When I picked up Tellytubby yesterday at 10.00am it was dark and overcast and looked like it was going to pour down, but by the time we got to the western end of Ffynnongroew the weather had changed completely and it was sunny and very warm. The start of the walk was on a straight track on a steep embankment which came to a road where we turned right and went under the railway bridge arriving at the site where the Point of Ayr Colliery once stood. By 1953 this coal mine was employing 738 people and was producing 213,000 tonnes of coal annually. It was the last coal mine in North Wales and closed in 1996, at one time the Colliery was exporting the coal by the sea using the Colliery’s own fleet of ships. The coal seams were worked under the Dee estuary and, despite extensive reserves, it closed as a result of the reduced demands for coal due to the use of gas in electricity generation. Personally, I believe that it was a political decision rather than an economical one.
Anyway, nothing now remains of a once great industry other than a few things around the area to remind people of what was once there.
The walk then continued along the marshy banks of the sea and just before we came into Talacre we were very lucky to see so many White Egrets in the tall trees at the side of the embankment These Little Egrets are mostly silent but make various croaking and bubbling calls at their breeding colony and it was fascinating just standing there and listening to them all making these unusual noises, we could have stayed there longer but carried on to the sand dunes on Talacre Beach. Just before you enter the dunes area you can see a fenced off area with ponds and yesterday it was full of Primroses, this is the home of the rare and protected Natterjack Toads who live in the area. We carried on to the beach and had our refreshments opposite the Talacre lighthouse. It was built in 1776 and is a grade II listed building but fell into disuse and was decommissioned in 1884 and is now privately owned. They say that it is the most haunted lighthouse in Britain and psychics visiting the site reported contact with a spirit called Raymond who was once a lighthouse man before dying of a fever!
It was just so relaxing having our refreshments on the beach in the warm Sun after the long cold Winter but before long we had to move on again and return back to the car. No sign of Raymond this time, but perhaps we’ll see him there on our next visit to Talacre!