The journey north along Wales’s coast brings Portmeirion into view from the graveyard of St Michael’s in Ynys, where the opposite shore, the broad sweep of the River Dwyryd and the peaks of Eryri all sit in one frame. From there, Ynys Gifftan lies in the swirl below, a small island that a passerby said had not been lived on for years and had just been put up for sale for £350,000.

That is why the route matters now. The writer began in Machynlleth and followed the Cambrian Line west to Cardigan Bay before it turns north along Gwynedd’s shore, with the Wales Coast Path running close beside it in this stretch. The line is more than transport here. It is a way in to a coast where rail, footpaths and landmarks overlap, and where the Cadfan Way, launched in 2024, adds a 128-mile pilgrimage route from Tywyn to the ruins on Ynys Enlli.

Near the mouth of the Dyfi, the train passes between the Dyfi Osprey Project’s 360-observatory and the nests it watches, then reaches white-washed Aberdyfi as the line hits the coast. Farther north, Tonfanau appears as sheep-grazed ruins of a second world war army base, but it remains a request-only stop, a reminder that access on this stretch can still depend on a signal, a stop or a decision made in advance.

Harlech is where the trip tightens into history. Edward I started the castle in 1282 and it took seven years to build, and the writer hiked up to it in gloomy weather before entering by the modern floating bridge. The night was spent at Y Branwen hotel in Harlech, then the next day the route continued on foot in blazing sunshine, with the coast opening again and the old stone work giving way to the path ahead.

That is the point of the trip: not a single landmark, but a chain of them that can be joined only by changing pace. Portmeirion, Harlech Castle, Ynys Gifftan and the Cadfan Way all sit close enough to be linked, yet the journey still depends on tides of weather, rail frequency and the small uncertainties of request stops. For walkers and rail passengers alike, the coast is not just something to see. It is something that has to be reached, one leg at a time.