‘Ten years on, the Wales Coast Path is still the jewel in Wales’ crown’

By ITV Cymru Wales journalist Gareth Axenderrie

This week marks a whole ten years since Wales became the first country in the world to open a path that runs along its entire coastline.

A decade on, the 870-mile Wales Coast Path remains the only of its kind anywhere on earth.

In 2015, I had the privilege of walking every mile. I thought I knew Wales well beforehand, but skirting where our coast meets the sea gave me a new found appreciation of all our country has to offer.

‘It connects the previously disconnected’

Growing up in the valleys, my Wales meant something specific to me. How I viewed Cymru was as different to somebody in Cardiff as it was to somebody in Conwy. Likewise, Wales means something different on the Llŷn Peninsula compared to the banks of the Cleddau estuary.

What the coast path does is connect Wales’ periphery in the oldest form of travel known to man, walking.

On May 5, 2012, long standing and well-trodden routes such as the Pembrokeshire Coast Path joined newly created paths, all way-marked by a shell with a dragon’s tail.

Some of Wales’ most remote areas, such as the Llŷn Peninsula, were now connected to some of the country’s busiest and most popular.

On the Llŷn, ancient routes such as the Pilgrim’s Way, used for pilgrimages along to peninsula’s northern coast to Bardsey Island since the seventh century, now welcome new travellers making their way around its tip to the rugged and remote southern section.

While the impact of tourism must be monitored and work sustainably with local communities, independent businesses such as Becws Islyn Bakery in Aberdaron have reported major increases in customer footfall since the coast path opened.

‘If diversity is your thing, the coast path has it all’

In winding its way along the coast, the path encounters all that Wales’ shores have to offer. While that includes more than 150 beaches, picturesque fishing inlets and some of the most spectacularly rugged cliff tops anywhere on earth, it also offers up its fair share of industrial intrigue and ugly opportunities for understanding.

On Ynys Môn, you can walk around Wylfa nuclear power station. Yes, the noise of waves crashing and birdsong are replaced by whirring of concrete, but here you get up close and personal to the past and future of the UK’s energy generation. And the politics that come with it.

Likewise, in the south, it takes the best part of an entire morning to skirt the Port Talbot steelworks. It may not be everybody’s ideal day out, but it’s as important to communities in Aberavon and Taibach as the fishing industry is and was to harbours dotted along Cardigan Bay.

In just two days on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, I learnt about the great sacrifices coastal command made on Sunderland flying boats out of Pembroke Dock in the Second World War, before spending a day with just seals and their pups for company.

If natural diversity is your thing, the coast path has it all.

‘A path for everyone’

While I and several dozen others have walked its entirety, the vast majority of people who explore the path do so in shorter bursts, whether that’s a morning dog walk, a full day or weekend.

By its very definition, an outing on the coast path can be as short or long as you want to make it.

Seasoned walkers revel in not having to constantly find alternative routes like in many other areas of the UK, although a high tide can often mean a long detour upstream at times.

For those with little time or inclination for preparation, a dedicated website offers a plethora of information, from distance tables to free maps.

One of the mission statements for the path prior to its creation was making it as accessible as possible.

Since its creation, great strides have been made to ensure there are plenty of stretches suitable for wheelchair users, buggies and visitors with limited mobility on all eight of the sections.

Accessibility also starts before you’ve left the car or bus, and from free car parks to dedicated public transport and shuttle busses, an epic adventure is made easier for many.

Need proof? Amanda Harris is currently navigating the path on a recumbent trike, following a spinal cord injury seven years ago. It was Amanda’s dream to walk the path before her injury, and that dream lives on despite it.

Characters aplenty

As with everything, it’s often the people that make a place what it is. The Welsh coast has more than its fair share of characters.

The three months I spent in walking boots and under canvas were all the more enjoyable thanks to the people I met along the way.

Rarely did I walk into a pub, campsite or café and not be asked: “What you up to then?”

I spent one evening in a pub in Llanbedr. Dressed in walking clothes and looking very dishevelled, it didn’t take the regulars long to figure out I was walking to raise money for Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff.

Within an hour, a whip around had raised a fair chunk of money. Despite a sore head the morning after, I left with a spring in my step.

Of course, I met others who were also walking for a cause. In Pembrokeshire, I met Ursula Martin, walking every footpath in Wales following an ovarian cancer diagnosis.

Others who’ve completed the whole path include Arry Cain who run the entire thing upon its opening, and Hannah Engelkamp who walked it with a unique companion, a donkey named Chico.

It was perhaps in a hostel in Caernarfon where I bumped into two of the most memorable characters, though.

Two chaps from the United States, who had met a year previous on the Appalachian Trail. Heading in different directions that day, they swore to do a long-distance hike somewhere else in the world in the future. They chose Wales.

Wales is small in stature, internationally, but we pack a mighty punch. When it comes to our coast path, we are already world leading.