The weather forecast was good for Saturday so Tellytubby and I took the opportunity to walk a section of the Roman Road from Rowen to Llanfairfechan. Our starting point for the walk was to go from the Bwlch Y Ddeufaen car park and follow the track to a wooden signpost and then head uphill to Drum and then return back along the ridge to the car park. Before I post about the walk I’d just like to mention that a few years ago Tellytubby and Rhuddlan introduced me to a very close friend of theirs, a lovely lady from St Asaph. Her name was Maria and they were all members of a Field Club and an Archaeological group in St Asaph. Apart from being a warm and kind hearted person she was exceptionally good at arranging things as she had a wide circle of friends and good contacts and would always go out of her way to help people. Sadly when I met her she was not enjoying good health but she was still able to arrange two special trips for us and best of all she was able to come on them with us. The trips were to the famous Williamson Tunnels in Liverpool and to the site of the palace of Owain Glyndwr in Sycharth, two great trips and she was able to tell us the history of both the places.
On one of the trips I found out that amongst all her many interests her passion was for Roman Roads in North Wales and it also happens to be one of mine too. During the conversation I mentioned that in my very first walk with the retirement group I thought that I saw a section of a Roman Road in some woodland in Pentre Halkyn. To me it appeared as a short but classic section of a Roman Road complete with the agger and ditches either side but when I went back to the spot a few years later with a camera to record it, I couldn’t see any sign of it so I was a bit puzzled by it.
Anyway Maria knew it and said that it was a well known site but the landowner had put soil over the spot to deter people from visiting it.
Maria had a friend called David Hopewell of the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust who had written a book on Roman Roads in North West Wales and she suggested that I buy it, which I did and I’ve enjoyed reading it. Maria’s health deteriorated not long after that and she sadly passed away but she is always remembered with affection when her name is mentioned on our walks
To get to the car park we drove up the hill from Llanbedr Y Cennin and at Cae Goch Farm we drove along the tarmac road to the car park. It’s a walk I’ve done many times but before reading the book I’ve assumed incorrectly that the tarmac lane was the path of the original road but in fact it isn’t as the original Roman road is on the northern side of the stone wall. Near Car Coch they found part of a Roman milestone that proved that the Romans used this route until as late as the mid fourth century. About 800 yards further on , on the left you see a circle of small stones and this is called Cerrigypryfaid, ironically it was also the place in 1853 where Jac Y Swan from Rowen murdered a 16 year old called Jesse Roberts and Jac Y Swan was caught and his was the last public execution in Caernarfon.
On a happier note we arrived at the car park and set off through Bwlch Y Ddeufaen ( Pass of the two stones) and followed the track to the wooden signpost at the cross roads. The original Roman Road lies to the south of the track but is hard to distinguish in the heather. At the crossroads we headed uphill towards Drum and near the first corner we saw a guy cycling down the track on his mountain bike. We had noticed him going up the track before but he said that it was too windy for him to cycle up there and we found that out as soon as we got around the corner. Anyway we persevered and with frequent stops we arrived near the top of Drum. It had been a slog getting up there so we had our lunch in a sheltered spot and then it was downhill all the way to the car park. I thought that going downhill would be easy but in actual fact the wind had picked up to a gale force so it was just good to get down and out of the wind. We finished off the walk having a coffee in Tal Goed Nursery and although the weather was not like it had been forecast it's always good to get out and about