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Drawing on discussions of pilgrimage as a landscape-based practice, this paper explores understandings and experiences of the recently developed North Wales Pilgrim's Way (Taith Pererin Gogledd Cymru). A focus on this new trail considers how a walking pilgrimage combines physical activity, personal and spiritual encounters, and natural and spiritual landscapes Accounts of pilgrim experiences and photographs demonstrate how journeys on the North Wales Pilgrim's Way enable participants to forge connections with the natural environment and local heritage, as well as the emotional-spiritual aspects of their lives. The paper finds that meaning is generated by participants in performing the path, highlighting the distinct role of walking pilgrimages in human-landscape interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst fishing men have commonly been investigated through the lens of 'hegemonic masculinity', recent studies have highlighted a potential change and nuancing of such fishing masculinities. Inspired by the call to pay attention to masculinities as fluid, contextual and interpersonal, this paper pays attention to scalar, placed and temporal specificities to consider how 'socially-dominant masculinities' can develop (and persist) in specific contexts. A case study of the North Wales Llŷn peninsula fishery is drawn upon in examining how local practices (re)define what it means to be a man in this area. The paper highlights the continued importance of the physicality of fishing in shaping locally socially-dominant masculinities – noting how fisher's bodies are not only central to masculine performances but also embody their fishing history and their relative positioning in their locality. It considers the relational nature of fishing masculinities –noting how masculinity is written both spatially in relation to practices 'on land' and 'at sea' and also temporally through reference to both past practices and predecessors. Finally, the paper considers changes to fishing masculinities, especially associated with family life and changing economic contexts, noting how such new practices may be incorporated into longer-standing aspects of fishing masculinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new framework for calculating vulnerability indices within archaeological resource management on a landscape-scale. Current approaches consider archaeological sites in isolation from their context within the historic landscape. The new framework advocated in this article assesses the vulnerability of landscape character areas, as defined through historic landscape characterization. This framework uses a two-step vulnerability index: the first assesses the vulnerability of archaeological sites and landscape features; the second uses the results of the first vulnerability index, as well as spatial data on the landscape character areas and the threat in question to calculate the vulnerability of each landscape character area. The framework is applied to a brief case study in coastal North Wales, UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to address how universities contribute through a helix model of partnership to regional development in a peripheral but functionally connected area which finds itself outside major conurbations. In doing so, it shows how local universities may collaborate with each other and with other institutional actors, including the private sector, to gather data on how their graduates contribute to the regional economy. A case study of the North Wales Mersey Dee area (the 'NWMD'), a cross-border region within the UK, provides the evidence base. There are gaps in international studies into how universities contribute to the development of their cities and regions, because these studies typically assume that the university is part of an urban concentration with the impact of their development and engagement radiating out into the hinterland. This study explores a scenario with a more dispersed picture, requiring even more effort from key stakeholders, along with the universities, to effect positive change through a policy agenda of 'place-based' strategies. Recommendations are made for longitudinal studies in similarly peripheral and under-performing regions to gauge how universities can work within local partnerships, leveraging government-backed investment to drive improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper premises that late twentieth century changes to culture impacted upon the demand for and supply of the constituent tourism resources of British seaside resorts in such a way as to facilitate their decline as mass market, long holiday destinations. It begins by reviewing the current state of knowledge pertaining to seaside resort development, noting the tendency to present this as an evolutionary process and the corresponding emphasis placed on competition and resource depletion as reasons for decline, factors that are synonymous with the consolidation, stagnation and post-stagnation phases of the tourist area life cycle. Accordingly, it contends that academics have been slow to engage with the root causes underpinning the diminished popularity of traditional tourist destinations, notably the recent and revolutionary transformations associated with economic restructuring and, especially, cultural change. Using the case study of Rhyl, a traditional cold-water resort on the North Wales coast, the paper demonstrates the influence of the latter by associating significant and unfavourable modifications to (and attitudes towards) the resort's built environment since the 1960s with characteristics salient to the emergent cultural formation of post-modernism, and its predecessor modernism, as explained in a review of relevant literature. The social theory used to inform this analysis, and the empirical evidence of Rhyl's decline presented in the paper, together represent an attempt to move beyond simplistic notions of a resort life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines bilingual children's use of language inside and out of the minority language classroom. A total of 145 children between 8 and 11 years of age, attending 16 bilingual Welsh-English primary schools in North Wales, responded to questionnaires (supplemented by classroom observations) requesting information about their language backgrounds, their use of language at school (inside and out of the classroom) and in the wider community, their self-ratings about their linguistic competence in Welsh and in English and their attitudes towards Welsh and English and towards bilingualism per se. Whilst the results, in general, demonstrated a positive attitude towards bilingualism, there was a clear trend towards favouring the use of English outside the classroom. This pattern was mediated by language experiences and perceived language abilities within the individual. The implications of the findings for language policy and planning in education and in minority situations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to establish the effectiveness of an industrial data set in the delivery of an active approach to teaching and learning across a range of programme levels from NVQ to MSc within Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) Institutions in North Wales. The result described in the paper reinforces in FE and HE the advantages of active learning involving an industrial data set as a link between theory and practice. Implementing the data set as a learning resource, combined with field visits allowed an active approach to teaching and learning. For the FE groups this was an established approach, while not so for the HE institutions. The use of an industrial data set by adopting an active approach was found to be effective, as judged by student satisfaction, enriched the educational experience for both FE and HE groups. The overall response for all questions by all groups for the Strongly Agree/Agree categories (SA/A) was between 86% and 95%. The Disagree (D) responses