North Wales 2023: Llandudno and the Great Orme

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Llandudno Pier

Llandudno’s Great Orme is a limestone headland rising approximately 680 feet above the town. It’s a very popular place to visit and the top is usually teeming with visitors, but most drive or take the Victorian tramcars or the cable car. We walked, about a 5 mile round trip.

The route begins to climb just beyond the pier shown above which we were soon looking down on.

Llandudno Pier
Llandudno Pier

We passed through Happy Valley Gardens and continued to climb beyond the Snowsports Centre with cable cars passing overhead the whole time.

Happy Valley Gardens
Happy Valley Gardens
Snowcentre carpark

From here we emerged onto open grassland. We followed the signs right to St Tudno’s Church.

Great Orme signpost
Great Orme path

Because it was Sunday the church was open. There had just been a service and volunteers stayed on to greet visitors and provide tea and coffee. They were most welcoming.

St Tudno founded the church in the 6th century with the oldest parts of the current building dating to the 12th century. It was enlarged in the 15th century and has been lovingly restored and repaired ever since, most recently in 2023 when extensive stonework repairs were performed. The outdoor pulpit was erected in 1914 and is used during open air services which have been held since at least 1857.

Exterior with outdoor pulpit
Interior
Interior

The churchyard was also worth visiting. Shown below are what I thought were the three most interesting stones. The chain and anchor is carved from a single block of stone and commemorates a mariner, Stephen Dunphy. The boat is also the grave of a Master Mariner, Thomas Evans, who died in 1897 and the mountaineer represents William Smith founder of the Llandudno Advertiser, who died in 1895 aged 52 – though not as a result of a climbing accident.

Chain and anchor: Stephen Dunphy
Boat: Thomas Evans
Mountaineer: William Smith

After this pleasant interlude we continued to climb past the church towards the cable car station and summit complex where we stopped for some lunch.

Above St Tudno’s Church
Cable car

After lunch we made a circuit of the top of the Orme before making our descent, this time encountering the other form of transport, the Great Orme Tramway.

Roman Well
Curious sheep
Conwy Bay
Gogarth
Great Orme Tramway

Soon we were back at Happy Valley Gardens, where this time we looked at its stone circle (from 1962!), then the pier and the town itself.

Happy Valley Gardens
Llandudno Pier
North Shore Beach

The weather was cooling down and it had drizzled a bit at the top – the heatwave we had enjoyed the week before was definitely on its way out. However, it had been another lovely excursion and we were looking forward to visiting Conwy the next day.

Linked to Jo’s Monday Walk

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60 Comments »

  1. Pingback: Jo’s Monday walk : Niebla | Still Restlessjo

  4. Hi Anabel – what a great day out … lots of interest that perhaps one wouldn’t see elsewhere and a church where sustenance could be obtained … gorgeous photos – thank you. Cheers Hilary

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  5. I don’t think I’ve been to Llandudno, Anabel, although the Great Orme sounds familiar. We used to go to Wales (both south and north) all the time in the summer holidays when I was small but then my parents switched to Devon. We did go to Angelsey at least a couple of times (from Yorkshire) and always went via Chester so I think we may have driven through as LLandudno is on the main road. At any rate we didn’t climb the Great Orme – the views look stunning and the little church looks beautifully preserved 🙂

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  6. The day we were at Llandudno it was blowing a gale and freezing cold – remember that photo of us at the end of the pier. The Great Orme and the tram were closed because the weather was so bad, so we missed seeing all this. Thanks for taking me along, on a much nicer day.

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  7. I hiked round the coast road and the views were stunning. I’ve not climbed the hills since our family holidays when I was a child. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well preserved Llandudno is compared to other fading coastal towns. Very pretty. 🙂

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  10. That’s a cracking area. Because it’s a hill my car companions were keen to go up it and explore the town. Even got them sightseeing the next day as well as the weather was grim up high :o) Heaven sent rain in my case as it’s only during bad weather my suggestions get a chance. Bob. BSS.

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  11. I stayed in Llandudno when walking this part of the coast and it is a lovely town. I didn’t go to the top of the Great Orme though but walked around on the (toll) coast road around it so it is nice to see the view from the top. I did go up the Little Orme though, at the other end of the bay. But it’s smaller, as the name suggests!

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  16. I didn’t know there was a church there! Fascinating reading about the church and the stones. I think you should be called The Walking Detective! Looking forward to Conwy now!

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  20. What a charming place! I never got to Llandudno, although I could have made a trip to Colwyn Bay (if our manager there hadn’t been such a curmudgeon I would!). It’s a bit far for me to go now, but you never know…

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  21. I thoroughly enjoyed that, Anabel. The one and only time I’ve been to Llandudno it started quite sunny and we had time to explore the prom and town but the second we headed for the Orme the skies closed in. We went up on the tram but could see almost nothing but drizzle xx

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  22. I haven’t been to Llandudno and was surprised at the rural feel of the scenes on the Great Orme. The old church is lovely! But I think I would have opted to take the cable car up (I love cable car rides!) and walk around and then down 🙂

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  24. Another place I know quite well, you got some good photos in spite of it being a grey day. I’ve been up there a few times, went up in the cable car once (on quite a breezy day) with two dogs then came back down on the tram. I remember going with my parents to an open air concert in Happy Valley gardens when I was about six, the stone circle wasn’t there then and everyone just sat around on the grass.

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