Discover Portmeirion by classic car

There’s something genuinely unique about Portmeirion. Nestled into a crook of the rocky coastline of North Wales, with the bleakly impressive Snowdonia just inland and vast grey slate mines within a few minutes’ drive, you would expect Portmeirion to be a classic Welsh fishing village, clinging resolutely to its stretch of shoreline.

Instead, what you find between the villages of Penrhyndeudraeth and Porthmadog is a tiny, fantasy Italianate town, complete with pastel-coloured houses, ornate turrets, lodges, pavilions, a piazza and a tall, lean campanile (bell tower) that would seem more in place on the streets of Venice or Florence.

Yes, Portmeirion is different.

If you fancy sampling a place with an absolutely inimitable atmosphere, and experiencing some of Wales’ finest landscapes into the bargain, Portmeirion should be high on your list. With its many echoes of the past, it also makes a great destination for you and your classic car. So read on for our tips on what to see and do, check your classic car cover is up to date, and point your vehicle towards Wales’ far north-western coast.

What’s the history?

The Welsh coastal village was the brainchild of one man – architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, who created it in 1925 and continued working on it until 1973. A passionate environmentalist, Ellis wanted to create an attractive, self-sufficient working village that could form a kind of ‘propaganda for good manners’.

He set out to show that you could build onto a beautiful location without ruining it – in contrast, as he saw it, to much of the Modernism that was dominating architecture at the time, with its straight lines and hard edges. Indeed, Ellis believed that sympathetic architecture could actually complement its natural surroundings.

And when he found some suitable land – the Aber Iâ estate on the Merionethshire coastline – up for sale, Ellis felt sure he had found the perfect testing ground for his ideas. The site featured dramatic, steep cliffs that looked onto a sandy river estuary, with woods and streams: the hills behind. This was the perfect place for Ellis’ idea of a tightly grouped coastal village whose buildings lived in harmony with their surroundings.

The architect designed his vision around a central piazza with strong flavours of Italy. Around this he built a fascinating miniature world of pavilions, statues, porticoes and brightly-painted houses.

Portmeirion opened on the Easter weekend of 1926, and has been a popular tourist spot ever since. Now owned by a charitable trust, the village is a great place for a day trip – and, if you need more time, the entirety of the village has been given over to visitor accommodation, whether you stay in one of the two hotels or any of the rooms or self-catering cottages dotted around. Shops, cafés, a tea-room, and restaurant on site mean plenty of refuelling options, too.

How to get there

Portmeirion is sited just off the A487 coast road in Gwynedd, North Wales. If you’re approaching from the north, take the A55 through Colwyn Bay before joining the A487 just past the town of Bangor. From the south and east, your best bet is to head up the A470 through Snowdonia, joining the A487 soon after the village of Trawsfynydd.

An alternative and very picturesque approach from the south is to follow the A496 coast road through the towns of Barmouth and Harlech.

Another advantage of this route is a wonderful view of Portmeirion as you approach. Soon after leaving Harlech, you will come to the village of Ynys. Here, take the left-turn lane that leads north to the shore of the Dwyryd estuary. At the end of this lane, you can look across the estuary to Portmeirion, where a dramatic mix of pastel-coloured buildings stand sentinel in front of a backdrop of trees and hills.

What to do

With its pretty pastel colours, sun-seeking piazza and terrace cafes, Portmeirion invites you to do what you would do in any picture-postcard Mediterranean village: just wander around and drink it all in.

The village costs £11 to enter – your ticket includes a 20-minute guided walk, which is a great way to get a feel for the place. Portmeirion is not a huge attraction, but it’s full of interest – there is an unusual building or feature around every corner – and you will easily spend a few hours digging out its many charms.

Among Portmeirion’s architectural delights we would definitely single out the beautiful open-air piazza, which as much as anywhere else brings echoes of a sun-kissed Italian fishing village. Two pavilions face each other at either end of the piazza: between them is a limpid pool with classical fountains, plus lush hydrangea bushes. It’s a perfect mix of (classical) architecture and nature.

The campanile is also another clear evocation of Italy. It features clever use of the technique of ‘forced perspective’: by making each floor slightly smaller than the one underneath, Ellis gave the building the appearance of a much taller structure.

Much of Portmeirion consists of buildings saved from neglect and painstakingly reconstructed in the village. A good example is the Colonnade, which overlooks the Piazza. Built around 1760 as part of a bathhouse in Bristol, it was bombed during World War II and fell into dilapidation. In 1959 the colonnade was removed to Portmeirion and reconstructed by William Davis, Ellis’ master mason. Today, it makes a superbly elegant addition to the Piazza, fitting right in with the Classical feel.

Other beautiful buildings include the Pantheon, a miniature imitation, in pale pink, of the type of impressive round dome that dominates the skyline of many Italian cities. Perhaps most striking is its elaborate porch: this was originally part of the fireplace at Dawpool, a large house on the Wirral in Merseyside that had been demolished in 1927. More evidence of Ellis’ talent for salvage and reuse.

Below the Pantheon, a small loggia contains a statue of the Buddha – this, in turn, came from the set of The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, which had been filmed in the local mountains in 1958.

