About the Area

Set in Nantlle, Caernarfon, with stunning views of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon). We are blessed to be in the grandeur Eryri Snowdonia National Park, which was granted International Dark Sky Reserve status in 2015. International Dark Sky Association considers Eryri one of the darkest places remaining in southern Britain!

In 2021, our little village of Nantlle became one of the locations to be awarded World Heritage status by Unesco. Slate from the quarries in Eryri, Gwynedd, are said to have "roofed the 19th Century world" as the product was exported around the globe! The main house of Trigonos once belonged to the Quarry master of Penyrorsedd Quarry.

Dyffryn Nantlle has a lengthy and complex archaeological history. Topography and geology have meant that quarries have been confined within very limited areas. Slate has been extracted from deep holes developed on the floor of the valley, or slopes to the north.

In the 18th cent. various famous painters came from England to paint Snowdon and the Nantlle Lakes. They include Richard Wilson RA 1714-1782, John Warwick Smith 1797 and Cornelius Varley 1781-1873, also John Turner! Richard Wilson’s work hangs in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

The Nantlle Valley is famous within Wales for being the main setting of the Fourth branch of the Mabinogi, Math fab Manawydan, the story of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, Blodeuwedd and Gwydion. The story is set mainly in the area with Gwydion finding Lleu transfigured into an eagle in an oak tree at Baladeulyn (the ground that used to exist between the two lakes before industrialisation).