KATE MARTIN: Welcome to the National Trust Podcast.
I'm Kate Martin area ranger at Formby on the beautiful Sefton
Coast and a full on nature lover.
I'll be taking you on some amazing walks delving into the
stories and characters that make each place so special. We'll be
traveling all around the country from hilltop to seaside.
We'll tread sandy paths and the polished wooden floors of
country homes. Delight in birdsong, sublime views and
exceptionally good cream teas.
So come and join me on this journey and immerse yourself in
the wonders of the National Trust.
It is glorious. Just opening the curtains and looking out over
this gorgeous Welsh countryside with a rushing river and
beautiful old trees.
Today, I'm staying at one of the lovely chalets at Hafod y Llan,
which is a National Trust campsite just outside
Beddgelert, which is in the fantastic National Park of
Snowdonia in North Wales. It really is a perfect spot for
those who want to get away and explore this part of the world.
So whether you're after a short amble or an epic hike, the
variety of National Trust routes offer something for everyone and
that goes for the accommodation too.
So, as I've said, I've been staying in one of the really
comfy chalets here. But there's also space for seasoned campers
who can pitch their own tents and a cottage for those seeking
a more luxurious stay.
Outside the chalet, I'm in this beautiful oak woodland. There's
birch trees, there's sycamores, there's ash trees and they're
all covered in moss and then a beautiful steep bracken hillside
going up to the foothills of Snowdon and just in the
background, you can hear the rushy tumbling of a fantastic
river that's just running down the side.
So an absolutely perfect place to start today. And luckily
where we are here at the chalet, the Watkin path, which is one of
the main paths up Snowdon is just over the river. So for
those hardened walkers, you can head straight up into the
fantastic foothills, then up to the peak of Snowdon and around
the Snowdon horse shoe.
Today, we're going to be heading to some of the more accessible
paths that there are in this beautiful area.
And although these walks may be less challenging than some of
the more famous walks around here, what they lack in
distance, they certainly make up for in beauty and also the
mythology of this area.
I'm taking a short walk from the campsite to the shores of Llyn
Dinas to meet Rhys Thomas, the countryside manager who's going
to show us what's being done to make Snowdonia more accessible.
Hi Rhys, it's nice to meet you.
RHYS THOMAS: Hi Kate how are you?
KATE MARTIN: I'm fine. Thank you. What a glorious day to be
in Snowdonia.
RHYS THOMAS: Isn't it fantastic?
We knew you were coming. So we brought the sun out.
KATE MARTIN: So tell me about this path we're going to go on
today.
RHYS THOMAS: Yeah. Well, we installed this aggregate path a
couple of years ago in partnership with the Snowdonia
National Park. It's about a mile long. It's going to form part of
the Snowdon circular, which is basically a path that's going to
go all the way around the foot of Snowdon. So, shall we?
KATE MARTIN: I think so, why not?
So this path, what's it all about? And how has it come to
be?
RHYS THOMAS: This is a public right of way. So there's always
been a path here but it's been fairly poor, it's been wet, it's
been slippery, it's just been bare mud.
So it's all to do with getting more people outside and, you
know, providing opportunities for people to actually enjoy the
countryside.
KATE MARTIN: It's easy for me to get out and get up into the
hills and get that experience. But if you've got limited
mobility or you've got a push chair, it's quite, or it has
been in the past, quite difficult to access this
beautiful place.
RHYS THOMAS: Yeah, it's not possible, is it really? So, you
know, but by putting these kinds of paths in, in appropriate
places, you know, you're just- you're just opening the door,
you know, for so many people.
You know, if you've got older people who have spent their sort
of youth walking on the mountains and they can't do that
anymore.
You know, this still provides them with an opportunity to get
outside. This path is suitable for sort of tramper vehicles. So
sort of, you know, 4x4 off road mobility scooters.
KATE MARTIN: The pathway walk along here obviously is a very
well defined path. How is it constructed.
RHYS THOMAS: From slate waste below. And this is sort of
fairly soft ground. So there's quite a quite a depth of slate
waste into this. And the the capping is mint forth granite
type.
