Country diary: A truly special combination of beach, hill and church | John Gilbey

Mwnt, Ceredigion: There are many isolated spots along this stretch of coastline. On a rare sunny day, I take a walk to one of them Looking south from the low cliffs of Gwbert, the steep rock stacks beyond the mouth of the Afon Teifi are blurred by an early haze. Below me, a fishing boat heads out to check on the crab pots that dot the coast, pursued by an intent gathering of gulls. To the west, as the shadows harden, the low whale-back of Cardigan Island is marked by curved bands of tightly folded rock - the ancient, resilient Ordovician geology that forms the spine of this coast. Somewhere above me, a skylark burbles its tangled thread of song in the morning sun.Heading north, the high coastal plain drops suddenly away to reveal the beach at Mwnt, backed by the steep, isolated hill which gives it its name. This is a special, favoured place - one to return to at intervals. Today the blue sky, so rarely seen in recent weeks, hangs like a dome over the pale foam of the shoreline, and the sunlight picks out the stark white rendered form of Eglwys y Grog - Holy Cross church - a tiny chapel hunched in the shelter of the hillside. The stone-bounded churchyard is home to a pair of stonechats that flit between gravestone perches with their characteristic call - which is uncannily like two pebbles being snicked together. Continue reading...