TRAVEL WORDS

A – Z of Locations: V is for Vrynwy

During this year I shall be posting photographs from places around the UK, many of which have not been published before. Where I have previously blogged about a location I will provide a link to the post, though you won’t be able to comment on it as I restrict comments to six months.

V is for Vrynwy (Lake)

Lake Vyrnwy (pronounced Vernwee) is a reservoir in Powys, Wales, built in the 1880s for Liverpool Corporation Waterworks to supply Liverpool with fresh water. Just on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park and south of Lake Bala, Lake Vyrnwy is set amidst the remote and beautiful Berwyn Mountains. It’s a short drive from the Shropshire border (The Welsh Marches).

The Straining Tower at Lake Vyrnwy is an intake tower built to extract water from the lake.

There are lots of trails and walks around the 5 mile long lake with several picnic spots and viewpoints and bird hides from which to watch the variety of birdlife in the area.

There are many other activities too including sailing, fishing and mountain biking. Visitors can embark on a relatively easy 12-mile bike ride around the lake or hike one of the many walking trails, such as the Rhiwagor Trail or the Craig Garth Bwlch Trail.

A – Z of Locations: U is for Ullswater

U is for Ullswater

Ullswater is the second largest lake in the Lake District and stretches over 8 miles from Pooley Bridge in the north to Glenridding. We arrived there from Patterdale after driving over the Kirkstone Pass.

The lake is shaped like a crooked finger, with high fells surrounding the Glenridding end and rolling farmland to the north.

Beda Fell and Sleet Fell opposite (right)

Ullswater was described by William Wordsworth as “the happiest combination of beauty and grandeur which any of the Lakes afford.”

And it is here in 1802 that he wrote his most famous poem “Daffodils” after a walk through Gowbarrow Park with his sister Dorothy.

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Aira Force is on the north side of the lake, a 20m multiple waterfall with viewing bridges above and below to get close to the thundering water safely. It was the inspiration for three other Wordsworth poems, including the “Somnambulist”.

As you can expect the area is popular with fell walkers with many water activities available such as sailing, canoeing and kayaking. There are also steamers around the lake on either a full return or one way cruise departing from Glenridding or Pooley Bridge (takes 1 hour). You can hop on and off at any of the four piers around the lake.

A – Z of Locations: T is for Truro

T is for Truro

Truro is the only city in Cornwall and the centre is, by city standards, quite a small one. Bodmin is still the county town and St Austell is the largest. For locals, Truro is the place you come to shop, study or have a good night out (and, rather less appealingly, to go to hospital). However, the city employs more people than other towns, with the major employers being the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro College and Cornwall Council so it is very busy.

Some cobbled streets remain (Pydar Street)

Look out for the leats along the streets; locally known as kennels, these Victorian channels that once kept the streets clean and the horses watered. There are some attractive Georgian buildings and some cobbled streets, but the layout of the city is very confusing.

Truro cathedral (the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary) has one of the tallest spires of any church the UK. It is largely Victorian and Edwardian and was built after Truro had already gained city status in 1877.

Back in the past Truro was a market town and port and then became one of Cornwall’s five stannary towns, where copper and tin were brought to be assayed.

Coinage Hall: The current building was built as the Cornish Bank in 1848 on the site of the old Coinage Hall where twice yearly tin was brought here to be assayed and taxed.

In spite of its early history, few very pre-18th-century buildings remain today, and most of the town centre dates from Truro’s Georgian, Regency and Victorian heydays. Lemon Street in particular has some very fine Georgian houses.

And one of the most puzzling streets I came across is Walsingham Place, a curious curved late Georgian terrace with lions. Apparently it began life as Caribee Island, a very boggy place; the name is thought to derive from the Caribbean, due to the large number of slave ships docking in Truro’s port. It wasn’t until the 1800s after Lemon Street was completed that Walsingham Place was constructed.

