If you only climb one mountain
Country Life UK|January 01, 2020
The former director-general reveals her favourite walk on National Trust land
If you only climb one mountain

WHAT’S my favourite National Trust walk? You have to be joking—there are far too many. When I was director-general of the Trust, I was often asked ‘Which is your favourite property?’, to which I would reply ‘Where I am now!’ It was a truthful answer, as well as one that avoided favouritism, but I often added ‘and those with which I have a special relationship’.

That leads me to what is, in fact, right up there among my favourite walks. If there’s one place I associate most with National Trust walking, it’s Snowdonia, where I’ve spent so much time.

What first leaps into my mind are the glorious routes on Snowdon and its surrounding mountains, which I adore, but a close second is the Trust-owned meadow at Llandanwg, a tiny village on the coast, south of Harlech, where we’ve holidayed as a family since the 1960s.

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