The Story of Beddgelert

Statue of Gelert the faithful dog

Today we went for a short bike ride into Beddgelert (pronounced Beth-gelert  'g' as in girl) . The journey was about a mile long all down hill. We followed a route from the village sign posted with "Gelerts Grave". Not knowing who Gelert was we decided to follow it. It turns out that Gelert was a large and very faithful dog of Prince Llewlyn who lived here when people lived in castles and used swords (in the 1200s). One day the Prince went hunting but Gelert wasn't to be found so he went on his own. Arriving back Gelert sprung from nowhere startling the Prince. He ran to the room where his baby son and heir slept and found lots of blood but no son. Thinking that Gelert killed his son the Prince drew his sword and slay Gelert. As Gelert howled in pain the son cried out in response. The Prince found his son next to a large wolf that Gelert had killed while protecting him. Afterwards he named his dog Beddgelert and it was said that the Prince never smiled again.

The Welsh Highland Heritage Railway runs through the campsite and we watched a couple of trains (that makes it sound like it's really busy, it's not at all) and then had a short cycle around the forest.

So far, no otters seen yet.