Tag: North Wales

Why the North Wales town of Wrexham is basking in Hollywood glamour

Another autumn feature: the unlikely tale of Wrexham as a hub for the Hollywood A-list.

Wrexham may seem an unlikely contender for frissons of Tinseltown glamour with its industrial heritage, pockmarked landscape and border-town status as the gateway to Northeast Wales.

But Wrexham is taking the spotlight.

It currently features on the eight-place longlist to be the next UK City of Culture.

The winning city, succeeding Coventry for its year in the cultural spotlight in 2025, will be announced next May.

Last weekend, meanwhile, Hollywood royalty waltzed into town in red football scarves.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (pictured above), the new owners of Wrexham Association Football Club (AFC), arrived at the town’s Racecourse football ground.

It was their first home game since buying the club in February this year

Read more with my feature via Telegraph Travel, How Wrexham is reinventing itself as the Hollywood of Europe.

Wales has a new Unesco World Heritage Site. Let’s use it wisely then.

Wales has a new Unesco World Heritage Site.

The industrial heritage of North Wales has just been named as the UK’s 33rd Unesco World Heritage Site.

The award reflects the international significance of Welsh slate in “roofing the 19th century world”.

It’s the fourth site in Wales alongside the castles of Edward I, the Blaenavon industrial landscape and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct near Llangollen.

The pockmarked, post-industrial landscape had been ‘slated’ for Unesco status since it was first nominated by the UK Government in 2018.

The bid focused on six disparate slate-mining areas, divided by mountain ranges.

These include the Penrhyn slate quarry at Bethesda, the Dinorwig quarry near Llanberis and Blaenau Ffestiniog’s slate mines [quarryman turned guide Brian Jones at Llechwedd pictured above].

Some of the attractions fall within the boundary of the Snowdonia National Park, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year.

Roland Evans of Gwynedd Council, which led the bid partnership, is keen to use the win to entice visitors away from the national-park honeypots:

“The bid champions the social and economic regeneration of our slate valleys, restoring pride to those communities, and documenting their social history through community tourism.”

Read the rest of my feature via Telegraph Travel, Move over Taj Mahal, these Welsh slate quarries are just as fascinating.

A pilgrimage in the footsteps of the ancient saints for St Davids Day

Today is St David’s Day, so Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

I made a pre-lockdown pilgrimage to Bardsey Island [pictured] in North Wales to follow in the footsteps of the ancient saints.

Here’s an extract from my latest travel-writing feature, published today.

When Pope Callixtus II decreed three pilgrimages to Bardsey to be equivalent to one to Rome, it sparked a pilgrim scramble to the remote Llyn Peninsula that lasted until The Reformation.

The medieval writer Gerald of Wales first noted the large number of pilgrims blazing a sandal-clad trail to Bardsey in 1188, many of them believing to die on the island idyll would guarantee them a place in heaven.

That’s why Bardsey is still known as the isle of 20,000 saints.

“Bardsey comes at you with all the senses: the sound of nature, the view west across the sea with the mountains behind, and the sense of ancient spirituality,” says Peter Hewlett, who arranges walking trips around the Llyn.

“It feels defiantly lost in time.”

Read the full feature via Telegraph Travel here.

The North Wales town expecting an unexpected I’m A Celebrity tourism boom

Never mind Jordan North’s happy place.

The only place to be right now is a small market in North Wales with a Grade I-listed castle.

The reason? Gwrych Castle on the edge of Abergele is hosting the ITV series I’m A Celebrity following a Covid-enforced relocation from the Australian jungle.

I was there just before the show launched to take the pulse on the streets of the small town anticipating a big tourist boom.

Here’s a sample of my feature:

Walking down Abergele’s high street [pictured above], I can sense the excitement building.

The former mayor started a competition for local businesses to dress their shop windows with a celebrity motif and the townspeople have really embraced it.

The barber shop, A Cut Above, has a grinning Ant and Dec with scissors above the catchy slogan:

“Who’s next for the chop?”

Across the road at The Veg Shop, the cheeky-chappie Geordies are sporting dinner jackets and holding aloft leeks, declaring:

“I’m a vegetable, get me out of here.”

The Ready Grass showroom (‘superior quality artificial grass at wholesale prices’), meanwhile, has installed a throne in its car park with two giant, inflatable figures of Ant and Dec, taking a bow in the bracing sea breeze.

Read the full story via Telegraph Travel.