Fairy Glen Betws-y-Coed
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.