Cycle Touring in Wales: A two-week circuit and shorter tours

About the Author

After years of road running and mountaineering wreaked havoc with his knees, Richard Barrett returned to long-distance cycling in his fifties when he bought himself a classic British-made touring bike. Now in his sixties, he rides a handmade bike from one of the great British frame makers that have appeared in recent years. Combined with walking, cycling allows him to continue his love affair with the more mountainous parts of the UK, which he first visited as a teenager.

Richard spent his career in marketing in a number of multinational organizations in the UK and abroad, but he now lives in West Cheshire and rides two or three times a week with groups on both sides of the border.

Other Cicerone guides by the author

Cycling in the Hebrides

Cycling in the Lake District

Cycling Lôn Las Cymru

The Hebridean Way

Walking on Harris and Lewis

CYCLE TOURING IN WALES

A TWO-WEEK CIRCUIT AND SHORTER TOURS

by Richard Barrett

JUNIPER HOUSE, MURLEY MOSS,

OXENHOLME ROAD, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA9 7RL

www.cicerone.co.uk

© Richard Barrett 2019

First edition 2019

ISBN 9781783627622

Printed in China on behalf of Latitude Press Ltd

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All photographs are by the author unless otherwise stated.

Route mapping by Lovell Johns www.lovelljohns.com

© Crown copyright 2019 OS PU100012932. NASA relief data courtesy of ESRI

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Mr Edward Wood and his orthopaedic team at the Countess of Chester Hospital, who had me back in the saddle a mere 12 weeks after fitting me with a dynamic hip screw to repair a fractured hip that resulted from foolishly venturing out when there was still black ice about. Don’t worry, I won’t be doing it again.

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Jonathan and Joe Williams of Cicerone for commissioning this book and introducing me to wonderful parts of the country I had never previously visited. I should also like to thank my copyeditor Victoria O’Dowd, Sian, Verity and the production team, who once again made the process such a pleasure.

Updates to this Guide

While every effort is made by our authors to ensure the accuracy of guidebooks as they go to print, changes can occur during the lifetime of an edition. Any updates that we know of for this guide will be on the Cicerone website (www.cicerone.co.uk/988/updates), so please check before planning your trip. We also advise that you check information about such things as transport, accommodation and shops, locally. Even rights of way can be altered over time. We are always grateful for information about any discrepancies between a guidebook and the facts on the ground, sent by email to [email protected] or by post to Cicerone, Juniper House, Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal, LA9 7RL.

Register your book: To sign up to receive free updates, special offers and GPX files where available, register your book at www.cicerone.co.uk.

Front cover: The outwardly impressive Caernarfon Castle, which dominates the town (Stage 7)

CONTENTS

Map key

Route summary tables

Overview map

Ride planner from Cardiff

Alternative Schedules

INTRODUCTION

Why cycle around Wales?

How tough is it?

Which direction to ride

Selecting a schedule

Getting there

Travel

First and last nights in Cardiff

When to ride

Accommodation

What to take

Preparing your bike

Eating

Phones and Wi-Fi

Emergencies

Waymarking

Maps

Using this guide

A CIRCUIT OF WALES

Stage 1 Cardiff to Mumbles

Stage 2 Mumbles to Tenby

Stage 3 Tenby to Fishguard

Stage 4 Fishguard to Aberaeron

Stage 5 Aberaeron to Machynlleth

Stage 6 Machynlleth to Porthmadog

Stage 7 Porthmadog to Conwy

Stage 8 Conwy to Wrexham

Stage 9 Wrexham to Montgomery

Stage 10 Montgomery to Hay-on-Wye

Stage 11 Hay-on-Wye to Chepstow

Stage 12 Chepstow to Cardiff

CROSS ROUTES

Cross route 1 Wrexham to Bangor

Cross route 2 Barmouth to Chirk

Cross route 3 Welshpool to Machynlleth

Cross route 4 Aberystwyth to Knighton

Cross route 5 Fishguard to Carmarthen

Cross route 6 Carmarthen to Abergavenny

Appendix A Cycle shops

Appendix B Accommodation

Appendix C Useful contacts

Appendix D What to take

Appendix E Welsh words and pronunciation

Appendix F Selected further reading

ROUTE SUMMARY TABLE

Cyclists on the Mawddach Trail near Penmaenpool (Cross route 2)

INTRODUCTION

Looking north towards Barmouth along the viaduct across the Mawddach Estuary (Stage 6)

When the Wales Coast Path was created in 2013, Wales became the first country in the world to have a dedicated footpath that follows its entire coastline. When coupled with the already famous Offa’s Dyke National Trail from Chepstow to Prestatyn, it forms a 1030-mile walking route around the whole of the principality. This guidebook is for those who want to experience a similar circumnavigation of Wales by bike, following existing traffic-free paths and the quieter roads nearest the coast.

To make a circuit that can be comfortably ridden over a two-week holiday, the Gower Peninsula, Llyn Peninsula and Anglesey have been omitted, although there are suggestions in the text on how best to incorporate them into a tour. The resulting circuit provides 657 miles (1051km) of wonderful riding that starts on the waterfront in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, and includes mile after mile of stunning coastal landscape before heading back south through the rolling marcher country along the border. You will ride past miles of golden sand along the south coast in Pembrokeshire, Britain’s only coastal National Park; past the historic castles of Cardigan Bay; along the Menai Straight and through the seaside towns on the north coast, visiting some delightful towns and villages that benefit from being off the normal tourist itinerary.

