A Weekend on Great Orme - October 20-22, 2006
Nikki found this place on the Net in June 2004 and forwarded the link to me in an email entitled "I'd like to take you here." It took us two years and four months to actually get there. For quite a while we forgot about it, and then months later we were enjoying a drink with friends and talking about the possibility of going away somewhere for a long weekend together. I remembered the lighthouse and when I forwarded the link to everyone, they were hooked.
One of the things causing us to stress out over house moving dates was the fact of this long-standing booking. When I eventually got around to trying to book our weekend, in July 2005, they were already full for the rest of the year and I had to wait until December to book for 2006. With teeth-grinding timing we'd managed to complete and move house the weekend before, and during the week leading up to our weekend break I had to work away for three days, so when the Friday (a day off!) finally arrived we were more than ready to get away.
Fri October 20
We set off for Llandudno early. Even though we knew we wouldn't be able to occupy the rooms, we wanted to have first dibs. Our friends were travelling from Nottingham and Chesterfield, so we already had a head start, but as the lighthouse only has three rooms choice was limited and we wanted to make the most of it.
We hadn't realised that the road around the Orme, being very narrow, was one-way and moreover, a toll road. As I was groping in my pocket for the toll, Nikki offered: "Perhaps there's no charge for people staying at the lighthouse?" "Nah," I replied sceptically, "why would that make a difference?" The words died in my throat as the toll booth man leaned in through the car window. "Did you say you were staying at the lighthouse?" He returned to the booth to consult his notebook. "What name is it?" I gave him my name. "Yep, you're alright. Carry on," he waved. We stopped at the next lay-by to text our mates and let them know the score.
A few hundred yards further around the coast of the Great Orme, the lighthouse came into view. Not immediately recognisable as a lighthouse, it doesn't have a massive column because it is already sited at the top of the cliff, facing out to sea. It has the appearance of a squat grey castle and at first sight there is no sign of the lamp room.
On arrival at the lighthouse we were greeted by the owner, Fiona, who gave us a brief tour of the building and its small grounds before ushering us into the impressive hallway. The building is designed as two dwellings (the lighthouse keepers worked a two shift system and lived there with their families) with a pitched glass roof joining them together creating a light and airy entrance hall. At the far end of the hall is the suite of rooms that includes the original lamp room (the lamp itself has long since been relocated to the visitor centre at the top of the Orme). For privacy the keepers' houses were shielded from each other internally with curved walls of pitch pine which over time has developed a wonderful golden lustre - quite the most impressive interior I have seen and totally unique.
She showed us the Lamp Room first. Each of the three rooms has both en-suite facilities and a sitting room in addition to the bedroom. In the case of the Lamp Room, the sitting room is where the lamp was installed and has 270° views over the sea from which Puffin Island, Anglesey and, on a clear day, Ireland are visible. The popularity of the Lamp Room is what made it so hard for us to book the whole lighthouse for the three couples. Despite booking in the first week of December the year before, it was October 20th before we found all three rooms free for a whole long weekend. Whilst it was clearly an impressive room, we soon realised that the Lamp Room would be the most obvious place for us all to gather for a glass of wine and a late-night chat and, were we to favour an early night we'd be stuck "entertaining" everyone in our sitting room.
We moved on to the Principal Keeper's Suite - the second most popular of the three rooms because of its impressive four-poster bed. Fiona seemed bemused when we reserved judgement until we had seen the Telegraph Room (which was out of bounds for an hour or so while a new stained glass partition was fitted). She was used to these two rooms being snapped up, but on top of our reservations regarding the Lamp Room, we'd also spotted that the bathroom in the Principal Keeper's Suite was the smaller of the two and it also had a sitting room - a source of potential partying! We'd also already had experience of a four-poster bed and neither of us was especially keen to repeat the experience.
When we eventually gained access to the Telegraph Room we were glad we'd waited. This unassuming room, the least popular of the three, was for us without question the best option. Situated above the Lamp Room overlooking the sea it commanded the best views of all the rooms. The four windows are each equipped with a special gimbal mount to take the telegraph operator's telescope through the window and make the room very light. Yet being fitted with the original pitch pine shutters, the windows could be completely blocked off, reducing the room to a woody blackness highly conducive to a good night's sleep as well as being an absolute joy for a lover of good joinery like me. On top of all this woody goodness, the bathroom was a fair size and the sitting room too small to accommodate six adults in comfort so unlikely to be chosen for the inevitable partying! Perfect!
We brought our bags up from the car just in time: Ian and Gill arrived as we were settling in. Fiona served more coffee and biscuits in the Lamp Room (which Ian and Gill immediately claimed as theirs) and we sat waiting for Phil and Vicky. Eventually they phoned to say they'd been severely delayed by traffic and would meet us in the designated pub in Llandudno centre, so we called a cab and set off.
Having all met up and quaffed a few beers, we repaired to our restaurant of choice - Richard's Restaurant (which is now under new management and shortly to be renamed The Seahorse). Everything we'd been told about this place or read online proved to be true - the meal was superb from beginning to end and the staff extremely friendly. Not as friendly, however, as one of the cabbies who drove us back to the hotel. It turned out he used to live around the corner from where Ian lives now, thus proving the Theory of the Small Universe.
