A simple, but elegant square.
It’s a tiny town, Dolgellau. Smart, grey, stone buildings jostle for position around the town square; cafés delis, bakeries, an outdoor store, and a jewellers are among the selection of businesses to tempt both the tourist and the local wallet. There’s the obligatory Spar, which it would appear is the town’s only ’super market’, however other shops offering fresh, local produce complement this and you can eat, and drink with some style on goods all bought within about 100 square yards.
There are two fish and chip shops, tea shops, a staggering number of pubs, and I sampled nearly all of them over the course of the bank holiday! The corner café boasts a frontage which is bathed in sunshine from about 9.30am until at least four o’clock in the afternoon; a mix of mountain bikers, walkers, and local characters make it an entertaining way to while away an hour or two, especially if you’re prepared to throw yourself into the lively banter.
Dolgellau coffee shop, it was a real sun trap.
The pubs cater for all types of visitor, some offer lovely lunches, others a game of pool or darts, and as the sun dips, and the afternoon becomes night, karaoke, and music become available to those who fancy it. I was overwhelmed by the friendliness of the locals and a quick couple of pints at 9pm continued well past midnight, and into the early hours of the morning. It was only the closure of the kebab shop at 2am that instigated a walk, tent-wards. After one evening in the town, my friend and I were being pipped and waved at by people we’d spoken to the night before, as we mooched for a recovery coffee in the sun trap café, the next morning!
