A return to Criccieth for our first holiday of 2026, with a repeat stay at the George IV Hotel.

Friday 20th March

33 members, including friends from Stoke/Newcastle group, arrived at various times on Friday, some visiting local attractions along the way - such as Bodnant Garden, where magnolia trees and rhododendrons were in bloom, and there were huge numbers of daffodils.

Martin Jones led a few walkers on an orientation stroll around the town, and slightly beyond, in the afternoon starting at 2 pm, calling at Cadwalader's for an ice cream to enjoy looking out over the beach and a very calm sea. 

Saturday 21st March

The very pleasant sunny and warm weather continued on Saturday as we drove off to the start of two walks led by Martin and Derek, while others planned their own excursions. A short drive away for Martin's group took us to a group of hills on the north coast of the Llyn Peninsula called Yr Eifl. This name is often mis-translated as "The Rivals" in English, but this is not a correct translation of the Welsh name, but merely a transliteration of the sound of the name. The actual meaning of Yr Eifl is unclear.

The three named hils are Garn Ganol, being the highest point with ancient cairn and trig point at 1841 ft, Tre'r Ceiri ("Town of the Giants"), an Iron Age Hill Fort, still with many visible features at 1591ft and Garn For, the most northern summit containing granite quarries at 1457ft. On a totally clear day the views from Garn Ganol would reach over to the Isle of Man, Wicklow Mountains in Ireland, the Lake District and the whole sweep of Cardigan Bay.

Gillian Gibbons

Saturday 21st March - long walk - Yr Eifl range from Trefor Beach car park

This 9-mile walk, led by Derek, explored a short section of coast (group photo) from the village of Trefor before making the steep climb of 1850 feet to Garn Canol, the highest summit of the Yr Eifl range. From there we took a direct line to the slightly lower Tre’r Ceiri ("Town of the Giants"), site of the finest Iron Age remains in Wales. Footpaths were generally good apart from the upper reaches of ascent and descent which involved negotiating rocks and boulders. Our initial group of 15 all made it up to the summit where we came across the other group doing the shorter walk. Two of our group had had enough by the time we lunched at the Tre’r Ceiri Iron Age fort and decided to continue with the other group who also lunched here. The weather was fabulously sunny, the wind negligible and the wide-ranging views throughout were memorable. This was a challenging walk but worthwhile for all 15 participants.

Derek Lowe

Coastal Path from Trefor 

Onwards and upwards towards the summit of the Yr Eifl Range

Garn Ganol, the summit of the Yr Eifl Range, with Tre’r Ceiri below.

The significance of the strange metal ornament ("4AH") is unclear. The site below has some discussion by "trig baggers", but no firm conclusion is reached. 

https://trigpointing.uk/trigs/6421

Mike Field

Descending from Garn Ganol towards Tre'r Ceiri

Lunch time at the Tre’r Ceiri 

Onwards and downwards from the Tre’r Ceiri

Saturday 21st March - shorter walk - Yr Eifl range from the official Yr Eifl car park

The shorter walk started from the Yr Eifl car park, half a mile north of the village of Llaethfaen, at grid reference SH 353 442. Participants visited the same two summits as the long walk, but approached from the south instead of the north.

As we faced the hills it was a formidable sight. As we headed on a path around the base of Garn Ganol, it looked even more daunting close up, so it was a slow and very careful start to the climb due to the steepness of the rocks and crevices, and that careful approach continued throughout the walk. We had regular stops to catch our breath and work out "a route" as 3/4 of the way up the rocks became massive grey boulders that we scrambled and clambered over, trying to find secure footholds. Reaching the summit and the trig point, with its unusual metal ornament, felt like an enormous achievement, and the views were spectacular with buildings, roads and cars at sea level looking like miniatures. A short time later the longer walkers joined us here from their starting point before we all headed downhill, again with great care, to cross over at ground level to climb up Tre'r Ceiri for our lunch break.
Afterwards the groups split again, and Martin's group walked downhill and across open land to return to the cars. The mileage walked, about 4.5 miles, was insignificant compared with the height we had climbed! We then drove a short distance to Morfa Nefyn to visit the very popular Ty Coch pub situated right on the beach at Porthdinllaen, so we had quite a walk down to and along the sand for a welcome drink and to enjoy the sun, before returning to the hotel.

Gillian Gibbons

Sunday 22nd March

Sunday 22nd March - shorter walk

Sunday morning had quite a cloudier and misty start, but still mild. Martin's group of 8 walked directly from the hotel out on the coastal path, with the sea on our left. As we reached the boardwalk the River Dwyfor flowed alongside, and later we reached the village of Llanystumdwy and had a drinks break by the church. Retracing our steps slightly we walked up a lane to look at the gravesite beside the river of David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the UK between 1916-1922. The footpath we needed to continue was alongside, and this led us through woodland beside the full and in some areas fast flowing river with many small weirs. There were plenty of fallen trees here and the paths were strewn with tree roots and stones, so difficult to walk on. Plenty of birdlife with buzzards, blue tits and a dipper to see together with swathes of daffodils, celandine and wood anemone. Unfortunately a member of the group sustained an injury, and had to leave the walk, so there was a lunch break while the situation was sorted , and then we continued on our 7 1/2 mile route, along lanes, fields and farmland to rejoin the coastal path and return to the hotel, still in sunshine.

