Last week, my friend, Julie, and I travelled over to North West Wales for a few days break. On Friday, we spent the day at Portmeirion, thoroughly enchanted by our magical surroundings.
Bridge House [1959] the second gateway to Portmeirion
250,000 visitors come to Portmeirion every year and the admission fee [currently £10.00 adult] contributes to the upkeep of the village and gardens.
Please take a stroll with us around this fabulous wonderland.
Through the gateway into the village
The Battery [1927] Eighteenth Century Kentish Character
The Dome, and Loggia [1963] which houses a buddha
- Statue of Buddha, salvaged from the relics of a film set.
The Round House [1959]
The Gothic Pavilion [1965] A gift from Nercwys Hall, Flintshire
The Bell Tower, also called the Campanile [1928] embodies stone from the twelfth century castle of Gruffydd ap Cynan, King of North Wales.
The Bristol Collonade, designed by James Bridges c.1760, rebuilt here 1959.
Angel holding scroll, in the style of French or Netherlands fifteenth-century sculpture
The Fountain Pool in the Piazza
The Gloriette [1964] behind the fountain in the Piazza
View of the village from high up in the woodlands
View of the estuary and Bell Tower from high up in the woodlands
The Pantheon [1960]
A Wishing Well, adorned with a group of copper dolphins. A gift from the staff of Portmeirion, to Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, on his eightieth birthday.
The gardens around the village are a sight to behold.
Following lunch on the terrace of one of the restaurants, we ambled down to the estuary.
“The Prisoner” was filmed here at Portmeirion in the 1960′s. Patrick McGoohan starred as Number Six, in the seventeen episode series, which began with him resigning from his top secret government job, being gassed and falling unconscious. He wakes in a sinister village from which there is no escape. The captives are brainwashed but Number 6 is the only one who refuses to be broken: “I am not a number; I am a free man”.
The series was probably one of the most influential pieces of televison of the 1960s and even The Beatles were fans. Its cult status was confirmed with the establishment in the 1970s of the official Prisoner Appreciation Society, Six of One.
Clough Williams-Ellis wrote:
“Patrick McGoohan’s ingenious and indeed mysterious television series, “The Prisoner”, stands alone for its revealing presentation of the place. When seen in colour at the local cinema, a performance he kindly arranged, Portmeirion, itself, seemed to me, at least, to steal the show from its human cast.”