In 1851 it was reported that Walsingham Place was home to clerks, a wheelwright, butcher, wine and spirit merchant, ironmonger, fancy chair maker, English teacher, and the wife and family of an Inland Revenue officer called Mugford. Gradually the private residences changed to business premises, with the last domestic dweller thought to have moved out around ten years ago.

And the lions? Well they were added in 1960 by architect John Crowther, but I have no idea why.

For a more detailed walk around Truro please click here.

A – Z of Locations: S is for St Bride’s Bay

S is for St Bride’s Bay and Skomer and Skokholm Islands

Another one from Wales, this time in Pembrokeshire.

Lying in the Celtic Sea two miles off the southwest Pembrokeshire coast, Skokholm has its own charm and sense of remoteness with tall, sandstone cliffs and a wild landscape

In the warmer months Skokholm is colonised by tens of thousands of nesting seabirds. By day there is frenetic activity among the puffins, razorbills, guillemots and gulls – and by night there is more commotion from the Manx shearwaters and storm petrels! (Source: Welsh Wildlife Trust)

Skomer Island is less than a mile off the beautiful Pembrokeshire coast.

Between April and July, Skomer is well known for its puffins, but there is so much more to this National Nature Reserve – including Manx shearwaters, dolphins, seals, razorbills, and so much more! You can visit for just a day or even stay overnight in a hostel. (Source: Welsh Wildlife Trust)

Incredible views from the top of Wooltack Point

Our visit was on the last day of our family Christmas holiday in Wales in 2011. We stayed in a former pub near Rosebush and well remembered for being absolutely freezing cold all week with rain and/or fog every day bar this one! Whilst the children and grandchildren went off to visit Pembroke Castle, the OH and I decided to have a little road trip around the Pembrokeshire coast first to Fishguard then on to St David’s (the smallest city in Wales) before following the coast down to Marloes and St Brides.

We parked at Martin’s Haven close to the Deer Park for a walk and to get a glimpse of the islands. Although it was a dry and sunny day the wind was fierce so it was a very quick walk.

The car park at Martin’s haven (the end of the road)

From here we returned to Marloes for some lunch and then a quick drive to Dale which is on the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has been used as a port since the Middle Ages, before dashing back north to catch the sunset at the Pentre Ifan Burial Chamber in the Preseli Hills.

If you haven’t already visited Pembrokeshire then I recommend that you do. It has an amazing landscape with towering cliffs, pristine beaches, rolling moorlands rich with wildlife and history, beautiful coastal towns like Tenby (equivalent to Cornwall’s St Ives) and Britain’s smallest city, St Davids with its Cathedral and the ruin of The Bishops Palace.

A – Z of Locations: R is for Rye

R is for Rye / Rye Harbour

Rye is an English town with a fascinating history near the coast in East Sussex about 20 miles east of Hastings and four miles from the white beach of Camber Sands. In the centre, cobbled lanes like Mermaid Street are lined with medieval, half-timbered houses.

Mermaid Street (The Mermaid Inn was rebuilt in 1420)

Walk along Mermaid Street and you’ll come across houses with names like “The House Opposite”, or the “House with Two Front Doors”.

One thing Rye isn’t short of is pubs. Here we have The Swan.

The redbrick Lamb House was once owned by writer Henry James. Nearby, the tower of the Norman St. Mary’s Church overlooks the town. The 14th-century Ypres Tower, which formed part of Rye’s defences, is now Rye Castle Museum.

St Mary’s Church, Rye is the Anglican parish church of the civil parish of Rye in East Sussex.

A wonderful window

The entrance to the car park of the Mermaid Inn

Originally a seaport, Rye was incorporated in 1289 and became a full member of the Cinque Ports (a confederation of English Channel ports) about 1350. Now Rye Harbour lies 2 miles away from the actual town.

My only visit to Rye itself was back in November 2003 and I’m sad to say I don’t remember much about it other than it being quite cold and windy down by the sea. The second visit was a more pleasant one to the Nature Reserve in July 2014, but for some reason we didn’t bother to visit the town.

You can read about that visit here for a comprehensive walk along the shingle beach and an introduction to the wild flowers that grow in such an inhospitable landscape.