Exploring
i l e h ll Pw
Steve Goodier takes the new Caernarfon and Bontnewydd bypass to Pwllheli, and discovers a bustling seaside town full of memories…
One of my very earliest memories of coming to North Wales
This conversation took place some years ago and he may have
was of being carried on the shoulders of my father along the
been right at the time, but modern day Pwllheli is bustling
seafront and past the harbour at Pwllheli. I have no idea what
and busy.
we were doing there and my dear old dad couldn’t enlighten me either, but I recall it was a sunny day and to my young eyes the
It’s true that the Llŷn Peninsula has many and varied
sea looked almost Mediterranean blue. It was on a similarly blue
attractions and the likes of Pwllheli feels a very long way for
sky day many years later I stopped for a break from driving by
visitors driving to it from England, but it has charm and is
the sea here and was sat on a bench eating some sandwiches
much loved by tourists and day trippers alike.
and crisps when I was joined by a man walking his dog. We got to talking and he told me how he had started in business
The town’s name means ‘salt water pool’ and it has a long
with a small stall on Pwllheli seafront selling sweets, rock and
history and received its borough charter in 1355 by Edward the
ice cream and had progressed to owning several of the town’s
Black Prince – a market is still held weekly on Wednesdays
shops plus a successful builder’s merchants nearby. He left
(and Sundays in summer) in the centre of the town at Y Maes
me after bemoaning the fact that he thought the town’s tourist
(literally ‘the field’ or ‘the town square’).
season had shrunk to cover only the summer period from Whitsun Bank Holiday to August Bank Holiday.
Pwllheli is the ‘unofficial’ Capital of the lovely ‘Llŷn’ and is
NWM 2022 Page 21