Gillian Gibbons

Sunday 22nd March - longer walk - Llanbedrog to Abersoch

Sunday didn’t provide the blue skies of the previous day but temperatures were still very pleasant in Llanbedrog as 17 walkers set off from a petrol station whose owner had very kindly allowed us to park on his grounds. Arriving on Llanbedrog beach, a beautiful stretch of sand with a gently shelving foreshore, a mecca for families on a sunny day, I became aware of a basic error in my planning: I hadn’t checked the time of the high tide. That meant that the access to the path ascending the promontory was cut off by the sea. Never ones to be vanquished by an obstacle, half of our party managed to shin along the rocks, laid to prevent damage to the shore during storms, and there was only one casualty - me - when I managed to lose my balance on an (appropriately named) slipway and promptly sat down in the sea! The other half of the party took the sensible advice of a local and retreated up the lane to take a higher path to meet up with the rest after their steep climb up a staircase onto the promontory. After a pleasant walk around the head, we dropped down to the coastal path along the beach where one of our number took the opportunity of a paddle in the sea. Lining the beach were expensive chalets on the exclusive Warren site with their own staircases to the beach, all very redolent of Malibu and Baywatch but without Pamela Anderson!

Arriving in Abersoch, everyone wandered the village at their leisure before reassembling for the walk back through fields and lanes to Llanbedrog, to complete a 9.9 mile circular.

Meanwhile, Mike and Toni split off at one point to revisit the colossal stump of an old windmill near Myntho, known as the Jampot, which was sadly decommissioned due to the erratic winds in the locality.

Brian McMahon

(On the map below, the purple line shows the main route and the green line shows the two diversions taken by the splinter group, which was different in each case. The route was followed in a clockwise direction, starting from Llanbedrog Service Station, indicated by  the flag icon at top right.)

On the headland above Llanbedrog

Group photo on the headland with this interesting metal sculpture.

Descending from the headland onto the coastal path along the beach.

The coastal path along the beach by The Warren.

The walk along the beach took us to Abersoch, where we had our lunch stop.

Mike takes up the story of the side trip:

We (Mike and Toni Field) broke off from the group to visit The Jampot, a disused windmill on top of Foel Fawr, north of Mynytho.

We had last seen The Jampot 31 years earlier, in 1995, on a family holiday in a touring caravan with our daughter Claire, who was then aged 6. The Jampot was visible from the caravan site and we had walked from the site up to it. Claire, now 37, on hearing that we were going to be in the area on this trip, had asked us to send photos of the Jampot, so we set off to climb Foel Fawr, which entailed at least 100 metres of additional ascent and an extra 1.4 miles of distance. We succeeded in this mission, but the touring caravan site that we had stayed on (north of The Jampot hill) has become a static holiday home site.

Extract from information board follows. 

Mike and Toni's route is indicated by the green line. If you think it looks rather indirect, you're right. This is what happens when you don't do a recce. 

The Jampot is indicated by the windmill symbol just below the words "Foel Fawr".

It was a worryingly long while before it came into view, but there it is. 

Getting nearer...

The last stage 

It looks a lot bigger close up.

It has a door...

... and a window. 

 We came down without incident, to find that most of the rest of the party had already left the service station. Only Derek's car remained. Derek and Steph appeared while we were taking our boots off, having spent some time looking round Abersoch and catching the bus back to Llanbedrog.

Overall it was a great walk with a little adventure to add spice. 

Mike Field

Monday 23rd March

Monday morning was our departure day, but some members stayed to look around the area.

Others took part in a walk in the Llangollen area on the way home. 

Plan A had been for Martin Jones to lead this 3.5 mile circular walk, taking in the Horseshoe Falls and the remains of Valle Crucis Abbey. Unfortunately Martin's car developed a fault and he went home early. Leadership of the walk was handed over (with a map) to Sarah Hall-Craggs at very short notice. Sarah was not familiar with the area and had no-one with her in the car to help navigate, so it was not entirely surprising that she got lost on the way to the start and required support by telephone.

Lessons were learned. Sarah did very well under difficult circumstances.

We met (eventually) in the National Trust Horseshoe Falls car park, which led to the unique horseshoe weir and rather lovely church. The path followed a path around a very steep hill, and everyone was relieved that we didn’t climb over the top.
We passed the remains of the Valle Crucis Abbey which was unfortunately closed for refurbishment.
Once back at the car park we stopped together to eat lunch or snacks before completing our journeys home.

Despite the initial chaos, this was a charming walk that provided a pleasant break on our journeys home. 

The planned route (clockwise):

Horseshoe Falls (a weir really)

Valle Crucis Abbey remains

Left to right: Sarah, Mike, Brian, Toni, Vivien, Ian, Alison and Gill Lees.

Overall this holiday was another very successful break with very good weather, a comfortable stay and good food. Thanks again to our leaders Martin, Derek, Brian and Sarah.

Gillian Gibbons