Walk 370 -- Mwnt to Cardigan (Aberteifi)

Ages:  Colin was 73 years and 7 days.  Rosemary was 70 years and 149 days.

Weather:  Sunny at first.  It clouded over but remained dry and quite warm.

Location:  Mwnt to Cardigan (Aberteifi).

Distance:  7 miles.
Total distance:  3811 miles.
Terrain:  Cliff paths at first.  Some quiet roads.  Farmer’s fields — too many of them!  Fairly undulating.
Tide:  Out.
Rivers:  None.
Ferries:  None.
Piers:  None.
Kissing gates:  Nos.865 to 880 (sixteen in all).
Pubs:  None.
‘Cadw’ properties:  None.
Ferris wheels:  None.
Diversions:  None.
How we got there and back:  We were staying in our caravan on a site at Oakford, near Aberaeron.  This morning we drove to Cardigan and parked for free in a little park not far from the town centre.  We walked to the bus station where we caught the ‘Cardi-Bach’ bus to Mwnt.
At the end we bypassed the car and walked down to the river bridge before finishing the Walk.  Then we returned to the car where we had our tea and biscuits.  We went back to our caravan and took down the awning.  The next day we returned home to Malvern.

 

We started today’s Walk at the top of the cliff at Mwnt.  There was a notice informing us that the chapel behind us was 13^th century and founded on an earlier monastic cell.  Also that medieval pilgrims bound for Bardsey Island (way to the north) used to embark from the beach at Mwnt.

Another notice informed us that the distinctive conical hill, known as Foel-y-Mwnt, was shaped by glaciers in the last ice age.  In other words, it is glacial till and not the remains of eroded bedrock.

Yet a third notice informed us that the old limekiln in the cliff was a furnace used for roasting limestone which was landed on the beach having been brought from South Wales.  The lime product was used as fertiliser on local fields.  The notice did not give dates as to when this limekiln was in use.

We passed the top of the limekiln and began our walk along the cliff path where we stopped to chat to a man with two overweight dogs.  We had magnificent views of the cliffs, the sea, the sandy beach at Mwnt and even caves in places.  We were delighted with the antics of a pair of stonechats who were flitting about amongst the bushes.  And the flowers were gorgeous — bright yellow gorse and violet blue bluebells.  We were in heaven!

We remembered that we were supposed to take our 3800 mile photo — we have walked 3800 miles along the coast from Bognor since we started in 1998!  We put the camera on a fencepost and set it on the 10 second timer.  With a bit of guesswork and adjusting it a few times, we eventually got it just right.

Then we saw a seal in the water.  And the stonechats were still flitting around from bush to bush — beautiful birds!

This cliff path was not as up-and-down as on previous Walks.

It kept to a level, more or less, around the gullies.

This was proving to be a most enjoyable Walk.

We sat on a rock by one of the gullies and ate our pasties.

Then we continued to enjoy the cliff path until we had to turn away—the coast path does not go along the last half mile to the headland, it is private land.

We could see Cardigan Island off the headland.  Apparently puffins used to nest on there but they got decimated by rats.  (How did the rats get over there?)  Now wildlife volunteers have got rid of the rats, and have put up a number of concrete puffins in the hope of encouraging them back.

The next part of the Walk was across farmers’ fields, mostly arable fields and it was boring!  It was uphill too.  We passed a kissing gate with no logos or walkers’ arrows on it.  I would have missed it because I was looking straight ahead where I could see a field gateway leading out to a lane.  But Colin stopped to try the kissing gate — and found it was nailed up.  The nail was loose so he got through that.  But just ahead was another gate which was also nailed up, this one so well he couldn’t budge it.  Yet we could see Wales Coast Path waymarkers further across the field where we couldn’t get.  Puzzled, we turned round and walked to the field gateway I had seen earlier.  This was tied up with blue rope which Colin managed to loop over the gatepost only with extreme difficulty.  There was a notice on the other side of the gate which said,  PRIVATE.  Yet this was the right-of-way marked on our supposedly up-to-date OS map — we looked very carefully to make sure we hadn’t made a mistake.  There was obviously an unco-operative landowner hereabouts.

