WALKING WITH WAVES
If it’s maritime marvels you’re after, few stretches of the British coastline can match that of west Wales, where sea-cliffs and sandy bays consort with fishing villages and wild estuaries, says Julie Brominicks
Beneath contorted black cliffs with pie-crust overhangs, grey-green waves lap on to an orange sandy cove, leaving lakes of white surf in their wake.
In some ways, Llangrannog, with its huddle of houses built into steep inclines, its glossy wooded valley hinterland of ferns and labyrinthine lanes bottlenecked by traffic in summer, is a typical Ceredigion coastal settlement. In other ways, it has a character all of its own, developed around the sixth-century church founded by St Crannog, who pitched up in a boat. Wedged far enough up the valley, the church was saved from Viking attacks.
The 60-mile Ceredigion Coast Path, between Aberteifi (Cardigan) and Ynyslas, borders this once seafaring coast. Ships were built in the tiniest settlements, even Llangrannog. Aberteifi was a busier port than Liverpool, lead was exported from
Aberystwyth and limestone was brought into harbours, or dumped offshore and hauled inland at low tide to sweeten the Ceredigion soil.
THROUGH THE SEASONS
Llangrannog and the rolling footpath north to Cei Newydd (New Quay) is a fine section of the coast path. You will pass Ynys Lochtyn, a grassy peninsula shot through with quartz, whose slopes are mantled with squill in spring. Swans sometimes shelter in its northern lea and porpoises feed off the tip – but today it is bottlenose dolphins that are turning like wheels in the water.
The path undulates along the pony-grazed coast, incised by fissures where gulls ride chimneys of wind. In summer, the hillside is lovely with scabious and foxgloves, while in autumn it is a heaving ocean of bronzing bracken and somersaulting, ‘cheeowing’ choughs overhead.
You will perhaps see Atlantic grey seals hauled up in the stony coves of
Cwm Tydu, Cwm Silio and Cwm Soden, where the rock strata are extraordinarily squeezed and squashed into grimaces and smiles, before arriving into Cei Newydd.
Cei Newydd was once a ship-building town like the rest, with a rope-walk, navigation schools, sailmakers and shipwrights. With its eateries and regular buses, it’s a jaunty place to finish, despite sadly no longer being inhabited by captains of the last square-riggers.