Wales' Favourite Coastal Walks

By Richard Neale.

The 870-mile Welsh Coast Path is one of the glories of Wales.  Did you know that 20% of it is cared for by the National Trust?

Last Christmas oand New Year I posted a blog on my twelve favourite walks with links to the downloadable walk on our website.  Over 200 people clicked on the links and by using the stats, I can now share with you what were our followers' favourites.

Mary's prizewinning coastal memories

Mary and her brother Maldwyn, at their Nain's house at Holyhead near Porth Dafarch

Last summer, we launched a competition which enabled thousands of people to share their memories of the Welsh Coast.

The competition judge, our Wales Director Justin Albert was kept busy reading the recollections, which were posted into our Facebook site and into special ‘message in a bottle’ signs at our most popular coastal places.

The winner was Mary Attwell, whose recollections of our beach on Anglesey, Porth Dafarch, are made all the more poignant since she is one of the Cymry oddicartref (Welsh abroad) living thousands of miles away in Tennessee, USA. Her prize, a guided kayaking expedition at our Pembrokeshire Stackpole Centre, will be claimed by her niece and family.

We were so captivated by Mary’s winning comment, we asked her to send us a bit more of the story, which I would like to share with you here:

“Hiraeth mawr a hiraeth creulon! [a great and cruel longing]. How I dream and long to return to the beach of my childhood when I would visit Nain [gran] in Holyhead during the summer holidays.”

“Most days would start with great activity in the kitchen, with cakes and biscuits in the oven and sandwiches in the tin. Off we would go in the Austin 7 to Porthdafarch where we seemed to have a special place to claim for the afternoon. It was an idyllic place for children, set in a cove with cliffs on either side, a good setting for adventures, and rock pools with seaweed and fish to fill our buckets. Parking was no problem, as not many came by car those days. Come rain, it was just as exciting to watch the rough seas while sitting in the car eating our sandwiches and biscuits.”

It’s hearing humble memories such as these that remind me how priceless our work is, as custodians of so much of the Welsh coast. Caring for “places of historic interest and natural beauty” is important enough; but looking after the source of a nation’s cherished memories? Well, that’s a responsibility beyond all else.




Mary at a more recent visit to the coast



Porth Dafarch still retains its wild beauty

Rediscovering Pembrokeshire's hidden wildlife paradise

 

Freshwater West and Castlemartin Corse.  Photo courtesy of Richard Ellis

With the first of the winter’s storms beating against my office window, I’ve been reflecting on the places I’ve visited on my travels around the Welsh coast through this year’s late chilly spring and long warm summer. 

A couple of contrasting visits to one particular place stand out. The first visit took place during one of winter’s cruel last gasps; the second was during spring’s first flush of lush growth. But it was the contrasting nature of what I saw during these visits that that comes to mind, rather than the weather. 

Hidden Treasure 

You probably haven’t heard of Gupton Farm, on Pembrokeshire’s south coast. It’s just one of those English-sounding farms that nestle in the folds of ‘little England beyond Wales’: that verdant tapestry of rolling farmland south of Pembroke, which is dotted with the curiously un-Welsh square castellated towers of a score of fine Norman churches.

But you are more likely to have heard of one of this area’s finest beaches, Freshwater West: a surfers’ paradise near the huge military range at Castlemartin. The name of this popular beach hints at a hidden treasure that the beachgoers seldom notice – tucked behind the range of dunes that borders the beach. That is the wildlife haven of Castlemartin Corse. This 2.5 km long marshy floodplain (the name includes the fossilised Welsh word for marsh: cors) is a relic of a once great wetland. The Corse – together with about a hundred acres of arable fields and pasture – make up the tenancy of Gupton Farm.

Future vision 

My first visit to Gupton Farm was made during the last days of this tenancy, when the retiring farmers were about to leave and we were seeking the advice of a group of conservation experts on a future vision for the farm. The second, springtime visit was after the 500 or so overwintering cattle had left and the bare brown soil of my previous visit was starting to green-over with a carpet of grasses and wildflowers. The farm’s conservation vision was beginning to become a rather scary reality. 

