Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Arriving home to Felinwynt, Ceredigion in 2007, after completing a course at a university in England, one of the first things I became aware of were a number of new signs in the landscape referring to public footpaths. The 2007 Welsh Assembly coalition document, Cymru’n Un, considered the possibilities of tourism as a means of growing the economy and creating jobs in Wales and proposed the development of tourism on a regional basis across the nation in order to make best use of local resources and assets. The signs indicated the transformation of the various sections of path on the Ceredigion coast into the Ceredigion Coastal Footpath complete with a guidebook published by the County Council. The path was officially opened in July 2008. In April 2011 I wrote an essay for the cultural magazine Tu Chwith detailing my desire to create a ‘deep map’ of the Ceredigion Coastal Path as a kind of tribute to the artist and scenographer Cliff McLucas, the subject of my PhD. Halfway through the second year of my doctorate I was still hoping to complete this practical project and I set out to walk the path. I walked the path in weekly stages starting from the bridge at Cardigan and finishing on the beach at Ynyslas. The Ceredigion coast path is sixty-eight miles long. In 2012 the Wales Coast Path was opened, incorporating the Ceredigion path.