KATE MARTIN: The word accessibility in relation to
paths often build this idea of something very, very tame
through a very, very sort of low level, quite dull area of
countryside.
But here, you know, we've got the spectacular mountain views
to either side of us. We're just at the edge of a beautiful
broadleaf woodland got the Llyn Dinas as just in front of us,
the lake to our right. It really is spectacular here Rhys.
RHYS THOMAS: Oh Kate. It's, you know, it's it's one of the the
nicest and the most fantastic valleys in in North Wales,
really.
KATE MARTIN: Walking along here through this woodlands and we're
just towards the end of September. So the leaves are
starting to turn and on the birches in particular as they go
beautiful sort of bright gold colour. And then the bracken
underneath, starting to be a lovely russety brown and there's
that real rich earthy smell that you get, particularly in this
sort of autumn going into winter.
There's an almost a spice to it that you get through, through
this time of year. And again, looking out to the right over
the mountains on the far side of the- of Llyn Dinas- of the lake,
again, the whole area is going in a lovely sort of bronze
colour whereas all the heather is starting to die back.
Coming to the end of the lake. Now, coming there, heading
towards the Beddgelert. And I just want to say thank you Rhys
for just showing me this great path in this beautiful area.
You're very welcome, Kate.
I've got a couple of options. Now, I can either take the path
that that runs along the riverside, pass the copper mine
into Beddgelert.
But today, I now I'm not sure I want as much exercise. So I'm
going to take the Sherpa bus which runs through the valley
between April and November. And it will help me get to
Beddgelert that little bit quicker.
And I've landed in Beddgelert. I have spent so many happy summer
holidays.
We used to spend every August bank holiday at a campsite just
at the end of a Llyn Gwynant Lake at the foot of Snowdon. And
it was always our first day on the Saturday, we used to come
into Beddgelert, go and have an ice cream, go and have a little
bit of walk around the local area.
And, it really is a beautiful little village there in, nestled
in the sort of mountains of Snowdonia, these lovely little
sort of quaint cottages.
Right, I think I can see the gentleman. I'm here to meet so-
Dave Smith, the lead ranger for this area, just, standing over
by the National Trust shop over here. Hi, Dave. It's really nice
to meet you.
DAVE SMITH: And you morning. Nice morning. It is too now
KATE MARTIN: Glorious, isn't it!
Dave, I believe you're going to take me to another one of the
sort of easier, more accessible paths in this area.
DAVE SMITH: Yeah, this one's actually surfacing concrete. So
it's easier for wheelchairs and baby prams and all the rest of
it.
KATE MARTIN: We're here at the start of the Gelert's Grave
Walk, going through a gate with a beautiful dog's paw print in
the middle of it, which I'm sure Dave's gonna tell me the
significance about as we get further on. And the beautiful
river Glaslyn running alongside.
DAVE SMITH: This route here to the Gelert's Grave very, very
busy path and the surface was very poor. It was just- just
dirt. There's a bit of gravel on it, but the river periodically
floods comes across the path, scours away the gravel. And so
the only option we had really was to put some kind of hard
surface on.
And after thinking long and hard and talking to consultants and
doing a lot of liaison with the community, we came up with this
surface. So it's, it's concrete, but it's a special concrete, we
had mixed, including a lot of slate aggregate.
And it's sprayed with a chemical once it's laid and that leaves
the aggregate exposed. So it looks like a gravel path, but
it's actually hard standing, hard concrete.
So it doesn't wear away. It's a very good surface for walking
on. And very soon after putting it in, we saw people from the
village walking around in the slippers in it, which could
never have happened before.
At the time, it was quite controversial. And people would
say, well, what's the point of building a wheelchair path?
There's no one with wheelchairs come here. But of course, once
you built it, people will come and it's not just people with
wheelchairs, it's families with buggies, people bring their
elderly parents and grandparents for a walk on a weekend.
And we found that the path was busy previously in the summer
weeks, but now it's busy all year round.
KATE MARTIN: Just walked through a field full of sheep and Welsh
black cattle. And we've come across a sort of standing stone.
