There are many ways to travel around the Great Orme. On my last trip I ended up walking it a great deal. I’ve already written about going up to see the Pen-Y-Dinas Hillfort, but later that same day I walked down from the Botanical Gardens and along Marine Drive. I wasn’t particularly planning on going all the way round or to the top – the Drive is around four miles long and it was quite late in the afternoon when I started, but I decided just to wander for a bit and see what I found.
Y Gogarth in Welsh, the English name of Great Orme supposedly comes from the Old Norse word for sea serpent. The first route around was a footpath created in 1858 but it was in 1872 that the Great Orme Head Marine Drive Co. (quite a mouthful!) was created to turn the path into a road fit for carriages. The company eventually went bankrupt so a new company finished the road in 1878.
It was a gloriously sunny day and aside from the occasional car passing by I was mostly alone, with the exception of some sheep, some climbers and some people fishing in an area I’m pretty sure they weren’t supposed to be!
Gorgeous blue skies and equally blue sea, as peaceful as you could get, I really would recommend walking along the Marine Drive. At one point I saw a trail on the other side of the road going up the Orme itself and decided to see where it lead. Actually though I couldn’t tell you what you might find at the end because increasingly the trail became steep and overgrown and I eventually had to stop as I couldn’t make out where the path was anymore and things were looking a bit hairy so I decided it was safer to turn back. Wonderful views from up there though.
I carried on for a little while along Marine Drive but then decided as it was getting late in the day I had better head back to my hotel.
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