Walkabout in Elan Valley, Wales

At the beginning of January, my husband and I, and one of our dogs, snuck off for a few days to The Elan Valley in mid Wales. We have wanted to visit for a while, and my god it did not disappoint…

The Elan Valley in the country of Powys is 70 square miles of dams, reservoirs and rugged landscapes in the heart of the Cambrian Mountains of Mid Wales. The reservoirs and dams were engineered to supply Birmingham with regular fresh water following a rapid population growth there in the industrial revolution. Building work on the four Elan River dams started in 1893 and completed in 1904. The River Clearwen dam was built later after the second world war, and was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

James Mansergh, the civil engineer behind the impressive project had identified the The Elan Valley as an ideal location for water reservoirs because:

• It had an average annual rainfall of 72 in

• The dams could be easily built in the narrow valleys

• The bedrock was impermeable to water

• There was no need for pumping stations because the reservoirs in Wales would be 52 metres (171 ft) above the water cisterns in Birmingham

I learnt all this from the exhibition in the visitor centre that covered a great deal of history from the area and the dam project!

It’s definitely somewhere that we will visit again to see more of the walks and trails around the reservoirs and the Cambrian Mountains, and I’d also love to see the area at a different time of the year to see how the landscape changes with the seasons. We only visited for a couple of days which only gave a small snapshot of the area, but even so I’ve come back inspired by the bold and dramatic landscapes and hope to take these ideas through to some new paintings.

Accommodation: https://www.nannerthganol.com/