Congregational Singing in the New Church

I have been coming to Aberdaron on holiday for 40 years, have owned Dolfor for 30 years and have lived and worked here full time for 13 years and yet I had never seen the inside of the "New Church". It is "New" because it was built in 1841 to replace the ancient church of St Hywyn's, Aberdaron which, it was believed, was going to fall into the sea. However, an effective sea wall was built and St Hywyn's was saved. The New Church was itself abandoned in 1906 when St Hywyn's was comprehensively restored. The graveyard has been well used for burials and the nearby rectory continued to be occupied until R.S. Thomas retired in the 1970s. This new church is now in need of repair and this will be an important subject of discussion this autumn with the community meeting called for September the 23rd. As a start to this process there was a celebratory congregational singing event last week and the photographs below tell their own story of community togetherness, pride in talent, joy in music and in the Welsh language.

Sometimes described as having little architectural merit, the New Church has distinctive towers and has survived the harsh weather since 1841.

Get Active!

Feeling fit? The annual Llŷn Coastal Sportive is taking place on the 7th of June. A sportive, for the uninitiated, is a cycle race in this case a circular one starting at the Plas Heli sailing club in Pwllheli before heading south to climb over Mynydd Rhiw to Aberdaron, then following the coastline north through Nefyn to Llanaelhearn and then finally returning to Pwllheli - a distance of some 50 miles.



Adult entry costs £36.75, while under 18s cost £26.75. You can enter online using this form, or contact Plas Heli using the details below:

Plas Heli Cyf
C/o Clwb Hwylio Pwllheli Sailing Club
Hafan
Pwllheli
Gwynedd
LL53 5YT

post@plasheli.org
01758 613 343

Patagonia - 150 years on

On the 28th of July 1865, one hundred and fifty three Welsh settlers arrived in Patagonia, in what would become southern Argentina on a converted tea clipper, the Mimosa. They had gone to set up a Welsh speaking community at the behest of the Argentinian government and under the inspirational leadership of Captain Love Jones Parry and Lewis Jones. Unfortunately, few of the settlers were farmers and they landed in an arid semi-desert with little food and only one colonist who had rudimentary medical skills. However, they persevered and set up the towns of Rawson and Puerto Madryn and founded a distinct Welsh speaking community which persists to this day.

Plas Glyn y Weddw in Llanbedrog is now celebrating these 150 years with an inspiring new exhibition which is now on until the 12th of July.

The highlight of the exhibition is retrospective work by the artist Delyth Llwyd Evans de Jones, a direct descendant of some of the first Welsh settlers, and recognised as the most important painter from Welsh Patagonia. This is a self portrait.

One of many landscapes by Delyth.

There is a specially commissioned box set of 19 prints depicting the founding of the Welsh colony and drawn by Delyth.

Tomas Duncombe Love Jones-Parry of the Madryn family who owned Plas Glyn y Weddw. He was one of the leaders of the settlement.

Part of the exhibition features work by Luned Rhys Parri who went to Patagonia in 2014 and who worked with local schools both on the Llŷn and in Patagonia.

This is a big exhibition and beatifully set up by the staff at Plas.

The most famous Welsh artist to visit Patagonia was Kyffin Williams, and there is some of his work on display here. This is a portrait of Kyffin by Delyth.

Trefriw Walking Festival a Huge Success

The town of Trefriw in the Conwy Valley held its annual Walking Festival last weekend. Peter donated his time and the use of some of our GPS units to run an Introduction to Geocaching Course around the nearby lakes. If you don't know, geocaching is a high tech treasure hunting game, that uses GPS technology to find hidden caches, some of which contain "treasure".

Thanks to all who made the effort to come out for the event.

The festival organisers created a circular route using some caches that already exist in the area, along with some temporary ones they had hidden to fill in the gaps. If you would like to have a go yourself, you can find details of the permanent caches that were visited at www.geocaching.com:

It's all in the Mine'd - Hafod Arthen.
Woggle Walk - Rocky Corner

Woggle Walk - Waterfall

Woggle walk - Crafnant View

Woggle Walk - Junction

Woggle Walk - Dark Dark Forest

Woggle Walk - Stream Crossing

Llyn Crafnant looked stunning in the spring sunshine.

One of the younger geocachers.

Many caches contain small trinkets or toys. Finders are invited to sign their names in the cache's log book and take an item of their choosing, provided that they replace it with something of equal value in return.

Other caches are extremely small, sometimes with just enough room inside for a log book and pencil. The challenge is in finding them, especially when they are as well hidden as this one disguised as a piece of rotten wood.

The surrounding woods had a positively primeval atmosphere, full as they were with fantastically gnarled old trees and a lush undergrowth growth of ferns, mosses and lichens.

The clover-like leaves and white flowers of Wood Sorrel, growing in the woods. 

A well earned break at a local cafe.

Plas y Brenin mountain centre were kind enough to supply their minibus.

Pilgrims on the move

A group of pilgrims from Denbighshire, pioneers of the North Wales Pilgrim Way, arrived on the Llŷn on Monday. This 133 mile route stretches from Holywell in Flintshire to Bardsey. The route has a new website, and is being walked by this group for the 5th time. Edge of Wales Walk was delighted to provide transport each day whilst on the Llŷn. Today they are due to go across to Bardsey as the conclusion of their walk, on the boat run by Colin Evans' company Mordaith Llŷn. Let's hope the sea isn't too choppy!

This was our first point of contact when the pilgrim's started at Pen y Groes, near Caernarfon.

This was the start of the second day's walk by the pier in Trefor.

  

A good turnout for day 3's walk starting outside St David's church in Nefyn

Sailing Centre takes shape.

Something spectacular is taking shape near the harbour in Pwllheli. By Lleyn standards, the 8.3 million pound investment is enormous and will increase the opportunities for the outdoor sector in Gwynedd and boost the local economy. Controversial and much delayed though it is, it will soon provide for national and even international sailing events and establish the area as a destination for world class sailors. It is also planned to be a key building in which to hold wider community events and activities. We are hoping that some of these visitors find their way down to Aberdaron and want to stay in Manaros or Glandwr. 

The video above was taken late last year, but Peter visited the site yesterday and took these photos of the current build which has progressed a long way.

This development is distinct from the harbour, which is full of power boats and is served by the Pwllheli Sailing Club building which remains. This new building faces east and looks towards Pen-ychain and Hafan y Mor (Butlins if you are of a certain age).

View east 

Access to the beach from the Centre.

Heatwave on its Way

Here in Aberdaron we're used to mixed weather. We had an absolutely brilliant Easter, but lately we've had a few stormy days with much lower temperatures and some strong winds coming into the bay from the south west. Now, there is good news on the horizon with rising temperatures forecast this week. The medium forecast is also good due to an influx of tropical maritime air.

According to the very helpful Met Office website...

"The source region for this air mass is warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Bermuda. The predominant wind direction across the British Isles, in a tropical maritime air mass, is south-westerly.

Tropical maritime air is warm and moist in its lowest layers and, although unstable over its source region, during its passage over cooler waters becomes stable and the air becomes saturated. Consequently when a tropical maritime air mass reaches the British Isles it brings with it low cloud and drizzle, perhaps also fog around windward coasts and across hills. To the lee of high ground though, the cloud my break up and here the weather, particularly in the summer months, can be fine and sunny.

This is a mild air stream and during the winter month in particular, can raise the air temperature several degrees above the average."

If you're looking to take advantage of the milder weather, Glandwr is available from Wednesday the 15th of April, and Manaros is available for a 5 night break from Sunday the 19th to Friday the 24th. Phone us on 01758 760 652 and we will price it up for you.