We walked down the lane towards a road, passing a derelict cottage with another of those  PRIVATE  notices on the door.  At the road there was a metal gate leading out of the field we couldn’t get into at the other end.  It had the blue Wales Coast Path arrows and logos all over it, but again it was nailed up.  What’s more, there was a Wales Coast Path notice on a post, but it was pointing up the road in completely the wrong direction and showed signs of having been hammered down pointing that way!
We met a hiker coming up the road, obviously walking the Coast Path the opposite way to us.  He was going to follow the sign pointing in the wrong direction until we explained what we had seen and showed him the nailed-up gate.  He said he had heard that some landowners were being unco-operative about the route of the Coast Path.  We pointed out that if he followed the sign he could well be walking on roads for miles and may miss out Mwnt altogether.  In the end he decided to go the way we had come, through the ‘private’ gate — “If I don’t meet a man with a shotgun!” 

We continued down the road towards Cardigan and passed the entrance to “Farm Park”.  This was an unusual style of house with a conservatory on decking which came out over a pond.  A boat, and a rather silly fountain completed the scene — it looked a bit cheap and nasty to us.  (But then it was, perhaps, sour grapes because we strongly suspected that the unco-operative landowner lived there and we were still angry about the nailed-up gates and wrongly pointing sign.) 

We cheered ourselves up by looking the other way at the wonderful views along the estuary.  Although we were walking along a road, it didn’t seem like it because we were on a separate footway behind a bank which kept us away from the traffic.

We came to a car park at a viewpoint where there were about half a dozen seats, so we sat on one to eat our apples.  On the other side of the road was a house built out of an old railway carriage — this one looked very nice and well kept, unlike many we have passed around the coast which are rather dilapidated.

We continued down the road for about a mile until it turned sharp left.  We continued straight on as directed by blue Wales Coast Path logos.  We seemed to be in a boatyard where new yachts were being made and there was a horrible smell of glue.  We were not sure if we were going the right way as there were boats all over the place and we lost our bearings amongst them.  We hesitated, then a young man who was pressure-washing a yacht stopped what he was doing and came over.  He told us we were on the right route, the path continued behind those three yachts over there.  He was very friendly and helpful.  We thanked him, and carried on.

We had another mile or so of walking through arable fields which was boring!  (Farmer’s fields are not our idea of the countryside, especially nowadays when farms are more like a factories.)  Eventually we came out on to a lane, and according to our map we should follow this into Cardigan.  But opposite us was a signpost pointing us into the next field where the path skirted round the edge.  This was new, but we followed it and it kept us off the roads all the way into Cardigan.

Unfortunately the kissing gate leading into this field was so narrow we could hardly get round it, certainly not whilst wearing a backpack.  (I wonder who designs these things?) 
We met a girl walking the Wales Coast Path in the opposite direction to us.  She knew all about the nailed-up gates.  She told us that the landowner has so far spent £20,000 on court cases unsuccessfully trying to stop the Wales Coast Path going over his land.  He doesn’t want anybody looking at the view of Cardigan Island from the headland unless they stay at Farm Park at great expense and pay him to walk ‘his’ coast!  It smacks of the old landowners before the Mass Trespass of Kinder Scout in the 1930s — “You can’t come on my land because I own it!”   “You can’t look at my views because I own them!”   “You can’t breathe my fresh air because it’s mine!”   “Go back to your hovels and shut up, or I’ll clap you in irons!” 

The path led us down to the river, past a sewage works and into a little park where our car was waiting for us.  But we ignored it and sat on a seat to eat our chocolate.  Then we went down a path across a paying car park (we’d parked for free) to the bridge across Afon Teifi.  On the way we passed ornamental gates and a sculpture which was a couple of huge chain links.

Cardigan Castle is situated next to the river, we passed it’s outer walls as we walked down to the bridge.  It was built in the 12^th century and has a similar chequered history to most of the other castles in Wales.  Unfortunately, throughout the 20^th century it was allowed to fall into disrepair, and nothing was done by the private owner to rectify the situation, even for years after it was declared unfit for human habitation.

Eventually the old lady was taken off to a nursing home, and had to put the castle up for sale to pay her coasts.  By then it was so near to falling down it was dangerous to go near.  Ceredigion County Council bought it in 2003, and they immediately effected sufficient repairs to at least keep the building standing.  It is now open to the public, but it is not owned by Cadw so we didn’t go in.

That ended Walk no.370, we shall pick up Walk no.371 next time on the bridge in Cardigan.  It was quarter to three, so the Walk had taken us five hours forty minutes.  We returned to the car where we had our tea and biscuits.  Later we went back to our caravan and took down the awning.  The next day we returned home to Malvern.