I walked a section of the North Wales Coastal Path on Sunday 12th January, covering just under 11 miles in total. Starting at the old Point of Ayr colliery which closed in 1996, and has since been turned into a lovely walking path. There is so much history in this area, you can still see the old railway lines running across the middle section, there is a wooden statue of miner and his horse as well as a huge wheel. If you click on the link, it will take you to a history page with lots of information about the old mines- incredible to think how deep they go!
Husband, youngest dog and I set off from this section, it is hard to get a picture of Flora as she is always being a spaniel, running a hundred miles an hour! We headed along the lovely path from Point of Ayr to Talacre, this runs alongside a bird hide and is a wonderful area where you can see so many different bird species.
We then headed into the sand dunes, deciding not to go along the beach. There are low and high tide markers for the coastal path here, so options depending on what the sea is up to. It's a great place to go wandering through these amazing sand dunes, feels like you could be anywhere! Talacre is home to an amazing lighthouse- Talacre lighthouse or Point of Ayr lighthouse, my photo doesn't really do it justice. As we decided to go along the dunes we didn't get up close, if the tide is out you can walk right up to the lighthouse. It was built in 1776, and was in active use for over 100 years before being decommissioned in 1883. Of course it is rumoured to be haunted by a previous lighthouse keeper (love me a ghost story), it is also a grade 2 listed building.
The path I was following leads to Presthaven sands caravan park, I tried to skirt around a little, climbing around some sand dunes, which was fun and tiring! Though ended up walking through anyway, at this time of year its pretty quiet there so an easy enough wander. In summer months, it can be really busy. At the end of the caravan park is access back to the beach, you can walk straight ahead through Prestatyn golf course, or turn left back towards the actual beach. I wandered through the golf course and headed towards Barkby beach. Stopped for some Vimto and a couple of slices of Soreen, hit approx 5 miles by this point.
From Barkby beach, it is all beachfront through to the Blue Bridge- not sure of its proper name, but it is an actual blue bridge! This is the end of Rhyl and the beginning of Kinmel Bay. It is pretty accessible to everyone, a few mobility scooters flew past me on this section, lots of families with buggies, lots of doggies. This is a popular section, especially around the Nova. I kept seeing people with Costa cups here, I think there must be somewhere at the Nova you can get hot drinks, I can't drink and walk so I carried on.
It was a lovely bright winter's day, cold and fresh. I felt good and was keeping up a great pace for me, walking trainers held up well, including the new insoles I had given them to try and make them a little more comfortable. I had lots of plasters in my bag just in case!
This is a great path, wanders away from the road and is lovely and quiet, once you get past Ffrith beach, the area becomes a lot less populated, just the odd few walkers. At times, it felt like I was completely alone in the world! Wandering along I passed what used to be Rhyl golf course, no idea what they are doing there now, the whole area is being dug up and lots of big work vehicles are knocking around! Once I hit splash point, I rang the husband and said, it must only be a mile or so now until I hit the blue bridge if you want to come and meet me? I then thought I would check on google maps about 10mins later (or one All Too Well if you are a Taylor fan), when I realised Rhyl prom is long! It was still over 1.5miles! Gutted! I kept on trucking, some of Rhyl prom is closed off for work at the moment, so wandered along the pavement near the main road, still along the sea front. Felt quite sad walking through the children's village, looked abandoned and desolate, though I imagine when it opens up in the summer it would look happier? It was always quite a lovely busy place when I was younger.
Eventually, I spotted the newer bridge leading the Harbour Hub Cafe, another spot where you can get hot drinks and food, it is open seven days a week I believe. The arms on this white bridge both lift up- like a corkscrew when you lift its arms- so that boats can get in and out of the harbour, no such excitement when I got there! Lovely little section, and the sky was looking delightful.
After all this, I didn't even get a picture of the Blue Bridge, but I did touch it! Husband and the staffies came to meet me for this last part, they are such beautiful old doggies and I was very pleased to see them! I was pleasantly distracted, though, they are very slow, so I did abandon them briefly to rush to touch the bridge and stop map my walk so as to not ruin my time hahaha. I then persuaded my lovely husband to buy us a hot chocolate from Costa as I missed out earlier! Won't lie, my legs were tired and the muscles around the hip area felt tight, as did my lower back, but I did also think, I could have carried on if I needed to, so that was a fabulous boost!
Stats:
10.78 miles
3hours 36minutes
20.02 average pace- first three miles were slower and last mile was 22.57 due to the staffies, sorry not sorry staffies! This included in the sand dunes at the start so I think this brought the average down. I was regularly walking under 19minutes on the breakdown except for those 4miles haha.
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