I say scary because the process of converting from a commercial to a conservation style of farming isn’t as simple as you might think. The heavy trampling by cattle and frequent ploughing of what was once pristine flower-and-insect-rich dune grassland has unexpectedly resulted in an exceptional number of different, arable, wildflowers in the sandy soil and this in turn attracts huge flocks of overwintering farmland birds and, in summer a wealth of butterflies, bees and other invertebrates. To bring back the highly desired dune grassland would risk losing all this farmland wildlife, some of our advisors warned. I began to feel sorry for my colleagues, who risk upsetting at least one set of wildlife experts as they decide which group of flora and fauna should be favoured by the future farmer. 

 A new chapter 
Happily, as I read up the results of a season’s monitoring in my rain-bound office, it seems that the farm is large enough to realise a vision that can encompass the restoration of all of the farm’s habitats: an exceptional combination of dune grassland, traditional farmland, wetland meadow and marsh. 


Looking back, I’m pleased that I witnessed the start of a new chapter in the history of Gupton Farm; the beginning of a process that will lead to future generations of nature-lovers enjoying the best of all worlds at this outstanding Welsh coastal wildlife site. 





From this....

 



To this...?



The rediscovered boulder

David Nash' Wooden Boulder, standing proudly on a sand bank

It’s not every day you get to see a famous work of art in the making.  

This was the privilege that transpired the other day, when I found myself up close and personal with a work that is known the world over.  But this encounter didn’t take place in an artist’s studio or gallery surrounded by crowds of fellow admirers; it happened on a seaweed-strewn sandbank on Snowdonia’s Dwyryd estuary; a pair of mergansers being my only company for the viewing.  The piece in question was possibly the most well known creation of the renowned land artist, David Nash. 

Wooden Boulder started its life a few miles upstream near the National Trust’s Coedydd Maentwrog oakwood nature reserve, back in 1978.  Originally destined for the artist’s workshop at Tanygrisiau, the half-tonne rugged sphere of oak became firmly jammed in a rocky streambed. Unable to shift it, Nash, with characteristic deference to the vagaries of his materials, hit upon the idea of allowing the huge wooden globe to make its own way in the world. 

Over the next 30 years Nash obsessively followed his work downstream, photographing and sketching it as it underwent the multifarious effects of nature’s attrition.  It eventually met the briny waters of the estuary after a great flood back in 2002 and after a few years languidly ebbing and flowing amongst the Dwyryd’s rushy creeks and banks, it was released onto the wider canvas of the Irish Sea.  Or so the devotees of Nash’s work thought.

That was until the other day, when an eagle-eyed aficionado spotted the orb sitting proudly like a full stop on its sandbank after a high tide.  A few days after I heard the news, I paddled my kayak down the river and was able to step out and reverently pat the boulder on its worn shoulder, like a venerable old friend.

Kyaking to the boulder: like meeting a venerable old friend

 The coast has always been a powerful inspirer of art; and the coastal work of artists such as Maggie Hambling and Anthony Gormley show how sculpture has the ability to enhance the environment that inspired it.  But there can be few works that have linked both land and sea as satisfactorily and in such an absorbing way a David Nash’s Wooden Boulder. Long may this unfinished artwork continue to grace the tidal reaches of the Dwyryd.

A few days later, I returned, this time with David Nash himself to record an item for BBC Radio Wales Country Focus programme.  The top of the boulder can just be seen at high tide behind us.

  

Article courtesy of Welsh Coastal Life magazine.

Names in the hat for Welsh Coast Competition

 

I hope you've used our Facebook App to tell us what you like about your favourite coastal place. 

The competition (see previous post) closed on the 31st of October and I'm now arranging for Justin, our Director for Wales to choose the most original and inspiring comment so I can contact the lucky winners to tell them that they've won a day's kyaking for up to five people at our Stackpole Centre on the amazing Pembrokeshire coast.

Look out for the results on this blog site.

Welsh Coast Competition Goes Live

Da chi'n caru arfordir Cymru? Rhannwch atgofion o'ch hoff le i ennill taith caiacio byth-cofiadwy yn Sir Benfro...

Do you love the Welsh coast? Share memories of your favourite place and win a fantastic kayaking trip of a lifetime...

