Jan arrived in time to share breakfast with the rest of us. She was joining the party for the day and was kitted out to cope with almost any weather. She need not have worried… it was to be an unexpectedly glorious day, as warm as spring and just as beautiful. We piled into the cars and headed off towards our first stop, which was to be the lighthouse on the tiny island of South Stack.

The lighthouse at South Stack has been in operation since 1809. To reach it there are over four hundred steps, snaking down the cliff to the narrow, treacherous channel that separates the island from the mainland. Until 1828, the only way to cross was in a basket suspended on a hemp rope. A suspension bridge was then built to enable safe passage. The bridge has been replaced three times, with the present aluminium bridge being opened in 1997, allowing visitors to cross once more to the island. It seemed a little strange to realise that this bridge had not been conceived when I was last here.

One thing that has not changed in the intervening years was going to be put to the test. I looked at the long, winding stairway, quaking in my boots. I have an unreasoning and unreasonable horror of going down stairs. I have no fear of heights, with scramble up a rock face with the best of them, but the thought of even half a dozen downward steps has always been enough to bring me out in a cold sweat. No matter how many times I have descended staircases domestic, municipal or historical, the horror is just the same. Four hundred or so steps, descending the three hundred feet of the cliff face were going to be a bit of a trial. We would never impose such things on anyone who accompanies us on these weekends…there is always the possibility to say no. On the other hand, we believe that facing fear is the most effective way of loosening it hold on us…and we cannot teach with any authenticity that which we will not ourselves put into practice. And it works. Where once I might have been paralysed with fear, now I can accept it and, even though I may feel like a quivering lump of jelly, fear no longer freezes me like a rabbit in headlights.

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