This circular walk is one which takes in a range of history from the almost unimaginably ancient to the soberingly modern, from the prehistoric era to WWII. I've wanted to do this walk for a long time in order to retrace the steps of an American airman, 2nd Lt Norman Boyer, who survived the crash of his USAAF B-24J Liberator on the moorland above Llanfairfechan and walked four miles looking for help for himself and his crewmates, over the end of Tal y Fan and down to a house called Waen Newydd, on the south side of the mountain. Walking the route in summer daylight under clear skies could never compare to that desperate walk on a wet winter afternoon, but I wanted to see the route for myself.
Much of the walk takes in far older history, however; prehistoric stone circles and cairns, abandoned cottages, and a disused Victorian slate quarry are some of the sights along the way.
We started out from home, but the walk proper began from the top road which runs along from Pen y Gaer to Tal y Fan, passing the house of Waen Newydd, which is where 2nd Lt Boyer found himself after his walk from the crash site. The Ordnance Survey grid reference for the start point is SH 7446 7045.
Tal y Fan is beckoning, but we walked around the mountain, rather than up it.
Coming down to Pont Hafodty Gwyn, named for the nearby house, but also known locally as Roman Bridge. The bridge isn't Roman. It seems more likely that it's associated with the drovers' and mail route over Bwlch y Ddeufaen.
The afon Ro is quite low at the moment, but some water is diverted from the natural rivers by the leats about the hills. The Ro is dammed a little further upstream by a modern dam known locally as Roman Dam.
The short driveway down to Pen y Parc, one of the many little ruined houses on the hillside.
Looking back down the road we've just walked up, with Pen y Gaer in the distance and the Conwy Valley to the left.
Continuing on up the hill towards Cae Coch, where the Roman road cuts across the mountainside.
Another abandoned cottage, Tan y Braich, sits in the field to the west of the road.
The turning onto the Roman road, with Cae Coch, now a holiday cottage, sitting just above the track.
We took the footpath up past Cae Coch, which has this rather lovely narrow walled walkway up to the front of the house.
Apparently the children who lived here used to walk down to Ysgol Rowen (Rowen School) every day.
This track continues above the Roman road, cutting across the side of Tal y Fan towards Caer Bach hill fort.
Looking across towards Pen y Gaer and the Conwy Valley from the track.
The side of Tal y Fan is scored by these deep meandering gullies which are often dry, but must channel the water at wetter times of the year.
Looking back along the track towards Cae Coch with Drum in the background, 770m high, and the ragged peak of Pen y Castell, 623m, to its left.
The view up the valley is opening out now as we climb higher.
In the shelter of the tree stands the ruin of Pen y Ffridd, briefly home to Huw Tom, known as the 'unofficial Prime Minister of Wales.'
The track continues on at a height of about 400m, towards Craig Celynin in the distance, the rocky hill next to Llangelynin Old Church.
This is an unusual looking wall for around here, with its heavily dressed stone, and it bisects the land at the east end of Tal y Fan. It seems likely that it's related to enclosure, which came late to some parts of Wales.
This beautifully carved inscription on the gate post dates this part of the wall.
There's a very robbed out wall along the edge of the track from this point. It seems likely that the stones were used elsewhere, but there is a tale that an incomer ordered the land to be enclosed, but the locals dismantled the wall every night until the man gave up.
We headed north a little before the line of the footpath to cross over the east end of Tal y Fan.
The little hillfort Caer Bach is visible on the rise of land in the middle of the photo.
Our first glimpse of Carneddau ponies, on the side of Tal y Fan.
It seems likely that this is a mother with her yearling foal and this year's foal. They were talking the chance on this hot day to drink at a small pool.
The Great Orme and Llandudno are visible on the coast at the end of the valley now.
One of a number of little structures up on the side of Tal y Fan. Perhaps this was a sheep pen.
One of the slate tips at the tiny Tal y Fan quarry rises up against the sky. A little to the north east of the quarry are a number of building remains and a long, narrow peat store, as well as the standing stone of Maen Penddu.
A bumble bee was one of the many insects buzzing around as I walked. I have to be careful of honey bees because of an allergy, but I didn't mind getting close to this little furry creature.
We skirted around the Tal y Fan quarry, worked from the mid 19th century, which supplied some of the slate for the well known Herbert L. North houses which are scattered around this area. Originally from Leicester, Herbert L. North (1871-1941) settled in Llanfairfechan, and was responsible for a number of distinctive white walled and steep slate roofed buildings in the local area, such as Gyffin Community Hall. He also co-authored a fascinating study of Welsh houses called 'The Old Cottages of Snowdonia,' with Henry Hughes.
