North Wales Day 5

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North Wales: Day 5 – train south to Machynlleth and Barmouth

Caroline and E travelled south by train from Talsarnau (near our holiday cottage), along the west coast of Wales and inland via the Dyfi valley, to the historic town of Machynlleth (see the red route on the map below). The journey took just over two hours. On the way back home we stopped off in the seaside resort town of Barmouth / Abermaw.

The coastline is extremely scenic, with great views of Bae Ceredigion / Cardigan Bay and the Llŷn Peninsula in the distance. We passed quite a number of static caravan parks, some of which were pretty large, and unlike anything we have in NZ.

In Machynlleth, we wandered from the station along the main streets, observing the old houses and shops. We had lunch at the foot of the town’s clock tower and then visited the grounds of Y Plas Machynlleth. Y Plas is a large Georgian mansion, originally the home of the Marquess of Londonderry, which is now owned by the local council and used for offices and a cafe. In the large grassy grounds are a recreation centre, a community garden, and a slate monument to Owain Glyndŵr. Owain, a trained lawyer and descendant from Welsh royalty, briefly overthrew English control of Wales in the early 1400s. He ruled the country as Prince of Wales for about 5 years, using Machynlleth as his parliamentary headquarters.

On our way back to Machynlleth station we visited the Museum of Modern Art. We particularly liked the computer-created ‘digital vector drawings’ of North Wales landscapes by artist Beth Horrocks https://moma.cymru/en/e/beth-horrocks-anchor-points/.

On the return journey, E got off the train one stop before Barmouth / Abermaw station and walked across the Barmouth Bridge, which is an old (1867) 820m-long wooden viaduct for trains and pedestrians. Meanwhile, Caroline explored parts of Barmouth near the railway station, which included both elegant three and four-storey Welsh-style guest houses and old cottages, often right next to fairly run down, and frankly tacky, seaside ‘attractions’. The very large St John’s Church (built in 1895) overlooks the town and the beach itself is expansive and has lovely sand and some significant waves, which have been largely absent from the beaches we’ve seen in the last week.