……Porthmadog

Part of our series about all the fabulous places there are to visit here in North Wales, this week’s “A Day Out In…..” blog post features a fab, family day in the nearby town of Porthmadog.

Porthmadog is only a few miles away from the Oakeley Arms, and features heavily in it’s history. The Oakeley family, after whose estate the hotel is names were owners of some of the largest slate mines in the world, up in the hills of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Before the advent of road travel, thousands of tonnes of slate each year were transported by rail (now the Ffestiniog Railway) to the harbour at Porthmadog, ready to be loaded onto huge sailing boats and exported all over the world.

Porthmadog came into existence in the early 1800’s, when William Alexander Madocks, a businessman and MP from Lincolnshire decided to build the great embankment (Y Cob) across the mouth of the Glaslyn estuary. The embankment saved thousands of acres of land from the ravages of the sea, and on that land, Madocks built the town that now bears his name.

Of course, the town grew rapidly around the slate mining industry of nearby Ffestiniog. As well as wharves and warehouses, several ship-builders yards sprung up alongside the quay to satisfy the demand for cargo vessels and Porthmadog soon became as famous for its magnificent ships as it was for its slate. Majestic schooners, brigs and barquentines were carved, screwed, bolted and chiselled into life and set sail from Porthmadog with their precious cargo.

Between 1825 and 1913 over 260 ships were built at Porthmadog and the neighbouring village of Borth-y-Gest and the harbour was thriving. However, when rail and road transport began to take over in the early 20th century and the demand for Welsh slate had diminished, the ship-building industry declined rapidly and Porthmadog’s great ships all but vanished.

Today, not much remains of the town’s busy ship yards. Working vessels have been replaced by cruisers and the harbour is lined not with cargo ships but with small leisure yachts. But the spirit of this ambitious, pioneering and once great harbour lives on its people, whose histories are knotted among the sheets and sails of great ships that helped to build an industrial world.

The harbour is still one of the main attractions of the town today – enjoy an ice cream on the quayside and watch the leisure yachts coming and going at high tide. The Ffestiniog Railway and Welsh Highland Railway is also not to be missed. This fantastic and historic narrow-gauge railway is one of the most famous in Britain, and the journey through the Snowdonia scenery is just spectacular.

Porthmadog has a fantastic high street, filled with a variety of local and independent gift shops, book shops and cafes as well as larger retail outlets.

Porthmadog is a short drive from the Oakeley Arms Hotel, or is easily reached by public transport. Or for a journey with a difference, what about taking the Ffestiniog Railway train from the nearby Tab-y-Bwlch station?

If you need any more information, ask our staff for details or see local website www.porthmadog.co.uk

View from the Cob at Porthmadog

Porthmadog’s hsitoric harbour