I was able to visit Spinnies Aberogwen Nature Reserve for the first time this morning. Its quite a small nature reserve near Penrhyn Castle, and just along the coast from Bangor in North Wales.
The nature reserve itself is actually fairly small, consisting of a nice pond with a number of bird hides to allow people to watch the wildlife. While there this morning, it was absolutely still and the reflections were lovely.
I was really impressed with the gate into the path around the reserve - I've never seen one like it before. It has a large counter balance (on the right) and then you lift the top bar up, which pulls all of it up such that it pivots to let you in. Its quite clever as it automatically shuts itself afterwards.
It had been raining heavily these last few days so a number of the paths were flooded. Thats actually the path to one of the hides above - funnily enough I dont think anyone was in that one !!!
You can also get down onto the coast, to Ogwen Beach, via the paths around the nature reserve, and it was quite pretty this morning. In the pic above you can see Penrhyn Castle in the distance on the left, when looking west along the coast towards Bangor.
And above is the view looking east towards Llandudno. It was quite a pretty day, so I'm glad I got out for a walk.
Down on the sea front there were a number of stakes sticking out of the gravel - obviously quite old. I've no idea what for, probably related to some form of fishing from days gone by - But I had no clue what-so-ever !!!
One large section of the road was really flooded - but was catching lovely reflections.
This part above is actually a fence lined with Welsh Slate - only a few are left now - but it was casting such a lovely reflection, plus a swan made an appearance in the top right corner. This area was quite famous for welsh slate (a long time ago now), and Penryhn Castle was actually founded on the proceeds from slate mining. You can tell that these were probably off-cuts due to their irregular shape, and someone managed to figure out they could be used for fencing, giving another income stream for the slate mines for the off-cuts.
The pretty little bridge above could be seen from along the seafront - its called Ogwen Iron Bridge. It was not possible to get into it, but it must be part of the Penrhyn Castel estate.
The blue skies and still water were making for some nice photos !!!
And above is another view of Penrhyn Castle looking out across the farmer's sheep field !
I have to say it was a really nice place for a walk - the weather and the views were stunning, and I will definitely go back again, when I'm back in the area.
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