From this vantage point there's a great view of the harbour. Ships have been sailing in and out of Barmouth for centuries and there is a record from 1587 of Le Angell de Bermo carrying rye and barley to St Davids.

Between 1770 and 1800 there were 147 ships built along the Mawddach. The catalyst for this surge in shipbuilding was the combination of a booming woollen-cloth industry and the collapse of the monopoly of the Shrewsbury Guild of Drapers.

For hundreds of years the Guild, established by Royal Charter, had acted as the middlemen or mafia of the trade. Most Welsh produce was sold at market in Oswestry and taken by heavily armed members of the Guild for finishing off in Shrewsbury and thence by packhorse train to London and onward export.

One alleged source of the name Barmouth is that merchants and sailors created it as being easy enough for the non-Welsh to use. Seems a bit far-fetched, although I would believe a similar proposition being necessary for Machynlleth! The Welsh name is Abermaw, meaning mouth of the Mawddach, and the colloquial version of Bermo is made up of the middle letters.

Looking down on the town there are many chapels and churches to be seen, chapels for the working class Welsh and churches for the gentry and English. St John's church, built in 1889, was funded by the Perrins family (of Lea & Perrins fame) who had a lavish holiday home here.

At the bottom of The Rock and across the main road is a wonderful statue in marble thought to be from the Carrera quarry in Northern Italy. It has been carved by the internationally famous local sculptor, Frank Cocksey, from one of 43 blocks found in a wreck on a reef off Talybont.

The reef, called Sarn Badrig, runs 12 miles out to sea and was formed by boulders being piled up as the glaciers slipped off Snowdonia at the end of the last ice age. Bit of a hazard to shipping, but great for the local diving club and museums.

From the harbour area the view across the estuary is best enjoyed sipping a cool drink at a waterside café on a hot summer's day with the arches of the railway bridge reflected in the still water. Better still with a steam train coming across. The bridge brought the railway to Barmouth in 1867 and along came the tourists.

At this point it's best to board a small boat at the quay and sail off into the sunset with romantic memories untarnished by seaside tack.

My thanks to Andrew Weir of Plas Tan y Bwlch for showing me this route as part of a walking course covering the ancient roads and trackways of Snowdonia.
Huw Jenkins

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