Walk 52: Harlech to Porthmadog

We walked from Harlech to Porthmadog during our May 2024 stay in Harlech. Much like my previous walk from Barmouth to Harlech, I was on familiar territory here – although I’d never walked this route, so there was still a lot to discover.

While we typically like to get public transport out of the way before we start walking, as trains between Harlech and Porthmadog are frequent and reliable, we instead drove to Harlech Station (to avoid having to trudge up the hill at the end of the day!) and parked up, before beginning our walk.

As there is a big stretch of farmland between Harlech and Ynys, I was prepared for the possibility of having to divert from the official route, if we came across a field of cows that we didn’t feel comfortable crossing, and this came to fruition very soon into our walk!

We began by walking from the station along the A-road for a short distance, before turning off to talk through a housing estate and along a path that went behind it. The path was nice – surrounded by trees but quite firm underfoot. However, we fell at the first hurdle as we almost immediately came across a field full of cows.

I feel like I talk about cows a lot in my Wales Coast Path posts, but I wouldn’t actually describe myself as being scared of them. I think cows are lovely creatures. But they are also big and strong, and they sometimes get scared, which occasionally results in people getting significant injuries or even dying.

I don’t want to be a part of that statistic, which is why, whenever we come across a field with cows in, we weigh up all the factors – how many cows there are, whether they seem relaxed, how far away from the path they are, where our exit point is and whether we will need to walk through the group, where we could go if they did decide to run towards us, and how easy a diversion would be.

In this case, although the cows looked relaxed and were, on first glance, a fair distance from the path, we couldn’t work out exactly where we would be exiting and it did look as though we might have to get quite close to them. We also weighed up the possibility that this was likely one of multiple fields of cows along this section, so we didn’t want to get ‘stuck’ between fields that didn’t feel completely safe to cross.

So, after quite a bit of umming and ahhing, we decided not to risk it, and instead, to return to the A-road and walk along it a bit further, until we got to another road which would take us back onto the path. The diversion wasn’t the safest – the road didn’t have a pavement and there were cars going along it pretty fast – but we are very well versed at making sure we’re walking on the correct side of the road, keeping a good eye out for traffic, and stopping whenever cars passed – so although it was a bit of a trudge, I felt more in charge of my own destiny as I would have done going through the field!

We soon reached the road that led down to Harlech Recycling Centre, which we took to meet the official path. The path took us across a couple of fields with lovely views of the mountains. Although this walk wasn’t coastal, as we were walking up the estuary, the stunning Eryri views made up for it.

We walked through some farmland with some enormous cows – thankfully not on the path – and some gorgeous little foals. As we passed the field of ponies and the path took us up towards the estuary, we got our first glimpse of Portmeirion, which would dominate the next section of our walk.

Built by Welsh architect Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1973, Portmeirion is a stunning and truly unique Italianate-style village perched on the estuary of the River Dwyryd. I’m very fond of Portmeirion and have visited many times through the years – but although I’d seen this view on postcards, tea towels and prints, I’d never been to see the village from across the estuary, so this was really special.

The views continued as we walked alongside the estuary, before we eventually turned off along a road towards Ynys. We walked through more farmland, through fields of sheep. There was one field with a couple of cows in, but they were grazing underneath the trees, and we didn’t even notice them until we were halfway through the field – they weren’t the slightest bit bothered by us!

After we passed Ynys, we crossed the estuary on a raised path, with lovely views on either side of us. We crossed a little bridge and continued alongside the estuary for a while. At first, the path here was lovely – a nice, gravel track with more views of Portmeirion. After walking along this track for a little while, Wales Coast Path signs sent us us up into another field.

This section was very difficult to walk along – a very poorly maintained path that was tricky underfoot with very uneven terrain. Frustratingly, the lovely gravel track we’d come from continued all the way along this section, so while I’m sure there’s a reason it’s not the official path, in hindsight, we should have continued along there!

When we reached the end of this section, we crossed a railway track and another field, after which we reached Pont Briwet, the bridge that crosses the River Dwyryd. We’re very familiar with this bridge, as we cross it whenever we drive from Harlech to Porthmadog. We passed Llandecwyn Railway Station, a tiny station on the bridge itself, and continued along over Afon Dwyryd, and along to Penrhyndeudraeth.

Penryhndeudraeth is home to The Eating Gorilla, a brilliant vegan café serving delicious lunches, so we were really excited to have a proper stop-off and enjoy a hearty lunch. We stopped for around an hour, and enjoyed a lovely lunch and some smoothies, and topped up our water for the final stretch of our walk.

From there, we walked along the A-road towards Minffordd, where the path takes a detour off the road towards Portmeirion. This is an interesting section – it makes the route significantly longer than it would be if it just continued along the A-road, and you don’t at any point get a glimpse of either the estuary or Portmeirion itself. The path is nice, though, with some pleasant, wooded areas, and it does take you to the entrance of Portmeirion, which is well worth a visit!

As we had visited just a couple of weeks prior, we continued on, along a wooded path where we enjoyed some lovely views of Porthmadog. We came out of the path at the beginning of the Cob, an embankment built by William Madocks between 1808 and 1811 as part of his plan to reclaim Traeth Mawr for agriculture.

Nowadays, the Cob is home to the final 1.5km of the Ffestiniog Railway, a road, and a path for pedestrians and cyclists. I don’t think I’ve ever walked along it before, and it made for a very scenic finish to the walk, with a wooden sculpture of Madocks greeting us at the end of the stretch.

We enjoyed the view of Porthmadog Harbour before leaving the Wales Coast Path for the short walk to Porthmadog Station, where we didn’t have to wait long for a train which took us back to Harlech Station, after another lovely day of walking!

🥾 Distance: 11½ miles of the Wales Coast Path, plus half a mile to Porthmadog Station

⭐ Highlight: The fantastic views of Portmeirion.

👎 Less Good: The cow diversion!

🚗 Transport: We walked to Porthmadog Station and got the train back to Harlech.

🛏️ Accommodation: We stayed at my grandparents' holiday cottage in Harlech.

🌱 Food: We stopped for lunch at The Eating Gorilla, which is one of my favourite cafés (and the seventh-highest-rated eatery in the world on Happy Cow, so it's a bit of a gem!)

🗺️ Map: This route is featured in the official Snowdonia and Ceredigion Coast guide.

Still not convinced? Read my ten reasons to walk the Wales Coast Path. If you’re ready to start planning your walk, you can find lots of resources to help you on your way here. Please note, I collect a share of the sales from the links on this page.