I would say that sort of fenced off and with some slate plinths
in front with the says Gelert's Grave on the top. So what's all
this about Dave.
DAVE SMITH: This is the legend of Gelert's hunting dog. Well,
what do you want me to tell the story? Or we could even read it
out off the, off the slate if you like. [
Yn Gymraeg/In Welsh] Yn y drydedd ganrif ar ddeg roedd gan
Llywelyn tywysog Gogledd Cymru blas ym meddgelert.
Un diwrnod aeth y tywysog i hela heb Gelert. "Ei gi ffyddlon".
Pan ddychwelodd Llywelyn neidiodd y ci yn waed... [Yn
pylu i'r Saesneg/Fading to English]
In the 13th century Prince of North Wales at a palace at
Beddgelert. One day he went hunting without Gelert the
faithful hound who was unaccountably absent. On
Llwelyn's return. The truant stained and smeared with blood
joyfully sprang to meet his master.
The prince alarmed hastened to find his son and saw the infants
cot empty, the bedclothes and floor covered with blood. The
frantic father plunged his sword into the hound side thinking it
had killed his heir. The dog's dying yell was answered by a
child's cry.
Llywelyn searched and discovered his boy unharmed but nearby lay
the body of a mighty wolf which Gelert had slain.
The prince filled with remorse is said never to have smiled
again.
He buried Gelert here the spot is called Beddgelert and that is
literally in Welsh. Bedd means graves. Gelert's grave is the
name of the village.
Yeah, this kind of grave was put here by the guy who built the
goat hotel in the village. So it was to bring tourists to the
area.
No one really knows about the the root of the story. The
village was called Beddgelert. Obviously, when he made the goat
hotel, he was just kind of publicizing it in a way.
Some people think the name Beddgelert comes from Celert who
was a kind of dark ages saint. So that would be Celert's grave
rather than he was some kind of Ascetic monk.
You know, one of the early Christians.
That exact story of the hounds saving the child and all that.
It- Apparently there's versions of it throughout Europe. So it's
a common story whether or not you believe it- It's true, It is
up to you.
And we get a lot of people leaving- I think the pets ashes
around the grave as well.
We can see from where we're standing here by Gelert's grave.
There's the remains of an old cow shed on the path leads us
that way. And if we go up there, there's a bit of a surprise
waiting for us in the cow shed.
So here we go inside the cow shed. We've got a lovely
sculpture of Gelert the dog.
And you can see from the polished bronze of his head and
his back, the lots of people come and pat him on the head or
they put the kids on his back to take pictures,
KATE MARTIN: We've just come to a bridge over the river Glaslyn.
So where next?
DAVE SMITH: Well, if we wanted to, we could cross the bridge
and head back to Beddgelert. The accessible path is a circular
route about two kilometers and take you back to the village.
If we turn right, we go into the spectacular aberglaslyn path
along the fisherman's path.
KATE MARTIN: When I walk- remember walking along this
path, I just remember just a sea of Rhododendrons going up the
hill and, you know, you couldn't see what you see now, you know,
that you couldn't see the, the outcrops of the rock.
You couldn't see, you know, any vegetation really apart from
just this wall of rhododendron.
And, you know, it can be really controversial removing
rhododendron because people see it as an attractive shrub. But
on a mountain side where it just obliterates everything else, it
can be a real hazard and a real pest. So it's fantastic to see
this area back to the way it should be.
DAVE SMITH: Now, what we see mostly heather, there's some
bracken down at the bottom, but there's a lot of trees, an awful
lot of natural regeneration. A lot of birds, rowan, oak all
growing. The change is quite amazing really.
KATE MARTIN: So we've moved from a relatively easy going sort of
slate aggregate path to a much more challenging path. Now,
going along with big rocks, big boulders and we are now really,
really close to the river Glaslyn and you can probably
hear the difference in the waters.
And it's really important for anybody who is thinking about
this walk is you really do have to be aware of the conditions.
You need to take local advice, you know, talk to the tourist
information. Look at the weather forecast before you do it to
make sure you have a good safe walk along this gorge.
