Conwy Falls ( cy, Rhaeadr y Graig Lwyd) is a waterfall on the

River Conwy , name_etymology = , image = Boats in River Conwy.jpg , image_size = 300 , image_caption = Boats in the river estuary at Conwy , map = , map_size = , map_caption = , push ...

Bro Garmon Bro Garmon is a sparsely populated community in Conwy County Borough, in Wales. It is located on the eastern side of the Conwy Valley, stretching from north east of Llanrwst to just west of Pentrefoelas, and includes the villages of Capel Garmo ...

Conwy County Borough Conwy County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy) is a county borough in Wales. It borders Gwynedd to the west and south, and Denbighshire to the east. Other settlements in the county borough include Abergele, Betws-y-Coed, Colwyn Bay, Conwy, ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The falls and surrounding area are a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

.Sayer, Zoe; Rebecca Terry (2006).
All Terrain Pushchair Walks in Snowdonia
'. Sigma Press, p. 59. The nearby cafe, adjacent to the A5, is an interesting example of the work of the Welsh architect

Clough Williams-Ellis Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...

, of

Portmeirion Portmeirion is a tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village, and is now owned by a charitable trust. The village is located in the com ...

fame.

The falls, woodland and wildlife

The falls are located in the last gorge section of the river Conwy at a point where it plunges into a deep pool. The falls are accessible via natural paths through the preserved woodland of the SSSI.

Polecats Polecat is a common name for several mustelid species in the order Carnivora and subfamilies Ictonychinae and Mustelinae. Polecats do not form a single taxonomic rank (i.e. clade). The name is applied to several species with broad similarities t ...

and other wild animals, including 32 species of bird, inhabit the surrounding woodlands, which extend to approximately .

Salmon ladder

The River Conwy is a salmon river, and there are two salmon ladders at the falls. One is a disused Victorian wooden ladder that was destroyed by a storm soon after being built, and incorporating steps hewn into the rock. The second is a modern ladder, built in 1993 at a cost of nearly £1m, which can detect and count every fish that enters. This ladder—not visible to the public—consists of some 30 pools set in a zig-zag pattern within a piped tunnel. There is a water

gauging station A stream gauge, streamgage or stream gauging station is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water. Hydrometric measurements of water level surface elevation ("stage") and/or volu ...

at the Falls, measuring the flow into the fish pass. When low levels are detected, the flow is diverted over the falls, rather than through the pass, to ensure that

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

in the gorge is protected.

The cafe building

The first cafe at the falls was simply a wooden hut.Conwy Falls cafe - History
In 1938 the Welsh

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

was consulted with regard to the design of a new building, the original design being for a building perched on the rocks above the falls, but this was never built. The current building dates from the 1950s and, although rather different from Williams-Ellis' design (drawings of which are displayed in the cafe's main room), is nevertheless an excellent example of his style, the cafe being "provided with a

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

in the Georgian style and an open

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

on the upper level."

Hydro-electric scheme

In 2016 a planning application was submitted for the construction of a 5MW

hydro-electricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

generating plant at Conwy Falls and the Fairy Glen. An earlier application had been rejected, and the new proposal involved construction of a weir above Conwy Falls, and 1 km of tunnels and buried pipelines. It elicited strong objections from groups concerned with

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

, and the application was again rejected.

References

*''Conwy Falls fish pass tunnel'', R.Byles, from ''International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences and Geomechanics Abstracts'', Volume 32, Number 4, June 1995, pp. 189A–189A

External links

Conwy Falls Cafe
{{Waterfalls of Wales Bro Garmon Bro Machno Waterfalls of Conwy County Borough Tourist attractions in Conwy County Borough