How long is a mile of coast?

by Richard Neale

 

“So, how much Welsh coast does the National Trust look after?”

This was the question I was often asked when I started as the Welsh Coast Project Manager.  The answer – as hinted by the title of this blog post – is not quite as simple as you’d think.

Knowing that it was one of the basic pieces of information I needed, I asked – rather too casually, as it turned out – one of our mapping boffins to work it out and the answer came back as 196 miles. 

Suitably impressed, and being prone to a bit of hyperbole, I rounded it up to 200 and started to share the fact with anyone who’d listen.

But it turns out that there was a problem.  I’d omitted to give one vital piece of information to my mapping colleague. That is: what scale I wanted it measured at.   

In my defence, this was before I became aware of something known as the coastline paradox. It turns out that our coastlines are fractal in their nature.  To put it another way, the length of the coastline depends on the method used to measure it. 

 

The more accurately you measure it, the longer the coast gets!

I could get seriously into the science of this, but suffice to say, the National Trust has been using different scales in different parts of the Trust.  This meant that our coastal statistics have been, well…a bit dodgy.

The time has come for a standardised method to be applied.  And after a fair bit of number-crunching at our head office, the answer has now come through and I can now put the story straight.

• The National Trust cares for 156.77 miles of Welsh coast (let's say 157). 
• The total length of the Welsh coast as determined by the same method is 1,465.94 miles
• This means that the NT cares for 10.7 % of the Welsh coast. 
• The length of the refreshingly fractal-free Wales Coast Path is 870 miles, meaning that the NT cares for about 18% of land adjacent to the coast path.

Coronation for Plas Newydd Meadow

By Richard Neale

As an update to my previous post about counting orchids, I'd like to share with you a small article about it which I found today.

 Meadows by royal command!

 Sarah Mellor, Special Sites Project Officer sarah.mellor@nationaltrust.org.uk

In Wales we were lucky enough to have three of our meadows designated as Coronation Meadows to celebrate the 60th anniversary in 2012 of the Queen’s coronation.

The basic premise for the project, led by Plantlife, is for each county in the UK to have a Coronation Meadow (60 were designated across the UK in a first phase but we are expecting more). This ongoing project aims to find a receptor site over the next few years to create a new meadow with green hay/seed taken from each Coronation Meadow.

It is so great to see meadows being used for this kind of project, as it’s so often woodlands that are recognised! Because they are not as visible, meadows can be so easily lost without us even knowing it. The National Trust in Wales is very supportive of this project which really celebrates our meadow heritage.

Plantlife organised a project launch at Highgrove, the Gloucestershire home of Prince Charles, who is Plantlife’s patron.

Nerys Jones, Property Manager for Plas Newydd, Joe Daggett, Head Warden for Mid and South East Wales, and I, along with many other meadow owners and managers from across the UK, were treated to a tour of Highgrove’s gardens, including a walk through the meadow created by the prince himself using green hay from other meadows.

We met the prince in person at the outdoor reception (sunshine, sandwiches, lemonade and Pimms!) where he gave a speech about his passion for the project and took great pains to talk to each of the meadow owners (Nerys ended up talking to him about chickens on wheels – not quite sure how that came about!)

Plas Newydd on Anglesey, a meadow which was formerly used as a sports field and entered haymeadow management 10 years ago. The greater butterfly orchid Platanthera chlorantha has gone from just a few flowering spikes to hundreds during this time. It is one of the best orchid meadows on Anglesey. Recently 60 members of the Botanical Society of the British Isles visited the meadow and found a third orchid species to add to our list.

For more information, visit this website (with a very long name!)

http://coronationmeadows.org.uk/meadow/plas‐newydd‐llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Counting orchids in an accidental meadow

by Richard Neale

Solar panels and orchids soak up the sun together at Plas Newydd

This morning, I joined a group of volunteers counting orchids in a wildflower meadow at Plas Newydd, Ynys Môn. 

We were there for two reasons.  The first reason is pretty obvious: to find out how many common spotted orchids, northern marsh orchids and rarer greater butterfly orchids grow in the field.  The second was that we were volunteer guinea pigs, helping Rachel Dolan, the Trust’s new nature conservation intern on Anglesey, to find out how best to enable visitors to get closer to nature and help with our ecological monitoring.

