Plas Tan y Bwlch in Gwynedd, Wales, is the

Snowdonia National Park Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951. Name and extent It was a commonly held belief that the nam ...

environmental studies centre, administered by the

National Park Authority A national park authority is a special term used in Great Britain for legal bodies charged with maintaining a national park of which, as of October 2021, there are ten in England, three in Wales and two in Scotland. The powers and duties of all suc ...

. It is located approximately east of the coastal town of

Porthmadog Porthmadog (; ), originally Portmadoc until 1974 and locally as "Port", is a Welsh coastal town and community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd and the historic county of Caernarfonshire. It lies east of Criccieth, south-west of Blaenau Ff ...

, overlooking the valley of the

River Dwyryd The River Dwyryd ( cy, Afon Dwyryd, meaning a river of two fords) is a river in Gwynedd, Wales which flows principally westwards; draining to the sea into Tremadog Bay, south of Porthmadog. Geography The Dwyryd rises in the hills to the north o ...

and the village of

Maentwrog Maentwrog () is a village and community in the Welsh county of Merionethshire (now part of Gwynedd), lying in the Vale of Ffestiniog just below Blaenau Ffestiniog, within the Snowdonia National Park. The River Dwyryd runs alongside the vi ...

. The centre provides courses about the Snowdonia National Park and the surrounding region of Wales.

History

Plas Tan y Bwlch was built by the Oakeley family during the 19th century on the site of a first house probably built in the early 17th century. Additions designed by the Chester architect John Douglas were made to the house for W. E. Oakley in 1872. The nearby Oakeley Arms Hotel was also once part of the estate but was sold off in the early 20th century. The Oakeley family owned a huge slate quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog from which slates were carried to

by the Ffestiniog Railway which passed through the estate. Plas Tan y Bwlch is thought to be the first house in North Wales with electric lighting powered from its own hydro-electric station, which was commissioned in the 1890s. A pipeline from the nearby Llyn Mair fed water to a

Pelton wheel The Pelton wheel or Pelton Turbine is an impulse-type water turbine invented by American inventor Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead weight like the tra ...

, which was located in a small power house on the hillside immediately behind the house. It ceased to operate soon after 1928, when the public hydro-electric power station at

began supplying the area. In June 2013 a new hydro-scheme, costing £420,000, and similarly tapping the water from Llyn Mair, was opened. The water falls to the turbine, and the scheme is expected to meet most of the Plas' electricity needs.

References

External links

*http://www.plastanybwlch.com/ Plas Tan y Bwlch website *http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/sites/history/pages/plastanybwlch.shtml BBC Plas Tan-y-bwlch page {{DEFAULTSORT:Plas Tan Y Bwlch Maentwrog Environmental studies institutions in Gwynedd Environmental studies institutions in Snowdonia Further education colleges in Gwynedd Further education colleges in Snowdonia Grade II* listed buildings in Gwynedd Adult education in the United Kingdom

History

See also

References

External links