Portmeirion

Portmeirion looks like a fragment of the Italian Riviera set down on the Welsh coast. Pastel-coloured houses, arcades, a campanile, a domed pantheon and a hotel cluster on a wooded headland above the sands of the Dwyryd estuary, arranged around a central piazza with all the theatrical charm of a stage set. It was conceived as a single work by the architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, who built it between 1925 and 1975 in a playful, Italianate Baroque manner, and many of its buildings are now listed by Cadw, the Welsh historic environment service.

The core of the estate was a private house called Aber Iâ, developed in the 1850s on the site of an 18th-century foundry and boatyard. Williams-Ellis bought it and renamed it Portmeirion, from "port" for its place on the coast and "Meirion" for the old county of Merioneth. He also worked salvaged pieces of older buildings into the village: the Town Hall, now listed Grade I, incorporates stonework and the Hercules Hall from Emral Hall in Flintshire. The artist Hans Feibusch, a friend of Williams-Ellis, painted murals inside several buildings, including the Pantheon. The critic Lewis Mumford devoted much of a chapter of his 1963 book The Highway and the City to the place, praising its humane playfulness. The faint remains of a medieval castle, recorded by Gerald of Wales in 1188, lie in the woods nearby.

The village has long attracted writers and artists: Noël Coward wrote Blithe Spirit while staying here, and George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells and Frank Lloyd Wright were among its visitors. It is best known worldwide as "the Village" in The Prisoner, the 1960s television series in which Patrick McGoohan's captive agent, Number 6, tried in vain to escape; many of the filming locations are almost unchanged. The surrounding gardens, Y Gwyllt ("the wild place"), run down to the shore and are known for an outstanding early 20th-century collection of rhododendrons and camellias that thrive in the mild, frost-free climate. They are listed Grade II* on the Welsh register of historic parks and gardens. The whole village is owned by a charitable trust and run as a hotel.

Getting there

Portmeirion lies about 3 km from Porthmadog and about 1.5 km from Minffordd railway station, on the Cambrian Line. The nearest airport is Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LPL), about 96 km away in a straight line.