Llyn Peninsula
This beguiling, remote peninsula lying beyond Snowdonia in the north west of Wales is where you will find Welshness in its purest essence.
In terms of culture and landscape Llyn is to Wales what Connemara is to Ireland, but Llyn is a far better kept secret. A thin finger of land, where 80% of this tranquil peninsula is designated an Area of Outstanding National Beauty, Llyn covers 70 miles of coastline where the waves crash against dramatic cliffs, and the sea laps its coves and sandy shores, while inland the Llyn has patchwork vales of lush green and forgotten farm houses. With no main roads penetrating into the peninsula, Llyn has remained relatively untouched and its villages small and insular. Go into any shop in the villages along the Llyn and you will be the only person not speaking Welsh as a first language.
Along the north coastline are the small fishing villages of Nefyn and Port Dinllaen a tiny town of whitewashed houses nestled in a bay, owned entirely and protected by the National Trust. Along the south coastline are the larger towns of Pwllheli and Criccieth overlooked by the noble ruins of Criccieth Castle built by Edward I in the 13th Century. On the westerly tip of the peninsula is Aberdaron a small hamlet of whitewashed cottages overlooking a white sandy bay, its post office and two pubs were designed by Sir Clough William-Ellis, the eccentric architect behind Portmeirion . Up the hill from Aberdaron is the Church of St Hywyn, almost falling into the sea. Going north along the coast is the bay known as Whistling Sands, so called because the sand squeaks as you stand on it.
From Aberdaron, two miles off the tip of the peninsula is ‘the isle of 20,000 saints’, Bardsey Island. In the 6th or 7th Century St Cadfan established a Celtic Monastery here and it was deemed that three pilgrimages here equalled one to Rome. Today it forms the culmination of a walk across the Llyn Peninsula, along the pilgrims trail and is a popular destination for bird watchers.
At the very tip of the peninsula, by way of a finale, is Mynydd Mawr a rugged mountain, 160 metres high with views overlooking Bardsey Island and a on a good day as far west as the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland.
