G is for GREAT ORME

Last week, I took you to North Yorkshire and St. Stephen's Church in Fylingdales.  This week, we are going west to northern Wales to the Great Orme!  Geographically, it's a prominent limestone headland next to the town of Llandudno and juts out into the Irish Sea. Llandudno was a must-see for me as my paternal grandmother was born there and I was not disappointed. However, it was a stretch for me to imagine her life there in the late 1800s and early 1900s as the city is so modern, albeit with its Victorian architecture everywhere, and vibrant with tourists as it is a seaside resort town. The Great Orme overlooks the city and you can even see Liverpool's solar wind turbines from there! Here is an aerial view of the Great Orme that I found through Mr. Google. Llandudno is behind the promontory.

Parts of the Great Orme are managed as nature reserves and about half is used for farmland, mostly goat and sheep grazing.  Humans began mining for copper as far back as the Bronze Age and after these mines were abandoned, the Romans reopened the workings.  In 1692, copper mining resumed and kept going until the end of the 19th century. In the 20th century, the mines were once again reopened, and the Bronze Age mine workings are now a fee-paying attraction for the public to experience. I didn't see this attraction, but rather went to the official visiting center where there was a fascinating hands-on history exhibit that transitioned into a lighthouse area and flora and fauna exhibits, for which the Great Orme is famous.

One note of interest is that a herd of about 200 Kashmir goats has roamed the headlands of the Great Orme since the Shah of Persia presented a pair to Queen Victoria just after her coronation 1837.  All the goats that roam here today are descended from these two goats by artificial contraception.  Also, the Royal Welsh Regiment of the British Army  is permitted by the British Monarch to choose an animal from the herd to be a regimental goat (if it passes selection, it is given the honorary rank of lance corporal). 

We took the official Great Orme Tramway to the summit and spent a long time looking around.  We saw the visitor center, the gardens at the back, wandered across the grassy slopes to the edge of the cliffs (thank goodness there was a fence!), took lots of great photos, and then thought we'd take a gander in the Summit Complex.  There, we got a bite to eat with the obligatory tea, grooved with a statue of a famous Welsh boxer, and took in the gleaming bar! When we walked outside into the glorious sunshine, the wind almost took us off our feet.  So we took a selfie looking very Welsh and pale and wind-blown, but I'm sharing it because we are acting goofy and not looking at ALL glamorous!

When we arrived in Llandudno earlier, we got lost looking for the Great Orme.  We ended up pulling over at the edge of the Irish Sea and beside a great cliff.  While Jane checked her map, I hopped out to take some photos.  Little did we know that the cliff WAS the Great Orme; we just needed to find where to park the car and find the entrance to the Tramway to take us up. And what an adventure it was!  See the Smilebox slideshow and turn up your music for some ambience.  Most of the photos are mine, but I think it's pretty obvious which ones aren't (like aerial views!)