Last updated 15:57, Wednesday, 23 April 2008

ORGANISED by George Taylor, 57 members of Whitehaven Rambling Club recently spent a weekend based in Conwy, in North Wales.

LAND OF THE MIST AND THE WILD: Whitehaven Rambling Club members on the lawn overlooking Conwy, Wales

There were a variety of rambles through woods and valleys and over local hills, which afforded extensive views out to sea.

The famous Heather Terrace was climbed, which leads to the top of the splendidly impressive mountain of Tryfan 3,010ft, and on another day a group headed for the snow overed summit of Snowdon 3,560ft, Snowdonia’s highest mountain.

An hours long train journey was also enjoyed on the Ffestiniog railway, which winds its way through impressive mountain scenery and whose engines were originally used to haul huge slate wagons round the tight valley bends.

After leaving the train at Portmadog, the group travelled on to the nearly unique Italianate coastal village of Portmeirion, designed and built by the architect Clough Williams-Ellis, and which is more recently famous as the setting for the cult TV programme “The Prisoner.” By coincidence, the annual re-enactment of the series took place on the day of the Rambling Club visit. Another group journeyed further down the coast to view Caemarfan and its famous castle.

Accommodation was at “Bryn Corach” - a wonderful old turreted house - run by the Holiday Fellowship, and which is perched high on a hillside with panoramic views, looking steeply down to Conwy, its castle and the suspension bridge.

It was a very varied weekend of walks and excursions and was rounded off on the journey home by a visit to beautiful Bodnant Garden, where the spring flowers and shrubs were a blaze of colour, set off by a backcloth of the snow covered Welsh mountains.