Today I did a circular walk starting and finishing in the village of Aber (Abergwyngregyn). Took advantage of the free parking in the car park adjacent to the A55 and walked through the village past the café and took the public footpath on the right. The path rises steeply and gives great views in all directions, to the mountains beyond, to Puffin Island and Anglesey, to Bangor and the Menai Straits and the Great Orme and Llandudno. This footpath then merges with the North Wales Footpath and I followed this to the village of Tal y Bont and Penrhyn Castle. The footpath then continues along the route of the old narrow railway that ran from the Penrhyn quarries to Porth Penrhyn near Bangor that carried slate to the docks. It is a beautiful section of the walk through lush woodland and a lovely river that apparently has kingfishers on. I lunched at the docks looking at the very, very expensive boats that Dickies are selling. To get back to Aber I followed the Wales Coastal Footpath. The first section back to Penrhyn Castle was the same way as I came, but in Tal y Bont you take a sharp left just after the railway and follow the footpath to a pretty little church with its immaculate shaped yew bushes. You then have to follow unclassified roads down to the bird reserve at Aber Ogwen and along the coast to Aber. Really good walk, took me 5 hours, and as an aside there were no ladder stiles on the route at all just gates!!
