Another great RS Thomas festival for Aberdaron

The program for the highly successful RS Thomas festival has now been finalised for 2019. We are delighted that an Edge of Wales tour has been included for the first time. This will be a minibus tour of places associated with the poet - St Hywyn's church, the old rectory, his retirement home at Sarn Plas and Mynydd Mawr with its views over to Bardsey Island and St Mary's well, the subject of his poem Ffynnon Fair. This is to take place on Friday the 21st of June 12:30 to 15:00.

There are many, many other events including a talk by the retired Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. Please do look at the full program which is available at https://rsthomaspoetry.co.uk/ and tickets can be ordered at https://rsthomasfestival2019.eventbrite.co.uk, 

Hidden Llyn

One of the benefits of winter is that with the trees bare you can see all sorts of hidden parts of the landscape. I was driving to Pwllheli from Aberdaron the other day and happened to catch this glimpse of the Nanhoron Estate. The main house is from the regency period, but the Harden family have owned this 5000 acre piece of land for 700 years. These days they operate it as an environmentally friendly farm under the Tir Gofal (Land Care) scheme to encourage wildlife.

The older house, Hen Dy, is available as a holiday let.

Fine Weather this Winter on Pen Llŷn

The winter this year is far from over and we may yet see the sort of snowfall that we experienced last year. However, the weather of late has been nothing short of remarkable and these random photographs were taken last weekend.

Aberdaron beach looking east from the Sailing Club.

Looking west from Rhiw towards Bardsey Island.

Hell's Mouth seen from Penarfynydd near Rhiw.

Pwllheli harbour at low tide.

Pwllheli harbour entrance at low tide.

Early sunset over Pwllheli harbour.

Before you all phone me up to book a holiday, we can't offer you Manaros until March, but we can offer Glandwr, see www.aberdaron-glandwr.co.uk. We can offer a 3 night weekend for just under £300 in January.

Visitors from Minnesota

We were very glad to welcome our friend Hywel Roberts back to Aberdaron last month. Hywel is based in Minnesota and often brings parties from America to experience his original homeland Wales. Here is the group in front of St Hywyn's with Peter, who was giving them a talk on local history.

Lancashire LDWA shows the way.

We recently hosted the Lancashire Long Distance Walkers Association here on the Llyn Peninsula. Most of the group stayed in the Fairway Country Hotel in Morfa Nefyn, with another couple staying at the Pen Llyn B&B in nearby Dinas. The group stayed for 5 nights commencing on Friday the 21st of September, and walked all the way from Aberdaron to Felinheli near Bangor, an impressive distance of 57 miles! That is what I call fitness!

Spring is here in Aberdaron. Mae Gwanwyn yma un Aberdaron!

A month ago we were digging ourselves out from the snow. Today it seems that spring has arrived in full force. Peter went up to Plas yn Rhiw today and took these photographs of a garden beginning to burst with colour.

Manaros is now sold out for full weeks until October but we have 4 short breaks and we offer these below as special offers for our previous customers.

29th April - 4 nights - £480

8th May - 2 nights - £350

26th May - 3 nights - £600

25th June - 3 nights - £450

10th July - 3 nights - £500

If you would like to book any of these dates please get in touch by email on enquiries@aberdaroncottage.co.uk, or by phone on 01758 760 652. We would love to see you.

Snowy Aberdaron

You would have to go back to 1983 to find the sort of wintry scene that we saw in Aberdaron at the weekend. After a very cold but dry week we had high winds and heavy snow beginning late afternoon on Friday. We awoke to this amazing snowfall on Saturday, something like 9 inches. The road in from Pwllheli was blocked at Rhoshirwaun with heavy drifts of snow blowing across from the valley. Until 4pm there was no way in or out of Aberdaron and I was able to get these photographs which will have to serve us for Christmas cards for the next 35 years!

Drifting across Manaros drive.

I must get that gutter fixed!

Not exactly BBQ weather!

View over the field from Manaros

There were only a dozen in church on Sunday, including the vicar!

Another candidate for the Edge of Wales Christmas Card 2018.

Not too many pilgrims at the Gegin Fawr.

An icy river Daron.

In extreme weather there is no better place to be than Manaros with its underfloor heating, good communications and a multitude of games including this 1000 piece jigsaw of the Speed Map of the Llyn Peninsula.

Our guests enjoyed snowy walks and magnificent food, all of which made for a very memorable weekend.