Day 218 - August 6th

Today we visited Portmeirion village. Portmeirion was created by Welsh architect Clough Williams-Ellis from 1925 to 1976 to show how a naturally beautiful site could be developed without spoiling it and is now one of Wales' premier visitor attractions. The village was designed in the style of an Italian village and has served as the location for numerous films and television shows, most famously as "The Village" in the 1960s television show The Prisoner. Its was a beautiful place to visit although a little strange.

View from the hilltop Gazebo

The Gate House

The Chess Board

The black and white checked board was dug into a lawn as tribute to the TV series The Prisoner. Each year fans of the cult series visit to re-enact the game of human chess as part of the annual Festival No 6.

The Piazza with Trinity in the background and columns adorned with gilded Burmese dancing figures.

The Angel

The Town Hall.

The Bandstand and Hercules statue.

The Piazza with the Bristol Colonnade in the background

The Bristol Colonnade was originally built in c1760 by Quaker copper smelter James Bridges and was located behind his bathhouse in Bristol.  Damaged by bombs is stood in a state of decay despite being scheduled as an ancient monument. In 1959 it was relocated to Portmeirion.

The Piazza.

The Round House

The Round House is one of a pair of Baroque shops linked by an overhead walkway.  The Round House was used as Number Six's residence in The Prisoner although interior s were filmed in a studio. The Round House now houses Number Six - The Prisoner Shop selling souvenirs of the TV show.

The Chantry

Lady's Lodge

Lady's Lodge was originally a lock up garage but was converted to a shop in the early 1960s. In The Prisoner it was the village shop.

View from The Chantry

Steven and I climbed the steep steps to The Chantry where we looked down on Wayne & Lara below.

Portmerion is on the coast and there are some interesting buildings, etc on the waters edge.

We followed signed to 'The Lighthouse' and at the end of a long walk felt a little cheated when we reached it to find it was a folly lighthouse made of sheet metal and crowned with an upturned pig boiler!

The views from the rocks were amazing. 

View from White Horses

The Observatory Tower

The Quayside and Amis Reunis

The Amis Reunis, or "Friends Reunited", is the Stone Boat of Portmeirion. 

Almost as soon as Portmeirion Village opened in 1926, Clough bought and converted an old Porthmadog trading ketch which he moored alongside the quay - the Amis Reunis. The Amis was used as a houseboat until she was stranded on a shoal near the Ynys Gifftan. Her remains can still be seen off the coast of Portmeirion during low tide.

Clough having failed to bring her back to shore to repair, decided to salvage what he could, and used sections of her mainmast as pillars supporting the dining room's flat roof. Clough later decided that he would build a stone boat on the coastline  in homage to the original Amis Reunis.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best during our visit and I would love to return again on a sunny day. There were lots of buildings I didn't photograph and it would be good to seek those out lone day.

On our way back to the cottage we stopped at Criccieth for a quick walk on the beach.

It wasn't as sunny as our previous visit and there weren't as many people on the beach.