I mean, this is for me has got to be one, if not my favourite
walk. I love it. I think it's just, it's just got that mixture
of everything in this area. It really is spectacular.
DAVE SMITH: It's my favourite. One of my favourite circular
walk is to walk down the fisherman's path and then on the
opposite side of the Aberglaslyn pass, we've got a Bryn Du walk.
It goes, it's like an upland walk. It goes through a woodland
and over a sort of heather moorland and down back to the
village. And it's the best walk in the area.
KATE MARTIN: I think the area where we, we are in the gorge
now, the river Glaslyn that in front of us is really picked up
its pace and it's a lot of white water going on. So I believe
that a lot of people come here for slightly more extreme sports
than what we're doing today.
DAVE SMITH: Well, the kayakers tell me that this is iconic
kayaking spot. It's a what they call a grade five. So one of the
most difficult, kayaking sections.
KATE MARTIN: And, I also hear this is a spot that has a
slightly more sinister appearance about it. Possibly a
white lady.
DAVE SMITH: So I'm told I was approached last year actually by
a gentleman who was telling me that, there's a rock formation
up above us where you can clearly see a kind of shrouded
white lady in the rock.
KATE MARTIN: It was something that I'd heard as a child was
that there was a ghost of a white lady in the gorge.
They- some of the ones that I'd heard was that she'd been killed
in an accident or that she'd, possibly been drowned by a
jealous lover and that she sort of walked the gorge to wail and
bemoan her life or to worry others of the impending danger
of falling in the river.
But there's no sign of her today.
We've come to the end of the Aberglaslyn Gorge path now and
we're standing on Pont Aberglaslyn or Aberglaslyn
Bridge for those of us, not of the native tongue. And there's a
few options now for, for getting your way back to Beddgelert, you
can obviously go back the way we've come.
If you want a slightly more sedate way, then if you come out
of the, the gorge and go left, you can head up to Nantmor and
get the Welsh Highland Railway back to Beddgelert.
My chosen route would be to go up past Nantmor up to Cwm
Bychan. Is that right, Dave? And then come down to Llyn Dinas as
where we were and then back along past the copper mines back
to Beddgelert
Well, I've done a couple of walks today and although I might
not have hiked up Snowdon, I'm pretty sure I deserve an ice
cream. So I know exactly the place to go to right in the
heart of Beddgelert. In my opinion, one of the best ice
cream parlours in the world. This used to be a real treat for
me when I was a kid.
Me and my brother and my mum and dad as well would all come down
pile into Beddgelert on a Saturday to get our, get our ice
cream. And if I was really lucky, I might get one at the
start of the walk and one at the end. But today just gonna have
one, but maybe I'll get an extra big one just to make up for it.
Oh, look at this. So I've come to the end of my day in
Beddgelert...
Can I have a sugar cone, please with dark chocolate and wild
cherry.
And it's really nice speaking to the rangers and the countryside
managers who are working here now, who are opening this area
out to so many more people.
When I was young, you know, it was predominantly mountain
climbing and hiking and which is great if you're young and fit
and you're able to do that. But for so many people and for so
many different reasons, there wasn't that accessibility into
this beautiful landscape.
They've now opened this area up to so many different people,
whether it's people with, you know, young children that can't
maybe get up into the hills or people with mobility issues or
maybe people who have enjoyed the mountains and the youth and
just can't quite manage it now and they can still get out and
enjoy this spectacular landscape.
So it really has been a wonderful day and it's reminded
me to come back to Beddgelert again very soon.
That is so good. That is so good.
Thank you for listening to this week's podcast.
For more information on Beddgelert and to download maps
and information on today's walk, you can visit the website
nationaltrust.org.uk/Beddgelert
For more information about the accommodation where we started
this morning at Hafod y Llan visit,
nationaltrust.org.uk/beddgelert- -chalets for our next full
episode.
I'll be walking on my home turf in Formby, Liverpool. That
episode will be available in the next couple of weeks, but there
will be a mini episode available next week.
To make sure you never miss another episode, subscribe on
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podcasts@nationaltrust.org.uk. Until next time from me, Kate
Martin. Goodbye.