My walk this week is from my second recent recce walk in North Wales, specifically the Lledr valley south of Blaenau Ffestiniog – there’s a name for you to have fun with if you’re not Welsh 🙂 The beautiful evening of the day before in Colwyn Bay did not follow through to this walk and the result was that I got very wet.
My walk across Colwyn Bay beach was fairly brief but gave me some sense of the place in favourable conditions. The low sun revealed classic line patterns in the sand and it seemed to me that these were reflected in the patterns of the encrusted fence that surrounded the old pier.
The sand of Colwyn Bay beach was full of linear patterns familiar to anyone living near the sea. As the sun dipped lower and lower on my walk this week, the patterns became more pronounced and however often I may have seen these kinds of sand patterns, they are not something of which I could ever grow tired.
My short walk this week across the beach at Colwyn Bay in North Wales presented some fabulous patterns. The dilapidated state of the old pier was protected by these barriers which have clearly been there long enough to gather a healthy collection of seaweed.
A recent trip to North Wales gave me the opportunity to explore a little of two potential locations for StillWalks productions. The first one wasn’t planned, but I had time after my scheduled meeting at Colwyn Bay to walk down to the expansive beach. The end of day sun was low and contrast and patterns high on the broken pier.
My walk this week has been taken in two ways – the exploration of Llansteffan Castle and the migration of the StillWalks blog and website. I hope that you have both enjoyed this walk and will continue to enjoy both the weekly walks and other developing aspects of StillWalks.
The sound clip below is a re-posting of the clip I included earlier in the week as I did not have the material to produce a soundscape for this walk. That will have to remain for a full production walk later in the year. In the meantime you can view the images in sequence and listen to the clip at the same time.
Llansteffan Castle Sound Clip
If you are viewing this in an email, you will need to click the post title to see the sound player on the post itself.
These are the rocks on top of which stands Llansteffan Castle in Carmarthenshire, South Wales, where my walk this week has taken place.
The weight of the rock is the first thing that impressed me, and the way they appeared to tumble onto the beach in front of me. It may be obvious that rocks have huge weight, but I find there are times when looking at natural objects like this, that the full extent of their nature strikes me with awe and I wonder at the unbelievable depth of time that has gone into forming the environment around me.
The colours and patterns to be found in this rocky edge to the beach are also amazing. Fortunately my companions on this walk seemed happy enough for me to lag behind from time to time in order to take my photos.
Returning, on my walk this week, from the heights of Llansteffan Castle’s battlements to the beach below led me through the woods and away from my companions on this visit to Carmarthenshire in South Wales. I was able to look down on them just as they reached the beach.
Before we left the castle itself, I stood in the entrance to the castle and although I didn’t have my field recorder with me, still managed to capture something of the aural atmosphere of this calm day.
Listen to the sound clip below and if you are viewing this in an email, you will need to click the post title to see the sound player on the post itself.
Llansteffan Castle Sound Clip
