Weekend in... Glamorgan

For more than 20 years I’ve been escaping to the Glamorgan Heritage Coast and with each return I get more like Victor Meldrew, telling myself to make the most of it for sooner or later the rest of Britain will cotton on and wreck the place. My 87-year-old-father-in-law – the Welsh poet Dannie Abse – has been dreading that even longer, as he believes he was conceived in a holiday home in Ogmore-by-Sea.

The acid test is always the moment I pull off the M4 at the Bridgend turn-off and breathe a sigh of relief as the rest of the world continues to hurtle towards the more feted Gower and Pembrokeshire coasts. Thankfully, the 14 coastal miles of dunes and sandy beaches, towering cliffs and thatched villages that make up the Glamorgan Heritage Coast continue to exist quietly, well off the tourist map: the Lonely Planet guide to Wales omits the stretch completely; and I wrote the chapter myself for them to include it in the Insight Guide. Here follows an account of my most recent visit…

Saturday am

9am Bacon, eggs and a beach
I peel back the curtain to the keening of gulls and the sun that is already a dazzle on the Bristol Channel. My base for this trip is one of the handsomely furnished Trinity House lighthouse cottages, perched high on the bluff at Nash Point. Following a breakfast of local bacon and organic eggs, I stride out with my pooch Lucky along the headland with nothing between us and a 46-metre drop down to the sea. We follow the switchback over stiles and down through cwms (valleys) until we descend a precipitous wood to a beach made of giant pebbles pounded by the waves of the world’s second highest tidal range. Behind us rise the crenellations of 14th-century St Donat’s Castle, a coronet of mellow stone. It is now where the fortunate international students of Atlantic College learn, flirt, swim in the outdoor pool and run the local lifeboat rescue.

Saturday pm

12pm The perfect pub
Our lunch pit stop is in my favourite Welsh pub, the Plough & Harrow at Monknash (01656 890209), which, apart from selling wonderful real ales, local barrel ciders and a great ploughman’s lunch, has a colourful past, being located in what was once part of a vast monastic grange (the dovecote is still out back as well as a 61-metre-long tithe barn). Extended families, friends and couples are all shoehorned into two rooms with low ceilings (when I first started coming here, they still had whole hams hanging from the beams) and a roaring fire. In one conversation I had a couple of years back, a local assured me that the Holy Grail was held in Barclays Bank near Strata Florida in Cardiganshire. ‘Joseph of Arimathea also stayed in St Fagins near Cardiff for a while,’ was his only elaboration. Certain mysteries are not to be unravelled.

2pm For all the saints
After lunch, I park in nearby Llantwit Major and skirt the town crier’s steps abutting the 16th-century town hall on Burial Lane, which in turn leads me to St Illtyd’s churchyard where an exotic palm stands amid a petrified forest of ancient Celtic crosses dating back to the days when trainee saints – including St David and St Patrick – served their apprenticeships at Britain’s first Christian college. When John Wesley preached here in 1777, he declared: ‘It has been abundantly the most beautiful as well as the most spacious parish church in Wales.’ He wasn’t a bad judge.

8pm Fill your boots
Having eaten at the atmospheric Illtud’s 216 in Llantwit Major (01446 793800) on Friday evening, on Saturday at 8pm it’s time for me to check that Frolics in Southerndown (0871 426 6174) is still the best restaurant between Cardiff and Swansea. It is. I start with pan-fried scallops with cauliflower purée and fried Milano salami, and then choose the platter of Pwllywrach lamb over the trio of Monmouthshire game for my main course. Marry the eclectic vibe of Illtud’s 216 with the food of Frolics and you’ve the perfect combination.

Sunday am

10am A view to thrill
After breakfast, I go down to Southerndown beach, where the surfers are already hovering like dragonflies, awaiting the next set of waves. The Heritage Centre is not yet open so I walk through the carefully restored walled Victorian garden and ice house, and up onto the high balcony that offers the finest coast views either side of the Bristol Channel. Endless miles of unevenly weathered cliffs drop sheer to wave-cut platforms sculpted over millions of years. No matter how many times I’ve stood here over the years, it still takes my breath away. I drive back along the estuary road to The Pelican in Her Piety in Ogmore-by-Sea (01656 880049) where a fine Sunday roast awaits.

Sunday pm

2pm Myths and ruins
Skirting the crumbling ruins of Ogmore Castle, I gingerly tiptoe on the stepping stones across the River Ogmore to the Cotswold-esque thatched village of Merthy Mawr (only Nevern in Pembrokeshire runs close as a contender for the prettiest village in Wales). Legend has it the lady of the manor had the stones laid so that her commoner lover from the village could visit her secretly at night. Twenty minutes later I lose myself to the vast warren of Europe’s second highest dune system that is also both a National Nature Reserve and the source of local tales of lost villages, phantom funerals, spirit hounds and red goblins.

There is just time for bara brith (Welsh fruitcake) and tea back at the thatched cottage Ogmore Farm Tea Rooms (01656 652932), beside the stepping stones, before once again reluctantly pointing the car eastwards.

Need to know...

Stay at… Nash Point Lighthouse
As you’d expect, this has the best coastal views. There are four former lighthouse keeper’s cottages available to let, all sleeping five people and simply but elegantly furnished. Three nights at each cottage costs from £345, while a seven-night stay starts at £592. Near Marcross, Vale of Glamorgan (01386 701177, www.ruralretreats.co.uk).

Also try… The West House Country Hotel
This has the most character (it’s 400 years old) of the other accommodation options along the coast and is handily located in the pretty town of Llantwit Major. Double B&B from £75. West Street, Llantwit Major (01446 792406, www.westhouse-hotel.co.uk).

Getting there
It’s not very green, but a car is definitely best for getting about. Alternatively, take your bike by rail to Bridgend station and cycle (Bridgend has rail links with London, Cardiff and Swansea; see nationalrail.co.uk for train times); or hop on the 145 from the bus station, which trucks backwards and forwards along the coast to Llantwit Major (for timetables, call 0871 200 2233 or see www.traveline.org.uk). For more on the area, see www.glamorganheritagecoast.com and www.visitwales.co.uk.