Our expert guides: Helen and Rachel

The reason why this meadow has survived, when 95% of the UK’s other meadows have disappeared, is an accident of history.  As agricultural improvements were happening all around, this particular field was kept for ball games by the nearby Conway outdoor pursuits centre.  Unbeknown to generations of youngsters from Cheshire, the field, which required summer mowing and winter grazing, became a perfect habitat for wildflowers, including three species of orchid. 

When the centre gave up the field four years ago and mowing was delayed until late summer, our gardeners watched in amazement at it turned into a colourful carpet of pale purple orchids.

Not folk dancing, but this is us ready to count a 3 metre swathe across the meadow

By a happy and somehow appropriate coincidence, the field has recently also become the location for one of the Trust’s solar energy arrays, producing electricity from sunlight; helping to reduce our fuel bills and atmospheric carbon emissions.

All being well, next year’s visitors to the Marquis of Anglesey’s ancestral home will be able to offer an hour or so of their time to help Rachel with this worthwhile and pleasantly relaxing orchid-counting task.

Oh, I almost forgot to say, after a bit of number-crunching back in the office, Rachel informs me that there are over 150,000 orchids in this meadow.

The question now is: are we managing the meadow the right way to retain and enhance its wildlife value?

Why not come to help us by giving up a bit of your time to do some orchid counting next year?

Northern marsh and common spotted orchids (or hybrids thereof)

Greater butterfly orchid

Aberdaron Update

Had a quick visit to Aberdaron today to view progress on our new visitor centre. 

I was with Robert Parkinson the Community Ranger, who will eventually be based at the centre when it's up and running.  It was great to see how the car park has been improved and the foundations are ready for work to start on the walls in the next couple of weeks. 

Boating access to the beach has been greatly improved, and whilst we were there someone was unloading kayaks at the car park and launching directly off the beach.  Before we made the improvements, they would have had to unload the kayaks on the road and drag them through bathers on the beach - so good to see people benefiting from the work already.

Robert and his Llyn colleagues are keen to keep the community and other visitor informed about progress, so we've been discussing how he can use social media to update everyone on how its going.

View of Henfaes, Aberdaron, where the new visitor centre is being built.   Notice the bare soil in the car park, which will eventually be covered with grass.

Get started on the 50 things to do before you're 11¾ challenge

There are 56 National Trust places in Wales where you can do your 50 Things activities.https://www.50things.org.uk 

And if you tried to do all the 50 Things possible at all these places then you would need to do 1,340 activities and that’s a lot to ask of even the most active child over one summer.

Throughout the year there will be special events organised around a 50 Things theme and this week you’ll be keen to try out some of the places in Wales that come out tops in the UK poll of places to do the 50 Things activities.

So to suggest six of the best: here is a list of top places to consider in starting to try out at least one activity.

1. Cook on a campfire – Stackpole (How to get there and more information)
2. Plant, it grow it, eat it – Tredegar House (How to get there and more information) 
3. Go on a walk barefoot - Pembrokeshire, Strumble Head to Cardigan (How to get there and more information)
4. Eat an apple straight from a tree – Llanerchaeron, Ceredigion Coast (How to get there and more information)
5. Catch a crab - Plas Newydd, Anglesey/Ynys Mon (How to get there and more information)
6. Go swimming in the sea - Llyn peninsula, North-West Wales (How to get there and more information)

https://www.50things.org.uk 









Some of the things that are happening in some of the locations this weekend on the 4th and 5th May 

Wild camping at Plas Newydd, Anglesey 
Plas Newyd-things-to-see-and-do-events
Construct a raft, fly a kite, go bug hunting and build a den.

