Mon 16 - Friday 19 March 2026
We had a wonderful time. The event was organised by Eluned Smith. In the end 14 of us were resident.
John, Maxine, Tracy, Philippa, Judith(me), Raymond, Sue, Eluned, the Shropshire group (Mary, Eric, Susan-Mary, Simon, Mark, Eluned and two local people came Julie and Susan.
Fort Belan was built in the late 1775 as a fort to defend the Menai Straits -at the time the American Civil War
Situated at the tip of the Dinlle Peninsula, the windblown, north-westernmost point of the Welsh mainland, the fort is cut off twice a day by the incoming tide. (Judtih adds:You drive to the coastal village and iron age fort and shingle ridge and dunes at Dinas Dinlle, then follow a bumpy road (the old airstrip of the airport) for two miles. The fort itself and grounds are private. )
The fort was built in 1775 for a reported cost of £30,000[2][3] (equivalent to £4.5 million in 2023),[4] by Thomas Wynn, then MP for Caernarfonshire and later to become Lord Newborough. He was worried about the vulnerability of Britain's coastline to attack, particularly because of the recently begun American War of Independence. Fort Belan was the only purpose-built fort of the American Revolution on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean.[5] It guards a narrow passage of 35 m (115 ft) width.[6]
Whilst we had to drive through some rain and cloud to get there on the Monday, Days Tuesday to Friday had sun and warm weather.
There are two sets of buildings: One block is the Fort with outside walls, inner walls and courtyard and moat and mini orchard. the second block is "The dock" which is U shaped covering a similar area but the courtyard part has a lawn and the dock- an inlet with two or three boats docked.
The place is now used as about seven holiday cottages. Each cottage has a piano (in tune) in its lounge. The owner especially likes to organise groups of people to meet up and play music... but she is encouraging other interest groups to come and stay and was pleased to welcome us coming to look at lichens.
She had two music friends visiting her, staying in another of the cottages I presume - and the three of them enjoyed playing tomusic together.
I was lucky to stay in Dock Cottage - and this is the view from the kitchen, looking south east. At low tide the shingle in the inlet is exposed and I watched oyster catchers, a white egret and a wader on different mornings. At high tide this lagoon fills up,
The walls are made out of a great variety of stone - limestones, conglomerate, volcanic type rocks, sandstones, bricks - making it a fun, but challenging to predict which lichen would grow where ..
We looked at lichens:
On the variety of rocks in the walls, and at mortar and soil in the cracks of the walls
Including walls rising from the sea (Caloplaca marina)
On the grass in the cannon firing area (Peltigera canina)
On the cement and tarmac causeway that gets covered for an hour at high tide (John found Lichina sp) On the tarmac - Xanthoparmelia conspersa
On the pebbles and rocks near high tide level, (Ramalina siliquosa and several mystery species)
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| Hydropunctaria (Verrucaria) maura |
On the young trees in the new orchard: Physcia aipolea, and on the walls: Bilimbia sabulatorum
Glaucomaria (formerly Lecanora) rupicola
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| Lecanora rupicola |
On the flags and path in the courtyard .. well, one day I am going to write a mini-talk/post on that
On wooden fence posts that gave with John and Maxine and Tracy and other people's help - an excellent resource for teaching me how to recognise species on lignum (old worked wood) including Amandinea punctata, Lecanora confusa, Xanthoria polycaulon and both Flavoparmelias,
We had three full days there. On the second day, Eluned had planned a trip inland to a wood part owned and managed by a relation of hers, who showed us round, and to the "Powder Store" Nature reserve Beddgellert. through old woodland up to higher rocks of various igneous origins. A small group of us attended this - whilst many in the party were so happy at the fort they just stayed there.
They could look at a lichen, take it back to the microscope room we had set up, and then go out and find it again if needed.
Or just go for pleasant walks looking at the sea or shingle. At night we went out with our UV torches to check out lichens by UV. and we saw the twinkling lights of Caernarfon and Bangor in the distance.
I prepared a powerpoint talk for the LCIG group when we came back of my first 24 hours - mostly species on the walls, which I recorded. On day I would like to write about "Lichens on Lignum - the fence posts" -(as an exercise to teach myself) ready for next week's LCIG talk. .. but .. it is still on my wish list.
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