PORTMEIRION VILLAGE AND GARDENS
Hotel and Imagination in North Wales
“Who is number one?” The question was asked again and again
by Patrick McGoohan’s character “Number Six” in one
of the most unique and obtuse television series of the 1960’s, “The
Prisoner”. McGoohan played a secret agent who upon trying to retire,
is kidnapped and wakes up in a mysterious place on an unknown island
called merely “The Village”, of curious colorful little cottages
and tamed, subdued residents only known by numbers, where one could never
leave. An escape attempt by swimming from the island’s long sandy
shore would release an orange bubble to chase and capture, awaking once
again in the Village. The British television series only lasted a season,
but left an indelible impression, much of it the unique “village” surroundings.
Where the show was a fantasy, the village was a real place. Portmeirion
in North Wales.
Portmeiron
was first a hotel, opened in 1926 by a visionary architect and early
conservationist,
Clough Williams-Ellis. The Portmeirion Hotel
was set on a tidal estuary where thick wooded slopes met sandy beach
at the edge of the Snowdonia region of North Wales, south of Caernarfon.
Williams-Ellis believed a town site could be developed without spoiling
its natural surroundings. The creation of Portmeiron Village and Gardens,
begun in the 1920’s wasn’t completed until 1976 when Clough
Williams-Ellis was 90 years old. 
A
collection of quaint and cute buildings of their own architectural style,
half-historic half-fanciful Roman and
Moroccan suggestive mythological inspiration, with names like Hercules
Hall and the Unicorn, nestled in the garden greenery surrounding a central
square
of columns and a reflecting pool. The Portmeirion Village was a fascination
for the imaginative and literary long before its television appearance
in 1966. George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and Bertrand Russell were regular
guests. Noel Coward wrote Blythe Spirit at Portmeirion during a two week
stay in 1941.
The
Portmeiron Village and Gardens is still primarily a hotel. Most of
the buildings
around
the village are self-catering cottages, for short
and longer stays, with two hotels on the property - the original Portmeirion
Hotel on the beach and the Castle Deudraeth, a 19th Century manor house
on its own grounds above the village proper. Hotel accommodations on
a bed & breakfast basis and the self-catering cottages at Portmeirion
can be arranged through the website, 
including
late availability. Hotel guests at Portmeirion can play golf on the nearby
Porthmadog Golf Club.
Accommodations can get scarce and well-booked in the summer months. Though,
one doesn’t have to stay at Portmeirion to explore it’s curious
setting. There are a number of shops in the village, one dedicated to
the “The Prisoner” series, another to Portmeirion Pottery,
(a product designed by Williams-Ellis daughter Susan and 
manufactured
in the English pottery center of Stoke-on-Trent). The buildings of the
village also house a self-service cafe and ice cream parlor. There are
restaurants in the hotels. Stop for lunch at the Castell Deudraeth restaurant
and get free entry into the village. The Portmeirion Village and Gardens
are open to non-resident visitors every day all year from 9:30 to 5:30
pm. Portmeirion Village is about two and half hours by car from Manchester
or Birmingham and three and a half from Cardiff.
There are many warning signs at Portmeiron about not venturing out into the tidal estuary during the a tidal shifts when the wide sandy beaches can beckon a relaxing stroll, but quickly flood with water when the tide comes in, but you’ll find few signs around the village explaining its meaning as its designer Williams-Ellis felt it should speak for itself. You’ll also find no warnings about the orange bubbles that come after you if you try to leave. © Bargain Travel Europe
Review of Portmeirion Hotel
Compare best hotel deals in North Wales on TripAdvisor
Web Info
Portmeirion
Village
These articles are copyrighted and the sole property of Bargain Travel Europe and WLPV, LLC. and may not be copied or reprinted without permission.
SEE ALSO:
PLAS TAN YR ALLT COUNTRY HOUSE B&B
FFESTINIOG
AND WELSH HIGHLAND RAILWAYS
PENTRE-MAWR
SNOWDONIA BED & BREAKFAST
PRISONER LOTUS 7 - MOVIE CAR MUSEUM
CASTLE HOTEL CONWY- CASTLE VIEW ROMANCE
ST DEINIOL'S RESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