As soon as you pass the quarry the land flattens and opens out into an undulating moorland. In the centre left of the photo is Penmaenmawr Reservoir, a small reservoir built on the Afon Gyrach near the end of the 19th century. An application to build the reservoir was planned to be made to Parliament in 1891, so the reservoir must be later than that date.
Crossing one of the small streams that cut through the moorland, with Tal y Fan rising beyond. If you're walking with a dog it's worth letting them stop for water at every chance, because it's hard to tell where the next drink will be. Watch to make sure it's fresh and clean, though.
The footpath strikes out across the moor to the north west, diverging from the well-trodden paths used by walkers and horseriders. There isn't a distinct path to follow over towards the stone circles on the other side of the moor, and the going can be tiring across heather, bilberries, and marsh.
We caught sight of more Carneddau ponies on the open moorland.
Another little stone structure on the open land, possibly another sheep pen. There are few walls on this broad stretch of land.
At last we're in sight of Meini Hirion (also known as the Druid's Circle), a Bronze Age monument which stands at OS grid reference SH 7229 7465.
The circle seems to be on a little rise, but I don't know if this is artificial or not. Coflein (which has some impressive aerial photos of the site) calls it an 'embanked stone circle,' which might imply the rise is human-made.
This arrangement of stones seems awfully phallic. It's hard to know if this were the intent or not.
The same stones as in the previous photo, from a different angle. This was the day after Midsummer, and people had left offerings on the stones. There is a legend that if you place a young baby on the ledge of this stone, it will bring the child good luck. There are a few legends connected with the stones recounted at the end of the Modern Antiquarian page here.
Some of the offerings left on the stone.
One of the taller stones in the circle. The tallest are about 6' high.
More offerings were left on a stone at the centre of the circle. Coflein suggests that this stone is a modern addition. During a 1958 excavation a cremation burial was found in a central cist, as well as other deposits in the area.
This stone has fallen, and two are missing, but most are still upright.
Another of the larger stones in the circle.
It's interesting that there's such a size variation between the larger stones and the smaller ones.
We moved on to another monument a little to the west, just visible from Meini Hirion.
This is a fascinating little collection of stones, but it's hard to pin down a report about them on Coflein. The Megalithic Portal lists it as 'Monument 280,' and it seems surprising that this circle wouldn't have a name. Coflein has entries for a lot of the stone circles in the area - there are many small ones - but the grid references for each one all centre on the same spot, and I can't find a specific entry for this site. It is possible that this entry describes the site, but more likely it's describing the ring shaped enclosure just to the south west. Consensus online seems to be that the site is a ring cairn.
Looking back at Meini Hirion from the second site.
A few more Carneddau ponies were grazing near the stone circles.
We moved on to walk up Moelfre, a low hill just west of the circles.
From the top of the hill there were lovely views down towards the Menai Straits and Ynys Mon.
There are the remains of another cairn on the top of Moelfre. We sat down nearby to eat our lunch. Apparently there were three stones up here once, one red, one white, and one blue. Three women wanted to winnow their grain, and carried it up to the top of Moelfre, where it would be more windy and help separate the grain from the chaff. But they did this on a Sunday, and an angry God turned all three to stone. The only life I encountered up here was a curious bee who wanted to investigate my rucksack.
The view from Moelfre over to the mountains of Eryri. Perhaps this stone in the foreground was one of the three stones?
Looking down from the hill towards Ynys Mon, and the small bald scar of the crash site of USAAF B-24J Liberator 42-99991 ‘Bachelors Baby,’ which crashed here on 7th January, 1944. The link provided gives a very full account of the crash, and much more detail can be read in the late Edward Doylerush's excellent book No Landing Place.
Very few aircraft crash sites in Snowdonia have memorials, but this is one of the exceptions.
I thought these stones had been arranged as a cross, but perhaps they were put in the shape of a Liberator bomber.
This memorial plaque was erected in 1980, the ceremony being attended by some of the surviving crew.
A closer look at the memorial to the men who died in the crash, including Booster, their fox terrier puppy mascot, who was killed in the first impact. Booster is buried near the site.
A single stark metal cross is set upright in a boulder on the site.
I can't find out why this memorial is here. Obviously the man named, Neville Owen Jones, would have only been about eight when the crash occurred, since his dates are 1936-2010.
Looking from the crash site up to the bwlch (pass) between Tal y Fan and Foel Lwyd that 2nd Lt Boyer ended up crossing in his search for help.
