holyhead was eventally preferred. Looking at the place now, a collection of fisherman's cottages and pub (right on the beach), it's hard to believe what could have been.

Behind the pub is a slope leading up the cliffs on a narrow outcrop, where Nefyn golf club's most spectacular holes are located. The public can walk back through the course and out onto the road past the lifeboat station and back to the car park, where we had some lunch.

In the afternoon, we headed down the coast to Aberdaron, almost on the tip of this, the 'Land's End' of Wales. The books say this comparison does Aberdaron an injustice, however we didn't find the village as picturesque as described. The tiny church of St Hywen, noted for its poetic priest R S Thomas, was worth a look, however the cloud cover was returning by now and any charm the village might have had was gone. After a short stroll we ventured on towards the third of our beach destinations, Whistling Sands.

Whistling Sands are noted in all the books as a unique location, where the sand quite literally whistles as you walk over it. Our experiments weren't entirely conclusive and we couldn't agree whether the slight hiss we could hear underfoot was any different here from any other beach, but it's a good story and judging by the number of people around it clearly attracts the punters.

There was no pub on the beach here, but there was a cafe-cum-store right on the sands, selling everything from beach balls and surfing suits to mugs of tea and Bara Brith (Welsh tea-bread, and highly recommended).

The beaches of the Llyn are certainly worth a visit, and its easy to see why they are so popular during the summer months.