ranged from 0% to 3% and the Undecided/Blank/Not Applicable (UD/B/NA) ranged between 5% and 14%. Students found the lectures of interest and enjoyed active learning. The analysis has heightened the benefits of relating education to its respective industry and adopting an active approach for all programme levels within FE and HE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how motorcars and car-based cultural practices operate in the construction of young working-class masculine identities. It draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted during the summer of 2002 with young male car modifiers from the Midlands and North Wales who associated with the British cruising scene. Although this study is broadly framed by the youth cultural world of cruising, it does not approach car modification as a collective cultural phenomenon or draw on subcultural theory, but instead examines young men's relationships with their cars in terms of general theories of consumption and identity and theories of cultural production. The car modifiers participating in this study frequently resisted calls to collectivity and repeatedly endorsed a heavily individualised discourse of consumption. As consumers of the motorcar, they constituted themselves as absolutely individual on the basis of their ownership of modified cars that they constituted as culturally unique. Car modification operated as a set of identity practices organised around the active consumption and symbolic manipulation of standard motorcars and the cultural production of idiosyncratic signifiers of masculine identity. Through car modification, young working-class men discursively distanced themselves from the mass of standard car-owning subjects and constituted themselves as 'unique' car-owning individuals who were culturally privileged. This claim to privilege was predicated on their capacity to produce highly conspicuous motorcars, which they viewed as a source of considerable cultural capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses qualitative research into young people's views of independent children's advocacy services in Wales. We conducted focus groups and semi-structured individual interviews with over 80 children who had used advocacy or whose circumstances suggested them as potential users of advocacy. Our topics of enquiry were structured by research themes drawn from requirements and principles contained in recently introduced National Standards in Advocacy. Through these methods and themes we explored children's perceptions of advocacy in order to delineate characteristics of an effective service and to identify where they think services may need to improve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE STUDY of High-medieval castles has benefited from the incorporation of elements of landscape archaeology in the last few years. While this paper is far from a complete study of the late 13th-century castle of Caernarfon and its relationship with its surrounding landscape, it aims to stimulate interest in this avenue of archaeological research. By focusing on the subtle relationships between the castle, the adjoining walled town and their ecclesiastical foci, and considering them in relation to the other Edwardian castles in Wales, the benefits of these approaches will be evident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In mid-nineteenth century north Wales, and indeed in Wales generally, community care of persons with learning disabilities aided by the Poor Law survived longer than in England, where institutionalisation in the workhouse or asylum became the norm. This prehistory of community care has been largely unexplored, largely because of the difficulties of obtaining data. After discussing the methodology, and discussing the Lunacy and Poor Law documents used as sources, this paper seeks to advance understanding by using longitudinal histories of individuals with learning disability to explore their varied experiences in the community. It examines the attitudes of officialdom, and the role of family and community, and concludes by suggesting key factors in determining individual life stories included the presence of family, the ability to work, the degree of difficulty or dangerousness they presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports findings from the carer component of the Gwynedd Dementia Study. It is based on carer interviews, using quantitative and qualitative data. It confirms earlier findings that carers for people with dementia are typically female and older than other carers, although it notes that caring husbands are amongst the oldest carers. The problems that are most common are those that cause psychological stress to carers. Carers were found to receive both help and appreciation from their families and to perceive neighbours to be helpful if needed. In Gwynedd, as elsewhere, levels of formal service inputs are low, but most of the carers appeared to receive the services they needed. Problems are primarily associated with crisis support and long-term care is accepted reluctantly. It is suggested that community care dementia specialists could play a supporting role for carers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct action campaigns against new roads in the UK received much attention, but campaign groups were locally organised and little is known about how they worked. Protests by three local environmental direct action groups in the years 1992-2001 are examined. Their repertoire was confrontational, targeted mainly at business and the state. Most protests were small-scale and most were unreported in either local or national media. In the larger groups, in Manchester and Oxford, most actions were carried out locally and direct action groups worked mainly alone. In the smaller Bangor group, campaigners sometimes needed alliances with less radical groups to campaign effectively, and travelled more to events outside their locality. Environmental direct action groups remain largely autonomous from strategic alliances. Their protests are challenges to the norms underlying political and capitalist institutions rather than calculated attempts to influence government. Evidence that their actions were affecting public debate sustained and revitalised action more than did changes in political opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A time series was conducted in the Menai Strait from March to December 1996 combining optical measurements by a colour sensor with measurements of light-absorbing constituents in the water. In order to improve estimations of pigment concentration in Case-2 waters, an optical model was used to synthesize the spectrum of sea-leaving radiance from the absorption properties of pure sea water, yellow substances, mineral suspended solids and phytoplankton. The original model was tested and improved by using a different set of parameters. Multiple regression was used to empirically relate colour ratios to pigments and total suspended solids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the impact of express highway improvement on the status of tourism and industrial development in Gwynedd, North Wales. The reasons for Gwynedd's importance in respect of tourism are not too difficult to determine. It has natural advantages in terms or scenery, extensive undeveloped coastline and an equable climate, and manmade attractions such as castles, the "Great little Trains," and slate quarries, etc. Of the main roads into Gwynedd, the A55 trunk road carries more than forty per cent of the total county tourist and recreational traffic during the sunnier months, with the flow peaking during the summer months (forty-eight per cent of total ASS traffic occurs during June-September). A number of studies and a lengthy public inquiry have examined proposals for relieving the congestion, including an inland route and a coastal route basically along the line of the existing A55. The outcome was a decision to proceed with a coastal route, which included a tunnel under the River Conwy.