Harlech, Wales: the final destination of Paul McCartney and George Harrison’s hitchhiking adventure
While they might have started from Merseyside, The Beatles‘ music allowed them to travel around the globe aplenty.
Beginning with Europe, the early 1960s saw them playing the Indra and Star-Club in Hamburg, and it was here, in northern Germany, that they really started to master their craft, fine-tuning their act and setting themselves up for the success that soon followed.
Following that, they went across the pond to the ground zero of Beatlemania, which was New York, where the Fab Four touched down as they took over the United States on their way to dominating the world, from making their TV debut in front of 73 million at The Ed Sullivan Theatre to their iconic show at Shea Stadium. Then there are the later years, when they discovered their spiritual side in India, such that the 1968 visit changed the direction of the band and shaped their future.
However, before it all, two teenage musicians set off from Liverpool on their own adventure, and in August 1958, a young Paul McCartney and George Harrison decided to escape the hustle and bustle of the dock city and cross the border into North Wales to visit a small seaside town called Harlech, with their guitars in tow.
This was before The Beatles, when the legions of adoring fans were just a pipe dream. The love of music was still there, with the duo seeing a sign for Harlech and remembering the song ‘Men of Harlech’, which led them on their journey. The song was first published without words as ‘Gorhoffedd Gwŷr Harlech’ in 1794, but is said to date from an earlier folk song, and there are various versions with lyrics; interestingly, there is no version accepted as the default, with various iterations carrying alternating lyrics being widely used. It’s had a second life as a regimental marching song by British Army regiments linked with Wales, and you might remember it from the movie Zulu.
After hitchhiking almost 150km from Liverpool to Harlech, they set off to explore the town. It may be small in size, but Harlech has a prominent place in Welsh folklore and flanked between mountains and the coastline, it has a unique atmosphere. Standing in the heart of the town is Harlech Castle, a medieval fortress that was finished in 1295 after King Edward I conquered Wales, and has incredible views across the town and out to sea. Harlech Beach is windswept, but its vast golden sand coast makes it one of the country’s most stunning beaches, while the narrow streets and pubs are very Welsh, with the native language still spoken by a lot of locals.
The duo ended up in a café as their base, with McCartney later saying that “they had a jukebox, so this was home”, and it was here they met John Brierley.
The young musician bonded with the Liverpudlians and they ended up pitching their tent in his garden, before the Welsh weather intervened and a massive downpour saw them soaked, after which Brierley’s mum, Irene, invited the boys into the house where they “top and tailed” on a spare bed.
McCartney and Harrison later joined Brierley’s skiffle group, The Vikings, at the town’s Queen’s Hotel bar, deepening the bond, and the following year, the duo returned, but then superstardom got in the way. Years later, Irene Brierley wrote a letter to McCartney, jokingly asking him to return a blanket that he borrowed, with the Beatle replying with a letter of his own and £30, saying, “I remember well the fun we had in Harlech and hope the enclosed cheque will settle our money differences!”
Harlech might not have the cultural cache of New York or India, but it’s an interesting footnote in the story of one of the world’s most iconic bands.
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