Blaenau Ffestiniog

Blaenau is thought of as the scum of North Wales, a place to be avoided and maybe even feared. The old slate mines have scarred the landscape surrounding the once bustling mining town. The huge towering slag heaps lay waste on all sides of the valley, the only colour to be seen is from the detested rhododendron bursting through and invading the slopes.

Poor little Blaenau, so misunderstood. If it wasn’t for you what would they put on their roofs? What would they cover their flower beds with to stop the dog from digging them up? What would they write their hipster menus on in all the retro cafes?

…but alas! What is this? A sign of hope and life in the dark and dismal little town? They have invested in the slate caverns and made them somewhere for tourists to explore! Smart little Blaenau! You’ve turned the slags heaps into an extreme sports centre. Oh look! The train station has pretty little benches and a cool steam train too, what a wonderful way to hold on to an important history!

Maybe Blaenau isn’t so bad after all...

 Many slate statues have been placed around the town centre

 The ffestiniog light railway sees many trains of tourists enter the station everyday.

 Blasted Rhododendron!

 Bike tracks provide extreme sports for people to try.

 Slate is literally everywhere. 

 Selfie by the slag heap.

Caernarfon, Gwynedd, North Wales

Caernarfon is a small town of just under 10,000 people located in the North West of Wales on the edge of the Menai straight. It is well known as a port and royal town and is home to a grand castle built by Edward I. The castle was the seat of government for many years in the 13^th century. His aim was to get all of Wales to be one, English speaking country. Caernarfon Castle is one of many that Edward I built, the others are in Harlech, Conwy, Aberystwyth, Builth, Rhuddlan, Flint and Beaumaris.

The surrounding town in some ways is reliant on tourist income generated by the castle. The square outside the castle and the surrounding streets have loads of bistros/cafes, ice cream parlours and pubs for tourists to enjoy. As well as this, its handy location means that the historically thriving trading port and harbour can now be used to house many holiday makers and their yachts. However, the further away from the centre of town you go, the less up market the surroundings are. The area quickly morphs into one that resembles a council estate and close quarter terraced housing; typical of a town with a tourist centre.

During our visit we walked from the outside if town into the centre and headed straight for the castle. When we arrived we found Liz looking regal in front of the Lloyd George statue! It was actually free to enter the castle which surprised us somewhat. As a very large monument the castle was fascinating to explore, which led to many photos being taken!

 Liz and Lloyd George!

 Our castle selfie, featuring Shraddha at the back.

 Another selfie with Betsy and Shraddha taking the time to photobomb us.

 Whilst trying some of the local ice cream (it's delicious) we had some imposters in the form of Rich and Ben.

 Caenarfon square sword fight! (Jake luckily made a miraculous recovery at the end).

 We appreciated the fact that the information centre sign was actually a Dragon.

 The castle actually had a chair lift, making it more accessible.

 Jakes hench shoulders got stuck once again in one of the passageways!

 We managed to climb to top of the tower (our knees suffered from the stairs though!).

The area surrounding the castle encompasses the dock along with the castle car park.

Newborough Beach

The day started off travelling on the coach to Newborough.

Once at the destination a short forest walk opened us up to vast empty beach and large menacing sand dunes.

Before we reached the beach we saw how the forest had been adapted to cater for different activities. Sections were not accessible for certain sports; meaning a wider range of people can use the site at once without coming to contact with each other and causing harm. The trees within the forest were also planted in lines making it a neater, lighter forest.

The walk then took us directly onto Newborough beach where a short beach walk took us to the end of our time at that town. The beach was clean, quiet and genuinely a beautiful spot to have a walk on.

 Bridal paths appear to be used throughout the forest.

 Sheep!

Colywn Bay Coastal Stop

Our third stop of the day came in the form of the coastal area of Colwyn Bay. A modern visitor centre has been built on a groyne, skillfully disquising this coastal defence as a scenic stop along the A55. The groynes purpose has been to build up the sediment cell to the west. In order to originally install some of the sediment, pipes had actually been sunk into the sea with the aim of pumping the sediment onto the existing smaller beach.

We quite enjoyed the small park that had been added to the visitor centre (evidently not just for children). The addition of services to the groyne has transformed this little portion of the coast to a quant but modern spot to visit. The roof appeared to be a viewing platform although regrettably it was closed off when we visited. Plants had been added to this sloping affair adding a homely touch to this rather concrete landscape.

Finally one visual assessment had been completed at this location, encorporating the groyne, beach and pier into the study site. Our initial thoughts were that this site was more beautiful and interesting than the first two sites. Simply due to the services provided aswell as the rather bracing view.

Rhyl isn't Bryl

Our second stop was in the seaside town of Rhyl. A long promenade stretches along the coast with continuous development occuring.

One of our sites examined the sea view. A lot of hard engineering has been developed including multiple sea walls/structures. The lower sea wall is rather small as its a simple edge to the promenade. Whereas the larger wall that's actually on the promenade is quite imposing upon the landscape. The design of this sea wall seemed rather unconventional, it did incorporate a commercial use with viewing platforms and ramps to access them. However arches within the foundations undermined its function as a coastal defence.

As for our second site we looked to the actual town of Rhyl. A pedestrianised street housed many shops and restaurants but the theme didn't appear to be seaside-y, instead americanisation has occured with chains such as McDonalds and Subway being the prominent eaterys. The income of the area appears to be based upon tourism with b and bs featuring heavily along the coastline. As one of the poorest areas within Wales many of the houses are empty and new development is installed directly next to the old infrastructure.

Our overall view is that Rhyl is not so brill due to the fact that it appears to be stuck in a past time of success that may not be relevant anymore in our rapidly globalising world.

Talacre Coastal Sites

So we've finally arrive din Wales! Our first port of call was the coastal area of Talacre. In order to get a feel for the area we completed a visual survey at two different sites. The first was a view of the 'marsh-like' area, this begins with a grass verge which houses a path for walkers. Dog walking appeared to be a popular activity along the path that leads to the sand dunes. However this may be an issue due to the mess associated with our canine companions.

In terms of accessibility the pathway may be rather wide but this sadly didn't extend to the gate separators. We encountered this problem when Jake's hench shoulders had no hope of fitting through! This would be a specific issue for wheelchair users and cyclists, potentially limiting the possible visitors of the area.

Our second site included the sand dunes which offered a more rugged view. Marram grass dominated the area although natural pathways had been carved leading to some boardwalks upon the steeper sections. These dunes form a natural barrier to the ocean however they are also rather susceptible to erosive processes and degradation.

Finally one thing that rather suprised us was the speed of the tide. Within fifteen minutes walking from site one to site two the tide rose up tot heights seen in the photograph below. This completely covered the beach car park and isolated many of the landforms within the vicinity.

Before the fieldcourse...

So we now know our blogging groups for the North Wales fieldcourse! Say hello to Lauren, Jake, Grace, Tom and Kate, team 2 from the geography class of 2013 (a.k.a team funky :P). We look forward to telling you about our adventures in the great outdoors equipped with many selfies (an example of which is attached to this post) and photographs of the locations. See you there!