Hidden Gem in Gwynedd

The Fairy Glen on the River Conwy near Betws-y-Coed in the Conwy Valley is a short but exceptionally beautiful wooded gorge where the river descends through a series of rapids, pools and small falls in a setting of ancient sessile oak woodland and moss-covered rock that creates one of the most atmospheric and most intimate natural landscapes in Snowdonia. The glen is reached by a short woodland path from the road near Fairy Glen Farm and the combination of the enclosed gorge, the clear water and the quality of the ancient woodland creates a nature experience of great delicacy and beauty. The sessile oak woodland of the Fairy Glen is one of the finest examples of Atlantic oakwood in the Conwy Valley, the ancient trees draped in ferns and mosses in the moist sheltered conditions of the gorge creating the characteristic western British oceanic woodland of exceptional botanical richness. The woodland floor supports a diverse community of woodland plants including wood sorrel, wood anemone and various ferns, and the combination of the tree canopy and the understorey creates layers of habitat for the woodland birds of the Snowdonia valleys. The name Fairy Glen reflects the Victorian Romantic response to this kind of sheltered, mossy, rushing-stream landscape, which appeared to those nineteenth-century visitors to provide the ideal habitat for the supernatural fairy beings of Celtic tradition. Many similar wooded gorges across Wales and Scotland bear the same name, but the Conwy example is among the finest and most accessible.

Nant Gwrtheyrn is a former quarrying village set in a remote and steeply sided valley on the north coast of the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales, an isolated settlement accessible only by a narrow road descending sharply from the clifftop that has been transformed since 1978 into the National Welsh Language and Heritage Centre, a residential facility for Welsh language learning whose mission is the preservation and promotion of the language at the heart of its geographical and cultural homeland. The combination of the dramatic valley setting, the restored quarry village architecture and the cultural significance of the centre makes Nant Gwrtheyrn one of the most distinctive and most purposeful heritage sites in Wales. The village was built to house workers employed in the granite quarrying that took place in the valley from the 1860s onward, the stone extracted here being used for road setts in the expanding industrial cities of Victorian England. The quarry closed in 1959 and the village was abandoned, left to decay until the Welsh Language Centre purchased and restored it in the 1970s in an act of cultural preservation that has proven remarkably successful. The restored cottages house visiting learners and the café and heritage facilities welcome day visitors who make the dramatic descent into the valley. The legendary associations of the valley connect it with Vortigern, the fifth-century British king whose ill-fated alliance with Saxon mercenaries contributed to the end of Romano-British authority in Britain. The legend locates Vortigern's final refuge in this isolated valley at the very tip of the Llŷn Peninsula, and the mountain above the village bears his name, Yr Eifl meaning the Rivals providing the dramatic backdrop of the valley. The walking from the village beach, a small pebble cove below the settlement, along the coastal path provides excellent views of the north Llŷn coastline.

Shell Island, also known as Mochras, is a tidal peninsula south of Harlech on the west Wales coast, accessible by a causeway that is covered at high tide and remarkable for its enormous collection of shells of over two hundred species deposited by Atlantic currents at this particular point of the coast. The island is privately managed as a camping site of unusual character, with the shell collecting, the coastal scenery and the views across Cardigan Bay toward the LlÅ·n Peninsula providing a distinctive beach and camping experience on the southern edge of Snowdonia National Park. The shell diversity at Shell Island is exceptional and is the result of the hydrodynamics of the bay at this specific location, where currents from across the Irish Sea and the Celtic approaches converge and deposit their accumulated shell material. Dedicated shell collectors travel to Mochras from across Britain and Europe, and the site has produced shells of species not recorded anywhere else on the British coast, a diversity of marine life reflecting the range of habitats in the surrounding sea areas. The best shell collecting is after storms when fresh material is deposited on the beach. The peninsula provides panoramic views across Cardigan Bay that encompass the entire arc of the bay from the Lleyn Peninsula to the north and Bardsey Island at its tip to the Pembrokeshire coast to the south, one of the finest marine panoramas available from the Welsh coast. The beaches on both sides of the peninsula, one facing the open bay and one facing the sheltered estuary behind, provide contrasting conditions for bathing and exploration. The Harlech Castle above the coast to the north and the Snowdonia mountains visible to the east provide the landscape context for a location that combines natural interest with extraordinary coastal scenery.