Back to the Roman Road

Having two jobs should not stop me from enjoying the beautiful surroundings here! So I decided that the weekend before my side gig would kick off I wanted to go into the hills. And I decided on a nice loop; I knew there was still new terrain to see in the vicinity of Llanfairfechan. And the Roman road goes there; even though it is clear and wide, I still like it. I was also still on the mission to one day see the field boundaries cut through by the Roman road, that I had heard about during an online lecture about regional geology, and while talking in person to the archaeologist that had given lecture. Before I had actually planned this trip I had already realised that it was probably not this stretch of Roman road where you could see this, but hey ho. No idea where else, though! The Romans were all over the place; there is an estimated 280 km of Roman roads in the area. Quite a lot of this is now obscured by modern roads, of course; but there is more in good nick than this stretch between Abergwyngregyn and Rowen. I'll ask the next time I see the archaeologists in question. I'm sure he'll pop up again one day.  

I decided to park up in the village, followed a public footpath in the direction of Bwlch y Ddeufaen, But veer off to the left a bit in order to hit the summit of Foel Lwyd; this was a hillock I had never been on. Not too long ago I had been on its neighbour: Tal y Fan, with Kate. But there was more to see! And then I would descend to the Roman Road, and follow it westward to the imaginatively named Garreg Fawr (big rock), which leads you back to town. And so I did!

The first part of my walk was on the road; that is never the most scenic. But this was only just a bit more than a kilometre. And then I was on a path. And a beautiful one it was! And it climbed out of the gorge and onto the plane above it. There I did my veering off to the left, and ended up enjoying the views from Foel Lwyd. From there you look down on Bwlch y Ddeufaen. It looked great!

Once I had tdescended down to the Roman road I was at Garreg Fawr in no time. I had never been there either! It was a pleasant walk back to the village. A good half day in the hills! And still new terrain after eight years of living here…

scenic bridge

on the plateau

Roman road in the distance (parallel with power lines)

view from Foel Lwyd

descending to Bwlch y Ddeufaen

looking back from Garreg Fawr in the direction of Drum

beautiful sheepfold