We wanted to start a walk from Morfa Bychan, rather than riding somewhere in the car to start. We looked at a map and decided we'd walk to the church at Ynyscynhaearn, up near Pentrefelin, which was originally built in the s6th century.

Starting from Morfa Bychan, we went to St Michael's Church in Treflys, then walked along the railway line to where the path takes you up to Pentrefelin, going through Ystumllyn Farm. That's where a boy aged eight, kidnapped from Africa in the 18th century by the squire of Ystumllyn, was brought.

We walked past the farm, and saw the cottage where the African boy used to live. He married, had seven children and was the gardener at Ystumllyn. When he first came, he couldn't speak any language at all and the ladies of Ystumllyn taught him two languages. Presumably, one was Welsh and one was English. He's buried in the graveyard at Ynyscynhaearn.

From there, the path took us round to the church of Ynyscynhaearn. Suzanne Millard holds the key to the church and she kindly came that day and gave us a talk on it. The Bishop of Llandaff came in the 6th century to build Ynyscynhaearn. It was the parish church for the whole of the area before Porthmadog town was built. The church was rebuilt in 1832.

Then we took the pathway along the road towards Porthmadog, turning right to bring us through the woods onto the Treflys road. We came through three farms, towards Moel-y-Gest and down by Tyddyn Adi, and back to Morfa Bychan.

It was about eight miles in all, on a perfect day - we couldn't have hoped for a better time.
Dorothy Orrell