Tree Story Seed to Timber at Colby Woodland Garden, Pembrokeshire
Build a den, climb a tree and find out about all kinds of wood and what it's used for.
colby-woodland-garden-things-to-see-and-do-events

Wildlife Trails at Stackpole, Pembrokeshire

Walks and family wildlife trails.Stackpole-things-to-see-and-do-events

Where’s the best place in the UK to walk barefoot? - WALES of course

In the top ten list of 50 Things activities the best place to take a barefoot walk in the UK is Strumble Head to Cardigan, Pembrokeshire, strumble-head-cardigan-things-to-see-and-do and the best place to cook on a campfire in the UK is at Stackpole Estate, Pembrokeshire. Stackpole-things-to-see-and-do-events

And just to keep you in the picture. The 50 things website www.nationaltrust.org.uk/50things has loads of great information to help you tackle the 50 things adventures. Sign up online and receive:

• Top tips and guidance for each activity
• Secret challenges to unlock
• Special rewards for the best explorers
• The wild test will help you find out what sort of explorer you are
• Your very own virtual explorer to guide you through the 50 things

Get in there quick and your 50 things scrapbooks will be available free at more than 350 participating National Trust properties (subject to availability)

So this year's get started on the 50 things to do before you're 11¾ challenge:

1. Climb a tree
2. Roll down a really big hill
3. Camp out in the wild
4. Build a den
5. Skim a stone
6. Run around in the rain
7. Fly a kite
8. Catch a fish with a net
9. Eat an apple straight from a tree
10. Play conkers
11. Go on a really long bike ride
12. Make a trail with sticks
13. Make a mud pie
14. Dam a stream
15. Play in the snow
16. Make a daisy chain
17. Set up a snail race
18. Create some wild art
19. Play pooh sticks
20. Jump over waves
21. Pick blackberries growing in the wild
22. Explore inside a tree
23. Visit a farm
24. Go on a walk barefoot
25. Make a grass trumpet
26. Hunt for fossils and bones
27. Go star gazing
28. Climb a huge hill
29. Explore a cave
30. Hold a scary beast
31. Hunt for bugs
32. Find some frogspawn
33. Catch a falling leaf
34. Track wild animals
35. Discover what’s in a pond
36. Make a home for a wild animal
37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool
38. Bring up a butterfly
39. Catch a crab
40.Go on a nature walk at night
41. Plant it, grow it, eat it
42. Go swimming in the sea
43. Build a raft
44. Go bird watching
45. Find your way with a map and compass
46. Try rock climbing
47. Cook on a campfire
48. Learn to ride a horse
49. Find a geocache
50. Canoe down a river

by Moyrah Gall

It was. Bloody Nosed...because blood red liquid oozes...

Bloody-nosed Beetle

Timarcha tenebricosa

by Moyrah Gall

Bloody Nosed Beetle at Southwood

The answer to last weeks unidentified beetle found at National Trust's Southwood Estate which is located on the coastal route above Newgale in  North Pembrokeshire is the Bloody-nosed-Beetle

Did you know the bloody nosed beetle is so called because it oozes a blood-red liquid from its mouth which is really irritating if something is attempting to eat it. 

It moves really slow and although a line running down its back might suggesting that it has but, Timarcha tenbricosa has no wings at all to fly.

by Moyrah Gall

Welsh heathlands' beef is new Trust delicacy

by Moyrah Gall

 
 Springtime at Southwood on Thursday April 11th: 

Great, but where and what is Southwood ?

 Pembrokeshire Heathland Beef 

 

Southwood is part of the Heathland Beef Initiative (HBI). The HBI 's primary purpose is extensive grazing of semi natural habitats and this is led by Conservation Grazers. Cattle have been found to provide an efficient grazing service, gorse and bracken present little problem to the hefty Welsh Black steers.

Southwood Estate is a National Trust area between Roch and Newgale in N Pembrokeshire which reflects the importance of the cliff land wildlife and contains some of Britain’s beautiful coastal heaths and maritime grasslands. 


The cliff land also supports a high density of nesting chough and peregrine falcon.

The estate land requires to kept open so aggressive species such as the bracken and gorse is kept in check. As a result the turf is maintained at a shorter height by the grazing stock this allows coastal heath species to diversify, such as the chough which will feed easier by getting to insects.

Southwood Farm

 Sited on the estate is Southwood Farm, a 19century home farm. This is where a series of events have been introduced throughout 2013. The first event, 'Springclean', starting April. offers the opportunity to help out with restoration features of the building, conservation hedge boundary repairs and a quiz trail for the younger.