Nearby, Battery Square is a pretty little plaza that contains some of the town’s various guest accommodation options, as well as a spa – the Mermaid – and the Caffi'r Sgwâr, a lovely little pavement café where you can sit back, watch life go by and get another one of the infinite different views of this extraordinary place. The elegant, sunshine-yellow Bridge House, meanwhile, is a must-see for fans of Georgian architecture.

Portmeirion on screen: The Prisoner

Near Battery Square you’ll find the Round House, an elegant circular cottage with a first-floor balcony offering commanding views of the village. The Round House is best known as the fictional home of Number Six, the hero of the cult 1960s TV thriller The Prisoner.

A gripping piece of science fiction-cum-social commentary-cum-spy story, The Prisoner follows a nameless British intelligence agent who is abducted and placed under captivity in a strange coastal village. There, his captors attempt to learn why he suddenly resigned from his job – and which British state secrets might be compromised by his resignation.

The series’ co-creator, Patrick McGoohan, played the lead role, ‘Number Six’ (all occupants of the village are known only by numbers, adding to the place’s strange sense of alienation).

Number Six famously drives a Lotus Seven, very fast, in the programme’s iconic opening credits sequence, which shows his abrupt resignation and departure (one of a string of iconic Lotus appearances on screen, as we’ve noted elsewhere on our site).

Next thing he knows, though, Number Six awakes in the mysterious coastal location known as The Village to its ‘residents’. As he learns, these ‘residents' are either prisoners like him, or spies or guards keeping an eye on them.

The Village is surrounded on three sides by mountains, with the sea on the other. Anyone who tries to escape is tracked by closed-circuit TV and repatriated. The combination of these sinister circumstances and the village’s strange, eclectic beauty make for gripping viewing.

Where to eat

As you’d expect, Portmeirion caters to its day-trip visitors well. Food and drink options include (snacks, light lunches, freshly made sandwiches) or, if you’re after something a little more formal, the beautiful Art Deco restaurant within the Hotel Portmeirion. We also recommend the homemade ice creams at Caffi’r Angel.

For something a little different, why not take lunch at Castell Deudraeth, situated just outside the village itself but still within the Portmeirion estate. It’s primarily a rather fashionable hotel (see below), but you can also look in for lunch in its conservatory brasserie, overlooking an early Victorian walled garden.

Where to stay

Many of Portmeirion’s buildings are given over to housing visitors.

First of all, you have not one but two four-star luxury hotels. If you want to be within the village itself, Hotel Portmeirion makes a very fine choice. Beautifully situated on the estuary shore, the Portmeirion was opened by Clough Williams-Ellis at Easter, 1926, as a kind of centrepiece for his ideal village.

The building is fascinating – it includes a grand Mirror Room, library carvings from the Great Exhibition of 1851 and an imposing 18th Century oak staircase. Making the most of its magical setting, the hotel also has an open-air swimming pool right there on the banks of the estuary, normally open every day throughout the summer.

In its creator’s words "the largest and most imposing single building on the Portmeirion estate", Castell Deudraeth is a Victorian-style castellated mansion complete with crenellations and various grandiose Gothic flourishes. Finished inside in Welsh oak, slate and stone, it has underfloor heating throughout, for when those cold winds are whipping across Snowdonia.

There are also a collection of rooms and suites, as well as self-catering cottages, across the village. You can find more information on the ‘Stay’ section of the Portmeirion website.

Around Portmeirion

It’s charming, captivating and like nowhere else on earth. Portmeirion is also, as it happens, surrounded by beautiful countryside and intriguing places. That means that, once you’ve got the measure of the village itself, there are plenty of adventures waiting for you in its hinterland. Here are one or two top choices in the area.

Minffordd Station

About a mile from Portmeirion you will find Minffordd Station, which serves both a mainline train service (on the Pwllheli to Machynlleth line) and a narrow-gauge steam heritage line, the hugely popular and much-visited Ffestiniog Railway. Run by the oldest surviving railway company in the world, this line really is a mecca for rail enthusiasts – and, indeed, lovers of vintage transport generally.

Blaenau Ffestiniog

From Minffordd, you can take the line right through the heart of Snowdonia to the slate mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Alternatively, you can head in the opposite direction, making the short journey west to Portmeirion’s neighbour, the pretty coastal town of Porthmadog.

Slate Caverns

Further afield, you can get a brilliant picture of Snowdonia’s long slate mining history at Llechwedd Slate Caverns. Buried under the mountains, this atmospheric place invites intrepid explorers to plunge 500ft underground on Britain’s steepest cable railway.

Snowdon
And, of course, we can’t omit to mention Mount Snowdon itself, which happens to be just a 20-mile / 40-minute drive from Portmeirion. The drive is winding and vertiginous in places – definitely one to take care over. Enjoy the scenery, keep an eye on the road ahead – and make sure your classic auto insurance has you covered against any eventuality.

Once you reach the iconic peak itself – well, the choice is yours. You may want to scale the mountain yourself, all 3,560ft of it. The view from the summit, of craggy peaks and deep valleys dotted with lakes, is splendid. Make sure you’re properly prepared though, and feeling physically up to the task. Online, you’ll find many useful checklists of what to bring and how to prepare – here is one from the Snowdon Mountain Railway. Which, while we’re on the subject, is another wonderful way to see this bewitching landscape.

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Policy benefits, features and discounts offered may very between insurance schemes or cover selected and are subject to underwriting criteria. Information contained within this article is accurate at the time of publishing but may be subject to change.