Liverpool and North Wales: Day 7

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Wednesday, 7th May

Morning all! Thanks for your readership so far and your comments 👍

It’s another fine day forecast! 😎☀️😎☀️. That’s two in a row here in Borth-y-Gest near Porthmadog where we’re staying in a snug two-bedroom holiday cottage👍. We’re here until Saturday and are spending time exploring the surrounding area.

The weather is steadily improving, and I may have to break out my short-sleeved shirt if the trend continues! 🙂. In fact, today was to turn out even warmer than the above forecast, hitting a mighty 20℃ by 2pm! Scorchio! 🥵🥵

Today, in a change to the advertised programme (due to restricted opening hours at some of our intended destinations), instead, we’re heading south. On the list is the town of Barmouth followed by Llanfair Slate Caverns and then finally, the famous Harlech Castle.

9.33am: Picnic packed ✅, Sat-Nav on ✅, Car charged ✅ – another day of exploration begins! As each day passes, Wales seems to remind us more and more of New Zealand! Empty roads, hardly any people and plenty of sheep (although not quite as many as NZ!).

Barmouth

10.22am: Hhhhmm, it wasn’t the fastest of roads, but I guess a little under an hour to cover 30 miles isn’t bad, given where we are. With a population of just over 2500, this oft-visited seaside town on the west coast of Wales is where Mawddach Estuary meets Cardigan Bay. The Sun was already shining when we arrived and Ann’s eagle-eyes spotted that it also had a fast EV charger – all we had to do was find it. A quick look at Zap-Map (the EV owners’ ‘Bible’) on our phones pointed us in the right direction, and we were soon plugged in and charging.

Best news of all? I think someone forgot to update the prices for this one! At less than 50p per kWh, it was a bargain considering its 2025. Whilst the car was charging, we went wandering. It was impossible to ignore the beaches here – some of the biggest/widest I’ve ever seen in the UK, that together with the blue sky, created the perfect shot for our first visit!

We then took the short walk towards the town, primarily looking for the iconic ‘Barmouth Bridge’, but no luck. 🙁. We WILL find it!

In some respects, elsewhere it was like many other seaside towns with its obligatory Fish & Chip shops, Kiss-me-Quick hats and Seaside Amusements.

Surprisingly though, looking towards the hillside revealed a Church – St John’s – Built between 1889 and 1895, it was an imposing sight and I’ve never seen such a large Church so close to the sea. Sadly, it was closed today, so no photographs of the inside.

11.28am: The highlight for us was managing to locate the previously mentioned ‘Barmouth Bridge‘. Its claim to fame is that it’s the longest wooden railway bridge in Britain (900yds/820m!) and the longest viaduct in Wales. Built in 1867, this bridge has truly stood the test of time and is Grade II listed.

Llanfair Slate Caverns

12.03am: The Caverns have remained as the miners left them, built over 100 years ago. Hard hats are obligatory in this well-thought-out, but slightly offbeat tourist attraction. Their hats come in just two colours – blue or yellow, where ‘one size fits all’ and where we were too find out how essential they were! It cost £17.50 for admission (2 concessions).

There are a total of nine caverns to explore, and like everywhere we’ve visited so far in North Wales the location is ‘proud to be dog friendly’ (I’m just not sure the Caves are very HUMAN friendly!). There’s a separate section that’s closed off to the public where they store cheese (yes, really) – the variety being imaginatively named: ‘Welsh Slate Cavern Aged Cheddar‘ aka ‘Dragon’- where it’s left to mature.

All the tunnels were dug by hand with only a candle for lighting in the early days. Slate was popular, really popular where Llanfair Slate was used to roof many of the industrial buildings – a massive industry! The working conditions would have sent Union Reps into a spin, where the first thing we noticed was how COLD it was down there. Working there for a day, let alone a week/month/year (or longer), must have been a real challenge.

Not surprisingly, there’s not much to actually SEE – apart from Slate – once you’re inside. However, the sheer size and number of Caves, sprawling in every direction, gave a real sense of its importance at the time, plus the scale of the operation. A job not aimed at ‘snowflakes’ for sure!! 🤔

12.20pm: On returning to the surface, there was the added bonus of the SPECTACULAR views out to sea.

Phew! What a claustrophobic experience (and we were only down there for less than an hour!). A worthwhile trip, but do be prepared for quite a few steps and some very low ceilings! 🙄. Oh, and the route TO the Caves is VERY twisty-turny – thankfully, we didn’t meet another vehicle coming the other way and were glad that the general speed limit out here is a gentle 20mph!

Harlech Castle

12.36pm: Here we are at Harlech Castle. It’s Grade I listed and built onto a rocky knoll close to the Irish Sea. Built by Edward I (presumably with some additional help) during his invasion of Wales between 1282 and 1289, it was completed in record time.

We picnicked in the car and were pleased that we got the last parking space! 👍👍

The Castle may be a significant size, but they really should have suggested to Edward I to give some more thought to the CAR-PARK. For such a popular attraction, parking capacity was severely limited – maximum 20 (ish) cars! When we arrived it was almost full with just a single space left (now ours!) – and this was an out-of-season Wednesday! 🙁

Suitably stuffed, we headed for the entrance. Just £19 (one concession) admission. There’s a Gift Shop and a small Café once you’ve got your tickets.

First impressions? It’s a solid construction and has held up well in the intervening 700-plus years. But maybe it’s survived so long because no-one can work out how to get to it?!?! For first-time visitors, the directional signage is pretty much non-existent – you can see it for miles, but the final 1000 yards is for psychics only! 🙁🙁

The Castle has been left in pretty much its ‘raw state’. There are a few information boards around, but the overall impression is one of an imposing structure designed to intimidate anyone who was foolish enough to try and overrun the place. That strategy wasn’t entirely successful – but in 2025, it’s still here!!

For us, the lasting memory (apart from the crap parking arrangements) was the incredible views from the top via the ‘Wall Walk’. The whole of the upper section of the Castle is accessible (albeit requiring some serious stepping up via a stone spiral staircase). It was worth it though!

1.32pm: It was worth the visit, just for the views! 🙂👍. We ended our visit with the obligatory look around the Gift Shop, but resisted the temptation to give my wallet the opportunity to see the light! Time to head back. We stopped off at Tesco in Porthmadog for some foody essentials, that’ll see us through to the end of the holiday. It’s an impressive store and looks new(ish), dwarfing most of the other shops nearby.

2.29pm: Back at base, having driven just 46 miles today, we reflected on the day and both agreed that the Slate Caves had been the high point of Wednesday’s exploration of this beautiful part of Wales.

Tomorrow…

Tomorrow, it’s Criccieth Castle plus the Lloyd George Museum and a picnic in Pwllheli! See you then! 👍