The scar on the hillside is quite small now, but it's striking that plant growth is still inhibited from the conflagration that happened almost 80 years earlier. Many WWII plane crash sites on these mountains show similar bald patches.
We started off over the moor in roughly the direction that 2nd Lt Boyer must have taken, although he was walking on a cold and wet January afternoon into evening, with very low visibility, and with a leg injury. He thought he was heading towards the coast, not realising the plane had changed direction when it crashed.
One of the many cairns on the route back towards Tal y Fan. It's easy to see quite a few of these without going far off the path. All the cairns I visited were marked on the Ordnance Survey map.
Possibly another cairn. At times it's hard to distinguish between cairns and natural rock formations, even with the help of the map.
There are a few boggy patches on the walk back, which the dogs took advantage of.
A close up of some of the bog life. It must be quite a specialised ecosystem up here, deserving of protection.
Yet another ancient cairn half lost under the grass.
Another of the little ruined structures that are scattered over the moorland.
The rising hills are a tempting prospect on this hot, clear day. It must have been very different for 2nd Lt Boyer, injured and walking in terrible visibility. He didn't know that a local policeman had already attended the scene of the crash, and was heading down to find help with one of the survivors, 2nd Lt Schultz, while two local men had taken another survivor, Sergeant Alexander, back to a nearby farm.
This cairn is disappearing under the bilberries, but there must be a lot of stones underneath.
The view down to the coast, with Ynys Mon looking silvered and rather magical in the distance.
Still heading up to the pass, with the rocky ridge of Tal y Fan on the left, and the softer looking slope of Foel Lwyd on the right.
The land is starting to become more mountainous now, with more rocks scattered on the ground.
Getting closer to the bwlch between the two mountains, and Tal y Fan's rocky spine is quite evident. The mountain is quite deceptive from below. Although it looks like a narrow rocky ridge, the top is actually relatively broad and fun to walk along, with many unexpected ups and downs along its length.
At last we reached the top of the pass. On the other side of the stone wall and stile, the view starts to open up over the Conwy Valley again.
Heading down the south side of Tal y Fan, with Cae Coch cottage down below in the small clump of trees to the left.
Over another stile, and we were heading down across the last couple of fields before the road. The wide entrance to Bwlch y Ddeufaen, where the Roman road and drovers' track crosses the mountains, is flanked by Tal y Fan and Foel Lwyd on one side, and Pen y Gaer, Pen y Gadair, Pen y Castell, another Foel Lwyd, and Drum on the other.
Back on the road, at the left turning onto the Roman road past Cae Coch. We carried on down the metalled road. I don't know if 2nd Lt Boyer managed to find the road at this point, or if he were walking across the fields to the left.
It's a straightforward walk down towards Hafodty Gwyn.
The turning east which goes down to Rowen. Hafodty Gwyn is near the tree to the right.
We headed a little way down the road towards Rowen so we could take the short footpath past Hafodty Gwyn.
Hafodty Gwyn was a reasonably intact house until the 1990s, when it was demolished for safety reasons. I recall that one of my neighbours was born or grew up here, but followed the general trend of moving further down the hill to a more convenient location. Apparently the house was uninhabited in 1944 - although it does appear as inhabited by the Williams family, farmers, in the 1939 register. It seems that in 1944 the place was used as a holiday home, or 2nd Lt Boyer assumed that it was. He broke in and lit a fire to try to warm up and dry out, before leaving some money on the table and continuing his walk to find help.
After taking the short footpath back to the road, we came down to cross Pont Hafodty Gwyn for the second time in this walk.
Heading back up the small hill on the other side of Pont Hafodty Gwyn, the last hill of the walk.
Waen Newydd is in the trees to the left. Since 2nd Lt Boyer saw the house at a distance, presumably there were fewer trees at that time.
Fron is one of the highest houses here, but it's used as a holiday home rather than a permanent dwelling.
Almost back at the starting point, and this is the end of the walk. 2nd Lt Boyer saw the house in the trees and climbed the wall, presumably unaware that there was a lane in a few yards that would take him straight to the house. Our neighbour Arfon Roberts, who lived in the house at the time, recalls as an 11 year old seeing the American airman walking down the drive looking like a ghost, wrapped in a white sheet. Perhaps he had taken this sheet or blanket from Hafodty Gwyn; after all, he must have been soaked. Arfon's parents took the airman in and drove him to Llandudno Hospital down on the coast. There had been eleven men on board the plane that day, one of them a passenger hitching a ride, as well as the dog, Booster. Five men and the dog died.
