out and about - 2014
13 February 2014 ............ Barclodiad y Gawres
Midway between Rhosneigr and Aberffraw, on the west coast of Anglesey, there is a small headland that the coastal path goes round.
Its most prominent feature is a restored Chambered Cairn, Barclodiad y Gawres.
I parked in the big car park at Porth Trecastell, and headed round the headland for a quick walk - this was the day after the really big storm that cut off the electricity supply to tens of thousands of homes right across North Wales.
It was forecast to be a much quieter day, but there was still a strong wind, with big long waves coming in to the beach.
It is funny how cameras make waves look quite small, compared to how we as humans see them.
The chambered cairn is on the highest point of the headland, and its entrance faces approximately north or northwest - so I`m afraid the sun was a bit of a problem.
You can go part of the way in, but not the whole way in. This is looking into the centre through the locked gate.
Since the entrance is facing approximately north or northwest, I wonder if there is a possibility that it was designed that at sunset on the summer solstice the sun shines right in to the back of the Chambered Cairn.
Part of the way in there is a descriptive board with details of Barclodiad y Gawres.
The entrance to the Chambered Cairn provided some shelter from the wind - this is looking north and northwest towards Rhosneigr.
The sea was quite lively - not the biggest sea I`ve ever seen, but quite wild all the same. One of the products of the sea was this big patch of foam - it looks quite white here, in reality it was more brown than white.
This is looking further along the coastal path to Porth Nobla, the beach on the other side of the headland.
This is looking south across the entrance to Porth Trecastell towards the next headland and Ynys Meibion.
It isn`t the most dramatic of views, but I like the lighting - firstly the dark cloud on the right, and the almost blue sky on the left - and also the way the weak sunshine has provided a diffuse back lighting to the rocks in the foreground.
Heading back in towards Porth Trecastell - it looks to be a very nice beach - judging by the size of the carpark, it gets a lot of visitors during the summer.
The cliffs at the far side are quite impressive.
The seagulls seemed to like the rough sea - they sat there quite happily as unbroken waves passed under them, but if a wave broke before it got to them, they took off just in front of the breaker, then landed again just after it had passed.
I tried to follow the coastal pathround from the other side of Porth Castell - it follows the coast for a kilometre or so, then swings inland.
However it was so wet and muddy I gave up, and headed down to Newborough Forest instead.
I tried to cycle around the forest, but the further into the wood I went, the more fallen trees there were.
Newborough Forest has suffered quite badly during the gale, I could get down one side, but then I ran into forestry workers trying to cut their way along the track through the fallen trees, so had to turn round.
I followed another route, and it wasn`t too bad, but I did have to negotiate either round or under or over a few trees.
It is a really strange thing how you can get an area of trees all standing - except somehow the wind has flattened one tree right in the middle of them - sometimes they were blown over, sometimes they were snapped off half way up the trunk.
Here is one of the older, more mature casualties.
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