Club Outing

Denbigh Rotary Club Visit to Snowdonia and so much more!

Well, what can we say?  What an amazing day out arranged by Rotarian Mike Roberts!  A combination of natural beauty (mountains, forests, valleys, lakes, streams and rivers), information about the wildlife of the Snowdonia National Park, in particular it’s trees, a cultural and historical treasure chest at ‘Yr Ysgwrn’, a quick visit to Trawsfynydd lake and then a trip across some extremely picturesque hill terrain.

The group of eleven Rotarians and two wives met at Plas Tan-y-Bwlch at 10:00 am. on Wednesday 12th September, 2018.  We were met and greeted by Rhydian (originally from Denbigh), a tree specialist working for the Snowdonia National Park.  Rhydian gave us an introduction to the house and gardens of Plas Tan-y-Bwlch, the home of the Oakley family who had owned slate quarries in the area.  After the introduction we had some refreshments and then drove to the car park at Llyn Mair.  Rhydian identified many of the trees for us as we walked around the lake and Gareth gets the prize for being able to identify the sweet chestnut!  Llyn Mair had been a boating lake for the Oakley family and they had also created water features leading into the lake.  We saw how the silt is slowly moving the edge of the water away from the original bank.  We were shown where Mike’s company has been working to eradicate the invasive bamboo.

After walking around the lake we drove to the Lakeside Cafe in Tanygrisiau where Mike had arranged our lunch.  At this point Gareth and Walter left us and returned home.

Following lunch the rest of us drove to ‘Yr Ysgwrn’ in Trawsfynydd.  This was the home of Hedd Wyn, the winner of the bardic chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod of Wales that was held at Birkenhead that year.  The chair is known as the Black Chair because it was draped in black when it was revealed that Hedd Wyn had been killed in Belgium just a few weeks before the adjudication that awarded him the chair.

To round off our visit we had tea and cakes and then said farewell to Rhydian and the other National Park staff.  Mike had organised tea at Trawsfynydd Lake but the cafe had closed by the time we got there.  Some of the group now left to go straight home but Mike led an adventurous group of three cars along the mountain road from Bronaber to Llanuwchlyn.  This was a very enjoyable journey with a number of stops along the way (to open gates!) to view the terrain and some examples of birds of prey.  The road eventually led us past ‘Yr Hen Gapel’ where Michael D. Jones was born and then we drove on to Bala.  Michael D. Jones was a major supporter of the establishment of the Welsh settlement (Y Wladfa) in Patagonia.  By the time we arrived at Bala we were in need of services and so stopped for about half an hour at the Royal White Lion in Bala.  We then returned to Denbigh via Cerrigydrudion arriving at about 7:10pm.  An excellent social and educational outing. 

Full marks to Mike!  ……. Except that the outing was originally billed as an opportunity to see where Mike’s company had been working to eradicate Rhododendrons and nobody mentioned these all day!!  I suppose Mike’s team must have done an amazing job and there’s no point in talking about them if they’ve all gone!!

Rotarian Ifor J. Jones