Merthyr Mawr, Ogmore, Dunraven - 22nd July 2015

I don't think it was entirely accidental that we revisited a revisit ... we did love Ogmore the first time round back in June 2013. And we had said then that we would love to take our little - now not so little! - ones to Ogmore. So as we decided on a beach day when the boys came to stay in the summer for their little holiday with us, Ogmore was chosen. Previously they have loved going to the dunes at Ynyslas next to Borth so we thought they would also approve of the Merthyr Mawr/Ogmore dunes! It was a lovely sunny day as we set off southwards and other than the wind, it remained a lovely day.

 We parked at the end of the track from Merthyr Mawr and off we set in search of the sea!

 Up and down the dunes we went and indeed we had the dunes entirely to ourselves. Shoes were soon carried in preference to sand in shoes! The whole area here is a nature reserve, having been "saved" from being plundered in time gone by when it was massively used for sand and gravel extraction. The wild flowers are beautiful...here wild pansies, of which there were many..

 ...and there was lots of vipers bugloss, centaury, wild orchids, dewberry, and lots of grasses and fungi. Lots of regeneration programmes are planned for many of the dune areas around Wales to enhance the beauty of these lovely areas. Today it was really lovely to be walking these dunes with our boys!

 It was also easy to see why these dunes were used to film some of Lawrence of Arabia! And filming also takes place here for some of the Doctor Who programmes.

 My main concern was not to lose the boys - there they were ... somewhere...

 We did eventually find the sea......the North Devon coast clear to see. We had a little play in the sands but it was quite windy so decided to go back to the car and drive around to Ogmore itself....so different to having to walk up and down the estuary 2 years ago!

It was quite a trek back to the car but once there, I had to have a quick look around the ruins of Candleston castle which is just next to the car park there. It is in fact more of a fortified manor house - the ruins are of 14th century origin but it is believed the land was built on in Norman times...it was still used until the late 19th century as a farmhouse before it was evacuated perhaps because of encroaching sand. The castle at nearby Kenfig had been completely engulfed by sand by the late 15th century.

 So we drove around passing Ogmore by Sea as we had then decided to go to see "Camelot" - a possible site of it at any rate, at Dunraven. We parked at the private beach which before we have only walked past - and by now, Ben was determined to get into the sea! We walked down to the sea after we had sampled ice lollies and/or coffee at the little cafe there! And I have to admit did look quite tempting, except the wind was a bit chilly! It was very pretty in the sun.....

 So Ben did indeed take a dip - quite a long one. Whilst Alex and I jumped over rocks with the cliffs of the marvellous Glamorgan heritage coast looked over us!

A busy day was coming toward its end - and we were all a bit hungry now. We stopped off at Ogmore castle - and its stepping stones across the river Ogmore.....my old enemies!

 There is still quite a bit of the walls left - the castle having been built around 1100 by the Londres family apparently. We still didn't have time to actually visit the castle - another reason for a revisit!

 I had to at least stand on the stepping stones but this time with no need to go across!

It had been another wonderful day beside the sea at one of our favourite places which we had discovered because of the coastal path challenge! And now with even more memories, shared with our boys!