An evening talk delivered by the area warden is also on the cards later in April at the National Trust  St Davids shop, nationaltrust st-davids-visitor-centre

Can you identify this visitor at Southwood  Estate? 

Hint: check out the National Trust North Pembrokeshire Facebook page and click like if your visiting for the first time.

Marine Conservation Zones - Betrayal or Blessing?

by Richard Neale



Porth Colmon, Llyn.  This is where I met Sion Williams for
my 'reality check' (see article)



Wales has some of the most highly protected coastal waters in the world.  With 37% of our seas designated Marine Protected Areas (MPA) we can be confident that our marine habitats are well looked after. 

Or can we?

Last year, the Wales Government’s agency that looks after our MPAs, the Countryside Council for Wales, admitted that “the arrangements…are not fit to achieve [the] stated aims of conserving rare, threatened and representative species and habitats”.

At about the same time, the government launched its consultation on the creation of new Marine Conservation Zones.  Unfortunately, this turned out to be one of its most unpopular and divisive proposals. The problem was that the proposed MCZs would be highly protected, meaning that they would be ‘no-take zones’ with a whole range of activities, including mooring a boat or recreational fishing banned. 

To its credit, the Government went back to the drawing board and I now find myself on its MCZ Stakeholder Focus Group, along with a good-natured but incredibly diverse group of representatives from all aspects of marine interests.  At a recent meeting we got a bit bogged down with the science.  Looking out of the window at the sun on Aberystwyth bay, I decided that it was time to take a reality check.

Sion Williams, checking the first of his
whelk pots

And that is how I came to be climbing on board a small commercial fishing boat amongst the slippery rocks and seaweed of the tiny cove of Porth Colmon on the north coast of the Llŷn peninsula.  Its skipper, Siôn Williams, powered up the engines and soon we were travelling at speed towards his whelk pots.  Talking in the shelter of the small wheelhouse, I started to build up a picture of Siôn’s working life.

Where I saw an expanse of featureless sea, he used a mental map – built up from several generations of trial and error – to see mountain ranges of submerged reefs surrounded by acres of gravelly sand.  His patch is nearly ten miles long by a couple of miles wide and, in the height of summer, he goes around 120 whelk pots – and a similar number of lobster pots – every day that the weather will let him.

We arrived at the first of his buoys and I was sent to the stern to be out the way, where I watched him working.  What amazed me was that he seemed to be doing everything at once – all in a single uninterrupted and seemingly backbreaking movement: operating the winch, hauling up the pots, shaking out the whelks, adjusting the orientation of the boat, preparing the bait, bagging and stacking the catch…

Heading off to the more turbulent waters near the cliffs to check his lobster pots, I had time to ask Siôn what he thought of the MCZ proposals.

Checking the carapace size of a lobster (this one's too small
and will be returned to the sea).  Sion also voluntarily carries
out other conservation measures to protect catch stocks for
the future.

“Ro’n i’n teimlo fod fi wedi cael fy mradychu…"

"It felt like a betrayal.  I was already working with the CCW on conservation measures; I’d started to help with research projects studying the health of marine habitats and I’d got myself accredited as a responsible wildlife-watching operator.  Then suddenly I hear that half my area may be closed to me.  It would have put me out of business.”

Later, as we headed for shore, he explained that despite this experience, he was not against smaller parts of his area becoming no-take zones, if it could be shown how that would benefit wildlife.  He was also passionate about the need for stricter policing of the few unscrupulous members of the fishing fraternity.

Back on dry land, as I warmed myself with a flask of tea, I pondered what I’d learnt from my brief excursion. 

I now realise that marine conservation policies can’t be made in committee rooms alone, and although not all fishermen are as committed to conservation as Siôn, we have to involve them if we’re going to protect our seas.  I also realise that the proposals had gone too far, too fast. 

I still believe that in some special places we should apply the ultimate protection of MCZ status.  But before we do that, we need to sort out the management of those existing MPAs that, by the Governments own admission, falls short of what’s required.

Thanks to Welsh Coast Living Magazine for use of this article, published in its April edition.