17 Jan 2026

My walking buddy Ian joined me again today. We set off along a track north of Trefor heading towards the Bwlch yr Eifl pass between two of the Eifl mountains. It was a steep climb passing close to the quarry and we both found it hard work. We saw some feral goats on the way up. I’d also seen them from the bus in peoples’ front gardens in Trefor. Apparently, they’ve been visting the town ever since Covid. We finally got to the top of the pass which marks the highest point on my entire journey at 350m (about 1150ft).

We followed the track to the road leading down steeply to Nant Gwrtheyrn. There was a footpath avoiding the road but I decided to stick to the official route down the road with its 2 hairpin bends.

We reached Nant Gwrtheyrn and were happy to discover that the cafe there was open. Nant Gwtheyrn is now a centre for learning the Welsh language, a venue for conferences and weddings and provides holiday accommodation. It was originally a village community for the surrounding quarries which provided granite sets used as cobblestones. When tarmac became the preferred road material, the quarries declined and the village was eventually completely abandoned in 1959. Hippies moved in and damaged many of the buildings but in the 1970s rennovations started to convert it into a centre for learning Welsh.

Refreshed after a cup of tea in the very smart modern cafe and a chat with Tony the cyclist we continued south. Tony was quite a character and we had a good moan about the state of the world. One of his adventures he told us about was cycling across America. The path descended to the shore near some quarry workings and then climbed back up the hillside. There were some art works here, one of which looked like a tall nightmarish plant creature!

We continued through farmland and met a couple called Sammi and Matthew. They were from mid Wales and were walking in the same direction so we joined them for a bit. I think they were staying at Nant Gwrtheyrn and had actually walked past us while we were talking to Tony but I hadn’t noticed. They, like us, were intending to walk to Morfa Nefyn but we eventually dropped behind and lost them. We originally thought of ending the walk at the pub on the beach at Porth Dinllaen just after Morfa Nefyn but it became obvious that we were running out of time.

We arrived at Nefyn, passing the church with the sailing ship weather vane, and found the path back towards the shore. After a short distance, the path was diverted back into the village due to a large landslip which occured in April 2021. About half the garden of one house and part of another collapsed. Another two smaller landslips last month closed further sections of the path so we were forced to walk along the road. We arrived at a bus stop just beyond Nefyn and on checking the timetable I realised a bus was due back to Pwllheli where we had parked the car. Since there wasn’t much daylight left we decided to end the walk.

Postscript: I later found out that the Ty Coch pub at Porth Dinllaen was closed for the winter and would open again in February. Sammi and Matthew made it to Morfa Nefyn and finished their walk with a fish and chip supper.

8.37 miles