Planning permission granted for extending and modernising Dolfor cottage

For many years our white cottage with a red roof, Dolfor 1, has been the poor relation to Manaros, the luxury house in Aberdaron. It shares the same plot but, as a base for our office and where Peter lives, it is not much different in facilities to what it was when it was first built in 1920, at the same time as the old, now demolished, Wembley Stadium. Like Wembley it was considered ultra modern at the time, and used the fashionable material of concrete for both the walls and the roof. Over the years, however, the tiles became porous and had to be painted with red oxide paint to keep out the rain; hence the distinctive red colour.

The architect for Manaros has now drawn up plans to extend and to modernise Dolfor to incorporate 4 ensuite bedrooms; one of which will be on the ground floor and fully accessible for disabled guests-large enough to be a family room and with a wheel in / walk in wet-room shower. 

When built we will be letting out these rooms on a B&B basis. Planning permission has now been granted. Watch this space!

Manaros Holidays in 2018

We have decided to offer Manaros though Sykes Holidays starting this year. Since we hope to let many more weeks we have been able to reduce our prices for winter, spring and autumn, with seven night breaks starting at £515. This works out at £9.20 per person, per night for a group of eight people! If you would like to book then please telephone us on 01758 760 652 or book through our website www.aberdaroncottage.co.uk. Weekly prices will be the same as through Sykes. We don't want to disappoint our returning customers, so if you are looking to come back to Aberdaron for a specific week then do please book early as we are expecting high demand.

Opera break in Aberdaron

November 6th will see a performance of the short comic opera "The Bear", written by William Walton and performed by Mid Wales Opera, see www.midwalesopera.co.uk. 

Based on Anton Chekhov’s play, The Bear tells the tale of the widow, Madame Popova, interrupted from her constant mourning by the arrival of the rough-hewn debt collector Smirnov (the “bear” of the title). Passions run high and their sparring culminates in a duel – and an unexpected romance.
Full of entertainment, comedy, parody and great tunes, this intimate new production of The Bear, featuring three singers and five musicians, is a brilliant introduction for audiences new to opera and a great opportunity for all music lovers to hear Walton’s classic comedy in its fiftieth anniversary year.

We are offering free tickets for those booking a break in Aberdaron at Manaros - costing as little as £360.50 for a 3 day self-catering break commencing on the 5th of September. This would be a wonderful opportunity to combine an autumn break with a bit of culture and what promises to be a lot of fun. It will also help the church community here in Aberdaron to build up St Hywyn's as a venue for cultural events. The restaurants at the Ship Hotel and Ty Newydd are still open so plenty of foodie options also.

Divine Blessings

The Rev. Naomi Starkey

It's a tradition in Aberdaron to use holy water from St Mary's well in christenings, but it's also used for other blessings, such as for local businesses around Harvest Festival time. These pictures show the Revered Naomi Starkey, the Curate of Bro Enlli, with a bowl of holy water blessing the Sblash fish bar and the National Trust visitor centre Porth y Swnt.

Blessing the Sblash Fish Bar.

The Porth y Swnt Visitor Centre.

Una visita a Galles

We were very lucky to host a group of 15 walkers from Italy last week. The group was led by a gentleman called Alessandro from a company called Walden viaggi a piedi, who put together a film with footage and photos that he took while here.

After being picked up from Manchester Airport the group had a quick tour of Conwy, including the Smallest House, before reaching the Woodlands Hall Hotel in Edern for the first few nights of their stay. They eventually made their way along the coast path to Aberdaron where the group was split between the Ty Newydd Hotel, Pretoria B&B and our own Manaros. Luckily the weather was calm enough for them to visit Bardsey before they moved on to the Crown Hotel in Pwllheli. They spent their last day visiting the steam trains in Porthmadog.

The group posing for a photo at Porth Ysgaden

Crossing Porth Neigwl / Hell's Mouth

Lighthouse at Bardsey / Ynys Enlli

Edge of Wales Reaches Out

We were recently asked by Venue Cymru, the iconic theatre on the Llandudno seafront, to help with their outreach program - connecting the theatre more widely with the people of the area through promotional events. We put on a Geocaching display at the July events at Penmaenmawr and Llandudno and below are some of the photographs of how we fared in very mixed weather.

 The display centred upon a stand from which we explained to those attending the show all about the fast growing sport of geocaching and we issued GPS units so that nearby temporary caches could be found.

 Also on display were a fascinating mixture of skills - mediaeval duelling, painting, pottery and clog dancing among them.

 The traffic free area adjacent to the War Memorial proved a great location and we lent out the GPS units to over 100 people during the day.

Also popular was the art of rock balancing. Have a go; it's harder than it looks!

We created a special geocache for the Llandudno event which recorded the fate of the Flying Foam, a schooner that went down in Llandudno Bay in 1935. Here is a photograph of one of the children who attended the event painting an image of the ship on to a rock which was later put into the geocache.

RS Thomas Society Literary Festival - a great success!

From the left, Prof. Tony Brown, Dr. Rowan Williams, Prof. M Wyn Thomas, Dr. John McElhenney

The newly formed RS Thomas & ME Eldridge Appreciation Society held a very successful literary festival over Friday the 9th to Sunday the 11th of June this year. Building on the success of previous years, when the festival was held under the aegis of St Hywyn's church, the festival really blossomed this year with 3 days of varied events and a star-studded cast of speakers who appear in the photograph above.

The main events on Saturday took place in Aberdaron school and were attended by some hundred people who came from far and wide to hear the speakers. Prof. M Wyn Thomas of Swansea University talked of RST's reputation as a turbulent priest who had a difficult relationship with the Church in Wales. Dr Rowan Williams provided a fascinating analysis of RS Thomas' religious poetry and there was an extended question and answer session chaired by Tony Brown and which also included Helen Wilcox and Mark Oakley.

The Festival was honoured by the attendance of Dr. Rowan Williams who retired as Archbishop of Canterbury in 2012, sits in the House of Lords as Baron Oystermouth and is Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Away from the school there was a walk organised by the Society Secretary, Susan Fogarty, which explored the secret paths that RS used to follow in and around Aberdaron. On the Friday afternoon there was a talk by Helen Wilcox, Professor of English at Bangor University, at the Sailing Club on the influence on RS of the 17th century poet George Herbert.

Events in the church included Stations to the Untenanted Cross, where candles accompanied the reading of poetry with time for personal reflection. On Saturday evening there was a performance of The Minister, originally written by RS Thomas as a verse drama for radio. There was also a musical introduction with cello and piano.

Sunday Morning saw a Communion Service in St Hywyn's where Rowan Williams preached and the Bishop of Bangor, Andy John, celebrated the Eucharist.On Sunday afternoon we were treated to personal reflections on the power of poetry by the Rev. Mark Oakley who is the Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, London. This took place at the church of St Maelrhys, Porth Ysgo.

The Festival was rounded off by Fish, Chips and Poetry at the Sblash Fish Bar in Aberdaron, where it was open mic poetry for all. Peter is the treasurer of the RS Thomas Society and he received a goodly number of compliments about the Festival. An even larger event is planned next year on the 28th of June to the 1st of July 2018. Book your accommodation now and register an interest in the Festival at www.rsthomaspoetry.co.uk.

The Sblash Fish Bar.