Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
( 01758-760207;
www.gwesty-tynewydd.co.uk
; s/d from £65/100; )
Right on the beach, this friendly
hotel has fully refurbished, light-drenched, spacious rooms and some truly wonderful sea
views. The tide comes in right under the terrace off the pub restaurant (mains £10 to £16),
which seems designed with afternoon gin-and-tonics in mind.
Ship Hotel
( 01758-760204;
www.theshiphotelaberdaron.co.uk
; r from £89; )
The rooms above this family-run
pub are unremarkable but perfectly acceptable; some have sea views. The bar's commit-
ment to stocking the product of small Welsh breweries has earned it the praise of
CAMRA.
PUB
££
Getting There & Away
Buses head to/from Nefyn (route 8B; 30 minutes), Llanbedrog (18; 30 minutes) and Pwll-
heli (17; 40 minutes).
TOP OF CHAPTER
Bardsey Island
(Ynys Enlli)
POP 8
This mysterious island, 2 miles long and 2 miles off the tip of the Llŷn, is a magical place.
In fact, it's one of many candidates for the Isle of Avalon from the Arthurian legends. It's
said that the wizard Merlin still sleeps in a glass castle somewhere on the island.
In the 6th or 7th century the obscure St Cadfan founded a monastery here, giving shel-
ter to Celts fleeing the Saxon invaders, and medieval pilgrims followed in their wake. The
island's Welsh name means 'Isle of the Currents', a reference to the treacherous tidal
surges in Bardsey Sound, which doubtless convinced medieval visitors that their lives
were indeed in God's hands. A
Celtic cross
amid the abbey ruins commemorates the pilgrims
who came here to die and inspired the island's poetic epithet: the Isle of 20,000 Saints.
Their bones still periodically emerge from unmarked graves; it's said that in the 1850s
they were used as fencing, there were so many of them.
Most modern pilgrims to Bardsey are seabird-watchers; during the summer around
17,000 Manx shearwaters nest in burrows here, emerging at night. A colony of Atlantic
grey seals lives here year-round; a pile of rocks by the harbour is a popular hang-out. Oth-
