The sea salt and seaweed hot tubs at Halen Mon on the Ynys Mon side of the Menai Strait offered the perfect opportunity to reflect on my journey and soak up magnificent views of Gwynedd’s tall peaks, including a glimpse through the clouds of Mynydd Mawr, Glyder Fawr and Yr Wyddfa (also known as Snowdon, Wales’s highest mountain). Further down the strait, I could see the stone ramparts of Caernarfon Castle — another of Master James’s creations — situated at the mouth of the Seiont river. It was there, according to another medieval tale, that the Roman emperor Magnus Maximus (Macsen Wledig in Welsh) fell in love with the beautiful Welsh princess Elen, who became his wife. Their offspring are said to have started the Welsh royal lineage that included the later princes of Gwynedd.
Ina dream, Macsen sees a magical land with the mountains as high as the sky and great rivers running down to the sea — “the fairest and most level regions that man ever yet beheld.” Modern-day Gwynedd might look a little different from how it was described back in medieval times, but from what I could see from the comfort of a warm seaweed bath, it has lost none of its magical charm.
Matthew Yeomans is the author of “Seascape: Notes From a Changing Coastline.”
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