Beddgelert and Aberglaslyn Pass / Bwlch Aberglaslyn revisited

Hello again people and pooches. Joe the Cocker here after a few days in a holiday cottage on the West Wales Coast. On our way home, we decided to visit one of our favourite Eryri, Snowdonia villages. Beddgelert is a small village at the confluence of the Afon Glaslyn and Afon Colwyn. It is famous for being the burial place of Gelert, the dog in the legend. Beddgelert is named after Gelert’s grave.

Llywelyn the Great would often spend his summers in the village with his hunting dogs. His favourite was Gelert, who rarely left the Prince’s side.

One day, Prince Llywelyn went on a hunting trip, leaving his baby asleep in the castle. After a while, he noticed that Gelert was not with him. So he called off the hunt to return to the castle.

As he arrived at the castle, Gelert came to greet him. He was covered in blood. A terrible thought came to him, and he ran to the nursery where he had left his son sleeping.

Inside the nursery was chaos. The cradle had been overturned, there were blankets strewn across the floor, and there was no sign of the child. Only blood covered blankets on the floor.

Llywelyn assumed that his loyal dog had turned and killed the baby. In rage, he plunged his sword into Gelert. The dog howled as he lay dying.

The noise, however, was quickly followed by another, that of a crying baby. Llywelyn ran over to the overturned crib and found the child underneath, unharmed, and completely healthy. Beside the baby was the body of a large wolf that had found its way inside the castle. Gelert, the most loyal of hounds, had killed the wolf to protect the child.

Llywelyn, overcome with remorse, held the dead Gelert carrying his body to the river where he received a hero’s funeral.

Prince Llywelyn allegedly never smiled again.

Now, this is where I need to step in. When my human told me this story, I was shocked, to say the least. I was about to phone the RSPCA when he told me that this had happened 800 years ago. I don’t suppose that they would take a cold case on from that long ago. There is clearly a case of Canicide to answer.

Anyway, our walk started by the stone bridge in the centre of the village. We kept the river to our left and a cafe and gift shop to our right as we crossed the footbridge at the confluence of the two rivers. At this point, the river becomes the Afon Glaslyn.

As we crossed the bridge, we followed the concrete footpath alongside the river. On our right at the edge of a large sheep-grazed field, we saw the Church of St. Mary’s that stands on the site of a 7th century Augustinian Priory.  The original building was severely damaged by a fire in the 13th century, but some artefacts are still within the church.

We followed the path for a short way until we reached a right fork that led us to the grave of the ‘murdered’ pooch.

As there were sheep grazing in the field my human kept me on a short lead. I wanted to investigate on my own, but he insisted on keeping me close by.

The tree in the centre of the field marks the burial spot. It’s a sad place for us pooches.

Two plaques, one in Welsh and the other in English, tell the story of my hero, Gelert.

A few yards from the burial spot is a ruined building with a path leading to it. I had to check it out. This short video will explain all!

My human thinks that he is so funny. Well, he frightened the life out of me. Yes, that’s him sniggering. Not funny, dad!

That was one scary pooch. I’m sure that Gelert was much better looking than that!

After I had recovered from my near death experience, we rejoined the main path. This took us over a small railway bridge over the Glaslyn. Steam trains run along this line on the Welsh Highland Railway.

We crossed the line at the unmanned crossing to follow the footpath through Aberglaslyn.

Initially, the path is easy to walk, even for my comedian human. The valley walls are well spaced, and the water meanders downstream. I usually have a paddle at this point before the white water forms further down the valley. On this occasion, I was told that I could have a dip on the way back.

The river soon picked up a pace as it rushed over the many rocks and boulders.

We had a quick nosey into the ruins of a former sheep dipping pen.

I also had a mooch into a tunnel under the railway where I got quite muddy, so the big feller chickened out of the chance to do a bit of exploration.

The path was quite easy for able bodied humans to negotiate as large stone slabs had been laid to prevent erosion and mud forming.

I was busy sniffing in the grass to notice that we were in the Aberglaslyn Pass. The valley walls were closing in, and the river was getting wilder.

The footpath kept disappearing, and my human had to clamber over some of the rocks.

This section was more fun for pooches. It had puddles for drinking out of, rocks to jump onto, and loads to sniff. What’s not to love?

We heard the steam train approaching on the track above us. My human fumbled to get his phone out of his pocket so that he could take photos. He was too late as he was dithering about, and his photos were failures as the train passed by. What a numpty!

I loved the next section as we circumnavigate the overhanging rockface. A path had been constructed above the river with steel grips fixed to the rocks. My human was panicking for me to be careful and to stay close to him. I was fine. It was that big lummox that needed to be careful and to hang on to the steel handles.

The handles were positioned at human height anyway. There is no consideration for us pooches! Not that I needed any assistance!

He said that I should be careful, but what did he do? He made me stand above rushing white water on a precarious ledge so that he could photograph me. Well, I refused to look at him. It serves him right!

He managed to drag himself away from the ledge to a series of rocks and boulders that needed negotiating. People have left footprints that guide you through the area, but a little bit of care and attention are needed to determine the best route. Me, on the other paw, zoomed through the rocks like a mountain goat. I had to be patient and wait for the big feller.

More rocks and boulders needed to be sprinted over as we continued.

More photos of yours truly had to be taken as we continued!

We even found a section of rock with wooden beams bolted into it so that clumsy individuals like my human don’t slip on it.

At this point the water was at its wildest as it crashed downhill over the many rocks in its path.

We found a small cave as we walked. My human didn’t venture into it, so neither did I. Once bitten, twice shy!

A short section of boardwalk provided an easy crossing of another tricky section of the footpath.

The narrowest section of the pass was over, and the valley opened up ahead of us.

The path widened and climbed from the riverside as we neared our turning point.

The last time that we did a walk in this area, we turned left before the road bridge. This took us on a scenic hike in Cwm Buchan and to the Sygun Copper Mine.

On this occasion, we left the path, passing through the gate onto the A4085 at Pont Aberglaslyn.

Our turning point provided a look up the gorge from where we had walked and were now about to return.

We retraced our steps upstream via the boardwalk, the rocks and boulders, and the beautiful scenery.

When we reached the railway bridge that we had crossed earlier, we took the footpath on the opposite side of the river. Moel Hebog was peeping through the clouds above the other side of the Afon Glaslyn.

We were soon back at our starting point in the village of Beddgelert.

My human wanted a coffee and a snack, so we called into a very dog friendly Italian cafe in the village. Glaslyn Ice Cream and Pizza has been in the village since 1970. My human said that the toasted Welsh brie and cranberry focaccia sandwich served with a side salad was to die for!

The view of Moel Hebog from the outside seating area makes it a lovely place to sit.

I was given a bowl of water and treats. So I was happy to wait for him to fill his face. Till next time!