Saturday, 20 August 2011
Coastwalk
Colwyn Bay → Conwy Morfa
Distance: 17.4 miles
Ascent: 316 metres
Duration: 5 hours 58 minutes
St Trillo
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Hooray for generous relatives who live near the sea! We're in North Wales for another weekend, being spoilt rotten by my uncle and aunt from whose house opens up a lovely view of Conwy with its tremendous castle.
It would be easy to write about the obvious features on today's walk: the Little and Great Orme, the walled town of Conwy, its castle and bridges. However, sometimes on a walk the most memorable sight is the one you weren't expecting.
In Rhôs-on-Sea, tucked just out of the way of the prom is St Trillo's Chapel, said to be the smallest church in the United Kingdom. Despite the great antiquity of the site - St Trillo is said to have built his cell here in the 6th century after arriving from Brittany - it was hard to get a real sense of the history of the place.
The marshland, or 'rhos', has long since been drained, and the monk's original wattle-and-daub cell with its stone enclosure has been replaced by a later building; maybe it was this that meant that the chapel had a strange lack of presence. The one original remaining feature is a small, rough-cut well in the floor in front of the altar, still flowing with fresh water, and somehow at odds with the Victorian artifice of the whitewash and stained glass.