Replete from the excellent meal we repaired to the Lamp Room and continued to work our way through several wine boxes until Nikki & I could stay awake no longer and returned to our room, closed the shutters (all bar one small crack to ensure we didn't oversleep) and retired for the night.
Sat October 21
Having retired the earliest, we were the first up and into the breakfast room. The original lighthouse keepers' accommodation has been redesigned to provide living quarters for the owners in the left-hand half, and hotel facilities in the right-hand half. Downstairs at the front of the building is the kitchen, with the dining room at the back. Upstairs is the Principal Keeper's Suite (occupying the space of two of the original rooms) at the back and an unused bedroom at the front. The dining room is beautifully furnished with a long low carved sideboard occupying one wall, and a massive dining table set for six in the centre of the room. Once our friends had surfaced we were treated to a breakfast the like of which I've not eaten since holidaying with my parents over 30 years previously. Pitchers of juice, pots of tea and cafetieres of coffee were provided in seemingly endless supply from the ample kitchen while we helped ourselves to a selection of cereals from the sideboard. This was followed up by a "full Welsh" cooked breakfast which appeared to differ from a full English only in the lack of fried bread and the addition of white pudding. The cooked breakfast was both preceded and followed (unique in my experience) by unlimited quantities of toast which was replenished as long as we kept on eating it, and upon which we could lavish spreads from an enormous silver platter in the centre of the table. The choice was without equal including as it did at least half a dozen different marmalades, three different types of honey, four regular jams and several more up-market preserves.
At the end of this enormous feast we were very glad we had decided to spend the day walking on the Orme - our first target being the visitor centre at the very top.
So off we set at around 11am, the weather fine, clear and crisp and the sun glistening on the tiny wavelets all around the coast. Virtually everyone in our party being fitter than me I soon found myself occupying my traditional position in the group and falling ever further behind as we walked the looping road to the top. About three-quarters of the way up we came to the way-station for the Great Orme tramway - a funicular railway recently refurbished with EU and Lottery funding - and decided to complete our journey in a more relaxed manner. Being a balanced cable car system, the tram has two cars in its upper section and two in the lower - when one of each pair is coming down, the other is going up, and the cars pass each other at the mid-point of their section where the track separates to avoid them colliding. This can be quite unsettling if you're not expecting it, as the two trams trundle towards each other, remaining on a collision course until the last possible moment before veering off to the side.
On the way up we passed the entrance to the oldest copper mine in Europe - over 4,000 years old - but we didn't have time or inclination to visit it on this trip. By the time we reached the visitor centre the weather was starting to close in, so after a quick look at the lighthouse lamp and the model of the Orme, we repaired to the restaurant for a hot drink. Having spotted the cable car travelling up and down the hillside as we were walking, we'd decided to make use of it to get back down to the town, but we waited too long. The wind got up and quickly became too high to keep the cable car running. By the time we arrived at the station it had been closed down, with no estimate as to when it would reopen. There was nothing for it but to return to the tram station and buy tickets for the full journey back to the town.
Arriving in Llandudno around 3pm we headed for the promenade but a sudden shower forced us to take refuge in a seafront hotel bar where we accidentally ordered a round of drinks and sat watching the passers-by dodging the rain drops. Both rain and beers being finished, we set off again for a quick walk around the Llandudno shops, stopping to pick up snacks and more drinks for the evening session. By a lucky chance we spotted a Wetherspoons in a back street and somehow found ourselves nursing more beer in a wonderful old building. Leaving through the front of the building we discovered we were right opposite the central taxi rank, and the cab at the front of the queue was an eight-seater, so we grabbed it and headed back to the lighthouse.
Our second evening in the hotel was again spent lounging in the Lamp Room drinking wine and nibbling on savoury snacks and cheese. The massive breakfast had lasted us most of the day and our appetites only returned after dark. This time, however, we were joined for part of the evening by our hosts Fiona and Ray who proved excellent company and regaled us with tales of lighthouse life. When we eventually returned to the Telegraph Room we discovered the wind had got up and the walls and windows were buffeted all night long. Some people would, I guess, have found it hard to sleep through the noise, but I love rough weather and found the sound of the wind immensely reassuring and restful.
Sun October 22
Another day, another breakfast - equally as big as the first! Fiona had left early on a personal errand but our surrogate server was the wonderful Pat, who made us feel just at home and was just as quick with the drinks and toast! Ray joined us briefly with a couple of suggestions for what we might do with the rest of our day, but we had already decided to stop off at Bodnant Gardens on the way home and agreed to make Ray's itinerary the subject of return visit next year.
All packed up after breakfast, we headed off in convoy for Bodnant. Probably not the best time of year to see it (we must go back when the laburnum arch is in bloom!) but it was impressive nevertheless. Especially the dell. You think you're never going to reach the bottom and then when you have you dread the trek back up, only to find that it's much easier coming out, although how that's achieved I really couldn't work out. The sights of Bodnant rounded the weekend off perfectly and we bade goodbye to our friends having made firm plans for 50th birthday celebrations the next month.