Gogledd Cymru -- Northern Wales

Northern Wales = rolling hills; mountains; valleys; rugged coast; beautiful beaches; gorgeous forests and lakes; places with strange names and spellings; a beautiful language; castles; great men's choirs; and delightful people.  Our first stop was Portmeirion. 

Portmeirion is a fabricated tourist village in Gwynedd that was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 supposedly in the style of an Italian village (or, in my mind, more like a Disneyland village)

Portmeirion first became famous as "The Village", the setting for the 1967 TV series "The Prisoner" and has been the film setting of several movies since then.   

This is also where Portmeirion Pottery was founded. In 1960 Susan William-Ellis (daughter of Sir Sir Clough Williams-Ellis) and her husband, Euan Cooper-Willis took over a small pottery decorating company. Susan Williams-Ellis had been working with A.E. Gray for some years, creating designs to sell at the gift shop in Portmeirion Village.

Then in 1961 the couple purchased a second pottery company, Kirkhams Ltd, that had the capacity to manufacture pottery, and not only decorate it. These two businesses were combined and Portmeirion Potteries was born. While father chased his village designing dreams, daughter created her pottery designing empire.

I think Portmeirion looks a bit like a Disney village but it does have is a lovely setting, complimented by the beautiful gardens and the sea. For that, and discounted Portmeirion pottery, it is worth a visit.

What I liked best were the gardens and the woods.  

This is Dyffryn yr Ithfaen or The Granite Valley.  During the nineteenth century granite was in great demand and several quarries were established in this valley. A Liverpool company bought the quarries in 1861 and built a small village and port for workers who travelled from afar during the working week.In 1900, around 2,000 quarrymen had found employment along a five mile stretch of coastline, on the north Llŷn Peninsula. 

In 1911, Nant Gwrtheyrn merged with other local quarries to form part of the Welsh Granite Company. In the 1920s tarmac suddenly became the preferred road surface and granite and slate from the  Nant's granite quarries were no longer in demand.  This led to the closure of the quarries in the 1940s when the mines and properties were abandoned.  Some of the old village has recently been restored and turned into a Welsh Language center.  It's a fascinating place.

These abandoned homes in the Nant date back to 1776 when three families farmed the valley.  It amazes me to think that these old farm houses are as old as the country we call the United States of America.

This is Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales -- 3560 feet above sea level and the highest point in the British Isles outside Scotland. It is surrounded by Snowdonia National Park. You can reach the summit by any number or trails or by a small cog railroad. We just admired it from afar.

Conwy is a walled market town on the north coast of Wales. The walls are still intact and you can walk on the wall path most of the way around the town.

Conwy castle is an amazing fortress that is remarkably intact, especially considering it was built by Edward I during his conquest of Wales, between 1283 and 1289.  The  views from the turrets allow you to really see the walled town and to imagine how people lived in the village surrounded by those stout and protective walls. 

The combination of castle and town wall make Conwy one of the United Kingdom's finest surviving medieval town. 

Conwy is well worth a visit!

Conwy also boasts the smallest house in Great Britain. It measures 10 feet by 6 feet  and a height of 10 feet 2 inches (2 floors). It was used as a residence from the 16th century until 1900. 

Not far from the town of Conwy is Bodnant Garden, a National Trust property and an absolute delight.  Bodnant Hall is the residence of Lord Aberconway (built in 1792) and is not open to the public. The gardens cover 80 acres and have magnificent views of the Snowdonia mountain range and are well worth a visit.

The garden was at the height of it's summer glory.  I look forward to returning in the Spring sometime.

On the way home we stopped at two amazing engineering feats.  The first was the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, a navigable aqueduct that carries boats across the Llangollen Canal  over the valley of the river Dee.  Completed in 1805, it is the longest and highest aqueduct in Great Britain. 

 The aqueduct is 1000 ft long, towers 126 ft above the River Dee, and is supported by 19 stone piers.

In June 2009 it became a World Heritage site, putting it on an equal footing with the Great Barrier Reef and Statue of Liberty.  Have you ever heard of it? I hadn't.

They call it "the stream in the sky"  It is a remarkable feat of engineering!

The second stop was the famous Iron Bridge, a100-ft cast iron bridge that was built across the river in 1779. The area around Ironbridge is described as the "Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution" due to the fact that it was here where Abraham Darby perfected the technique of smelting Iron with coke, creating a much cheaper way to produce iron. And that changed everything.