We were woken early by mooing cows but I managed to go back to sleep until around 7:30 and then read until Peter was ready to wake up at around 8. We had our coffee sitting in the cool breeze outside, as the tent had got quite hot overnight. We had a slow start, with toast for breakfast in lieu of being able to cook without lighting the fire, just reading in the sun/shade - Peter was hiding from the sun, having got quite burnt yesterday. 

At around 10:30 we headed off, after a brief chat to our Airbnb host, walking down to the path that the host had recommended as a short cut down to the slate caverns. This turned out to be a steep, overgrown slate staircase with extremely precarious steps leading down through a small patch of dense forest. It was a very rainforest-y environment in parts, with streams running by and water on the ‘path’.  We popped out at the bottom by a gate, which we passed through to find grass broken by slate patches - you can definitely see why it was mined here! When we finally reached the bottom and found our way to the road through a field next to another with a bunch of cows, we headed down the hill only to find that the slate caverns (and accompanying farm park!) were closed. This wasn’t at all a surprise, but a shame. We saw a ‘walking path’ sign pointing to a field across the road, leading towards the beach, but after attempting to follow this path, we couldn’t work out where it went and gave up and went back to the footpath along the road. 

After walking along the main road for a while, we noticed a walking path sign heading off towards the cliffs, looking over a spectacular view of Harlech beach. We followed this path, which switched back and forth down the cliffs down to the railway line, which ran directly along the beach! It was a stunning sunny day, so we crossed the railway and walked along the beach, heading to where it seemed like there was a road into Harlech itself. We ended up sitting down and spending a bit of time chilling on the beach before we started getting hungry. Peter went and stuck his feet in the water but even he wasn’t keen for a full swim, which meant the water must have been really cold! 

Once we’d enjoyed the sun for a little while, we noticed that people kept popping up over the sand dunes behind us. We decided to head over that way, assuming there was a car park/road there. There wasn’t, but there was a path through the dunes, winding through some bushes across the edge of a golf course and joining a small road.   We followed the road up towards town, where we were able to find a little footpath staircase that led up to the old town where the castle sat up on the cliffs. We were both pretty hungry so we found a little cafe that Peter had found on google. The cafe sat us on a fantastic balcony overlooking the castle, the beach, and the mountains of snowdonia to the north. I was annoyed to discover that they only took cash (most - almost all - places are not taking cash at the moment to avoid contact) so I had to run down the street to get some cash out - luckily there was one ATM in the town! We were similarly unimpressed that we had to order our food and drink inside, as pubs/restaurants in Wales are absolutely supposed to be doing table service under the COVID rules.  Nevertheless we ordered our lunch and enjoyed a coffee while waiting for it to come. When my salmon salad came, it was probably one of the most impressive salads I’ve ever had! It was packed with different veg, little pickles, olives and a very generous amount of hot smoked salmon! Delicious. Peter got a fairly basic burger but it was Welsh lamb and mint and was good regardless. 

Once we’d eaten, we wandered through the tiny little town, avoiding the crowds near an ice cream shop and instead heading down the road and up a walking pathway. This was super overgrown but led up to an incredible view down over the town, castle and surrounding region. From a little chapel and graveyard at the top of the town we wandered back down toward the castle and found a spot sitting outside to wait until our allotted 3pm entry time. Just before 3, we headed over to the gate and were allowed through the entry building to cross the glass bridge that passed over the moat. We started by doing a walk around the outside of the castle, trying to find the entry to the ‘right hand tower’ for the wall walk. It turned out that this was inside the castle structure, so once we’d checked out the view from the front, overlooking the amazing view from the clifftop, we walked through the middle of the castle and climbed up to the staircase to the walls. Our host had warned us this morning about the lack of barriers along the wall walk, and we were both definitely walking right in the middle of the path as we made our way around the perimeter of the castle. There were low stone walls lining the parapets, but these were no more than hip high, and they felt a lot lower! Amazing views abounded as we walked around, both of the inside of the castle and beyond. More photos below as I couldn't fit all of them in the text.

Back on ground level after finding our way to the exit staircase, we checked out the various rooms and structures before heading back to the bridge. We were both pretty wiped out from all the walking, as well as the ‘heat’ (it was very humid and we’d been in the sun all day), so after a quick stop at the shop for a few bits and pieces we started the long walk back to Llanfair. Google said it was supposed to be a 35 minute walk but between the hills and creeping along a stone-walled road with no footpath, it took us a bit longer.  We were surprised to see that there were a lot of abandoned houses along the beach-view-side of the road, including an abandoned college and theatre that was up for auction! Not exactly what you expect from a coastal village, although this one is quite out of the way. Once we got back to the tent it was definitely beer o’clock so we settled down with our water bottles, a beer and a book on the chairs outside the tent. After we’d read for a while, we got a fire going and cooked the pieces of salmon we had brought for dinner and had them with a salad. We then had a quiet evening of reading and watching the Umbrella Academy.