Porth Dinllaen
is
a picturesque harbour village with golden sands, rock pools and views
to die for. It nestles on a narrow strip of seashore between the cliff
side and the clean blue seas close to Nefyn on
the Lleyn peninsula. If a picture paints a thousand words then click
on the pictures below and I don't need to say anymore about the beauty
of Porth Dinllaen.
To visit Porth Dinllaen take the B4417
road to Morfa Nefyn and follow the signs to the National Trust
car park (off Golf Road). There are steps down to the beach from where
you can cross the sands to PorthDinllaen.
Porthdinllaen has a rich history that includes ship building, fishing
and smuggling. The
headland forms a natural harbour that affords protection from the prevailing
westerly winds and Porthdinllaen became important as a harbour of refuge
and a busy port with as many as 900 vessels entering the harbour in 1840.
With the coming of the railway and the industrial age Porth Dinllaen
was on the point of becoming one of the major ports in Great Britain.
In the mid 19th Century, after it had been shown that Porth Dinllaen
was clearly on the shortest route from Dublin to London, it was proposed
to build a harbour and rail terminal that would have matched the present
development at Holyhead. It is our great good fortune that this never
materialised and to this day the village consists of a pub (the Ty Coch),
a cluster of cottages and a lifeboat house.
The Porthdinllaen lifeboat station is situated in a small cove located
to the north of the village and owes its existence to the results of
a severe storm in December 1863. Some 18 ships that had been
sheltering in Porthdinllaen bay were driven ashore and wrecked. A local
man Robert Rees of Morfa Nefyn, tied a rope around his waist and, with
the help of 4 other men, succeeded in saving a total of 28 lives from
the various vessels. A few days later a request was sent to R.N.L.I.
headquarters in London
for a lifeboat station to be established at Porthdinllaen and the request
was formally approved in March 1864.
Today Porth Dinllaen has been taken over by the National Trust and the
natural harbour is populated with
fishing boats and pleasure boats. Let us trust that the National Trust
can look after this beautiful part of the Llyn (Lleyn) peninsula and that
it will once again be protected from over development,
albeit this time by design not accident.