Kidwelly Castle from the bank of Gwendraeth Fach (Stage 2)

Travelling through such wonderful countryside by bike is hugely satisfying for those who want to cover the miles quickly, as well as those preferring a more leisurely pace to watch wildlife and explore attractions along the way. There are plenty of pretty villages and interesting towns where you can top up your energy levels in local cafés and find interesting shops to replenish your supplies. These towns also provide a good choice of overnight accommodation and places for dinner, although you may need to leave the route to find exactly what you’re looking for. Add to that an impressive collection of castles, industrial archaeology, churches, chapels and prehistoric sites along the route and you have a ride that you will remember for a very long time.

The magnificent red kite is now a common sight in many parts of Central Wales (Image authorised for common usage)

Welsh chapels: the other iconic buildings of Wales

Apart from its magnificent castles, Wales’ other iconic buildings are its chapels, and you will see hundreds of examples while cycling through the country. Up until the Toleration Act 1689 was passed, it was illegal for dissenters to meet for worship, so many congregations met secretly in remote houses and barns. But from the end of the 17th century until the early 20th century, congregations built around 10,000 chapels, often financing their construction with loans that took decades to pay off. Initially, the chapels were quite plain but once the congregations started to commission architects, the chapels began to reflect the height of fashion, particularly during the later Victorian era when it became quite common to amalgamate all manner of influences into ornate gable end walls. Many were also rebuilt or remodelled to accommodate a growing congregation, often through the addition of a gallery that had been cleverly allowed for in the original design.

Some still maintain a thriving congregation but many have been converted for residential or commercial use, such as Libanus Chapel in Borth, which has been turned into a cinema and bistro. Others stand empty and strangely silent, waiting for someone to rescue them from creeping dereliction and potential demolition. See www.welshchapels.org for further information and an interactive map that provides more details about each of the chapels along the route.

The page opposite shows six chapels of different styles that you will pass while riding around Wales.

Henllan Baptist Chapel (top left), in the Vale of Eywas on Stage 11, was built in 1865 in the Vernacular style with a single door on the gable end.

Blaen-y-Cefn Methodist Chapel (top right), just north of Cardigan on Stage 4, was built in 1808. It was rebuilt in 1837 in the Simple Round-Headed style with separate doors for men and women along the long wall. Traditionally, the men sat in the pews to the right of the minister and the women and children sat in the pews to his left, with the interior layout designed so the minister could see everyone.

Llanfairfechan Methodist Chapel (centre left) on Stage 9 was built sometime before 1897 using corrugated iron. It is still in use and is known locally as ‘Capel Sinc’.

Bryn Seion Methodist Chapel (centre right), near the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on Stage 9, was built in the Classical style in 1902 using locally made red brick. The Grade II listed building has been sympathetically converted into a cycle-friendly café and bistro.

Seion Welsh Independent Chapel (bottom left), situated in Baker Street, Aberystwyth on Stage 5, was built in the Italianate Classical style in 1876 by the Welsh-born architect Richard Owens (1831–1891), whose Liverpool-based practice was responsible for 250–300 chapels, largely in North Wales. Owens was by no means the most prolific of the known chapel architects, though, as his contemporary, the largely self-taught Welsh Independent minister, Thomas Thomas (1817–1888) is reputed to have played a part in the building, restoration or extension of some 1000 chapels throughout Wales. It is thought that he delivered the first sermon in each of the chapels he was involved with. However, after an illustrious career he was forced into semi-retirement when it was revealed that he owned almost 40 properties around Swansea that were used as brothels.

Zion English Presbyterian Church (bottom right), located in Mansel Street, Carmarthen on Stage 2, was built in the Classical style in 1850 by the architect RG Thomas (1820–1883) of Newport. It remains in use and is now a Grade II listed building.

Different types of chapels on the route

As the route is circular you can start and finish your tour at any point along the way. Detailed information is provided on the rail services you can use to get to and from the towns chosen for the start and finish of each stage, most of which are on the rail network. Although it is always best to follow the advice of the particular train operator, taking bikes on trains in Wales is typically far easier than in other parts of the UK, so you can leave the car at home.

Convenient access by rail also means you can split a circumnavigation across two or more tours starting and finishing at stations on or near the route. The additional cross routes, which all start and finish at towns served by rail, mean you can also plan shorter tours that are easy to get to without using a vehicle. A number of shorter tours are suggested in this guide, but you can easily use the detailed information provided to plan your own route to fit the time you have available.

George Borrow: Wales’s greatest traveller

On the morning of 29 July 1854 the Victorian travel writer, George Borrow, set out from Chester and walked on a circuitous route around Wales, while his wife and stepdaughter used coaches and the newly opened railways to hop between inns along the way. Despite his 51 years and his snow-white hair, Borrow was upright and athletic and would continue to ride horses and swim outdoors into his seventies, also undertaking long walks at a brisk pace that lasted for many weeks. He recounted his travels in the book Wild Wales, which remains in print over 150 years after it was first published in 1862. Throughout his life Barrow had three main interests: languages, legends and Romany gypsies, and he was able to indulge himself in all three during his walking holiday in Wales.

Before his late marriage, Borrow had worked overseas for the Bible Society and was fluent in Russian, Spanish and Portuguese. But many of the other languages he claimed to speak he learnt from books, so his understanding of their grammar and pronunciation was probably rudimentary at best. He learnt Welsh by comparing a translation of John Milton’s Paradise Lost by the Welsh antiquarian and grammarian William Owen Pughe (1759–1835) with the original English verse. He supplemented this with some oral coaching from ‘Taffy’ Lloyd, a Welsh-born ostler employed by William Simpson at the Norwich solicitors where he had served a legal apprenticeship while in his teens. Taffy’s tuition was not the best, and 30 years later when Borrow got to try out his Welsh on locals, those in North Wales thought he must originate from South Wales and those in South Wales thought he must originate from North Wales, while others thought he was a