Cwm Rhondda
Welsh Hymn, arr. 1907
Croeso i Gymru!
Snowdon Summit
Over 750,000 ascents of Yr Wyddfa yearly. The Watkin Path, built 1892, sees just 8% of footfall.
Portmeirion 100
Clough Williams-Ellis's 'home for fallen buildings' celebrates its centenary. 40+ film locations.
Llanddwyn Lights
Twin lighthouses guard the western approach to the Menai Strait since 1845 and 1873.
Diolch
Thank you
Hwyl fawr
Goodbye
Iechyd da
Good health
Jake's turn to drive!
Will's grid aesthetic
Mum's picnic duty
Cwm Llan
The Residency Diaries
Eryri Residency
24 - 29 August 2026
Nantmoor, Eryri
Mon 24 Aug
Arrival & Aberglaslyn Pass
Euston to Bangor by train. Pick up rental car. Drive to Nantmoor cottage. Sunset walk through Aberglaslyn Pass.
Aberglaslyn Pass is one of Snowdonia's most dramatic gorges, carved by the Glaslyn through ancient slate. The Romans marched here; later the drovers herded cattle along its path. At sunset the bracken slopes catch fire with amber light.
The pass starts right at the cottage door.
Arrival & Aberglaslyn Pass
Tue 25 Aug
Yr Wyddfa via Watkin Path
Climb Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) via the Watkin Path - wild pools near the start for a dip. Dinner at the Saracens Head, Beddgelert.
The Watkin Path is Snowdon's wildest route, built by Sir Edward Watkin in the 1890s as part of his unrealised dream of a railway tunnel to Ireland. Near the start, the glacial pools of Cwm Llan offer a bone-chilling dip. Yr Wyddfa means 'the tumulus' - the giant Rhitta Gawr is said to be buried beneath the summit cairn.
Wild pools for a dip. The Saracens Head dates from the 1500s.
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Yr Wyddfa via Watkin Path
Wed 26 Aug
RibRide or Bala
RibRide Velocity on the Menai Strait - world's fastest RIB, high adrenaline, 0% heights, 0% caves. Or: white water rafting at Bala.
The Menai Strait is a narrow tidal channel where water surges at up to 7 knots. Thomas Telford's Menai Suspension Bridge (1826) spans it with 579 feet of wrought iron - the world's first great suspension bridge. Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid) is Wales's largest natural lake, home to the gwyniad, a fish found nowhere else on Earth.
Either way, wet.
RibRide or Bala
Thu 27 Aug
Criccieth & Llanddwyn Island
Criccieth Castle and beach, followed by Llanddwyn Island (Ynys Llanddwyn) on Anglesey - a cinematic coastal walk.
Criccieth Castle was a llys (royal court) of the princes of Gwynedd, later captured by Edward I. Llanddwyn Island is the holy island of St Dwynwen, the Welsh patron saint of lovers - the Welsh Valentine. The ruined church and twin lighthouses make this one of the most cinematic coastlines in Britain. Legend says the fish in the island's well predict your love life.
St Dwynwen - the Welsh patron saint of lovers.
Fri 28 Aug
Portmeirion & The Steam Train
Portmeirion, the Italianate village. Welsh Highland Railway steam train back to Beddgelert.
Portmeirion was built between 1925 and 1975 by the eccentric architect Clough Williams-Ellis as 'a home for fallen buildings'. Its pastel piazza became the haunting Village in the cult 1960s TV series The Prisoner, where Patrick McGoohan's No. 6 was trapped in an inescapable idyll. The Welsh Highland Railway runs 25 miles through Snowdonia - Britain's longest heritage railway.
The Prisoner was filmed here. Be seeing you.
Sat 29 Aug
Beddgelert & Home
Beddgelert stroll - Gelert's Grave, Glaslyn ice cream. Return car to Bangor. Train to London Euston.
According to legend, the 13th-century prince Llywelyn the Great returned from hunting to find his baby's cradle overturned and his hound Gelert's mouth covered in blood. Assuming the worst, he killed the dog - only to discover Gelert had saved the baby from a wolf. The grave is a 19th-century tourist attraction invented by a local innkeeper, but the story has stuck. Glaslyn ice cream uses local Welsh milk.
The legend of Gelert - invented, but beloved.