Great Orme - Llandudno

We stayed in Llandudno last weekend so I stuck the Brompton in the boot of the c*r and took it with us. A full loop of the Great Orme is roughly 9km. Most of that is on the toll road which is a one way road around the coast on one side and slightly inland on the other. It’s free for bicycles, so you can spend all day going round and round it if you feel like it. There is a café at the top of the biggest bit of climbing and you can also take a diversion towards the summit station if you fancy a bit more climbing.

Some fantastic views on the way up. It’s not a difficult climb, although my legs and the brompton are obviously more used to cycling than some of the tired looking folks I passed on the way up.

On the way up there are a few dramatic overhangs like this one. The area is quite popular for climbers, but they mostly stick to bouldering away from the road.

There is a Hotel near the top of the climb which was originally built as a lighthouse. The café is just a little further in this view.

Here’s the lighthouse closer up.

It’s reasonably flat around the top. You can see here how high the climb is, having started at sea level.

Nice view from this spot just before the decent starts.

Someone had tried to get his money’s worth from the £2.50 toll and managed to make a complete dick of himself. Bits of car front end, wing mirrors etc were strewn down the slope behind the wall.

This is why the decent is so great, it twists and curls nicely and you know there won’t be anyone coming in the opposite direction.

The whole route around the toll road have distance markers painted on the kerbing.

Here’s the second toll house at the end of the route on the West shore. Then head back round to do it all again :-D

The Orme is fantastic to cycle round, it’s a bit like a bicycle rollercoaster, you tick tick your way up the hill on one side enjoying the scenery, go flying down the other side with a massive grin then head back to the start to have another go. This is a great thing about Llandudno and cycling, there is a crap side though, but I’ll post some photos of that later.