Literary Things To Do In North Wales
Rolling landscapes, ancient monuments, a stunning variety of nature: it’s no wonder that Wales has inspired some of the greatest pieces of work ever written.
While we aren’t documenting every connection – Tolkien was hugely inspired by the Welsh language in creating the Elven language Sindarin – we are going to take a look at some of the places you can visit today in Wales which informed these incredible pieces of literature.
Book lovers rejoice, and writers should get out there and get inspired!
St Winefride’s Well
Inspiration for the oldest piece of literature here, Saint Winefride’s Well in Holywell, Flintshire is the one of the few locations in North Wales named in the famous medieval poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
The church is promoted as the oldest continually visited pilgrimage site in the UK, and its origin’s tragedy may have directly inspired the story of Sir Gawain.
St Winefride was a young woman who denied the advances of a local man: infuriated by her rejection, he cut her head off. A well sprung from the site, and later she was healed and brought back to life by her uncle. Sir Gawain similarly deals with a decapitated man being brought back to life, and many scholars have noted similarities between St Winefride’s neck scars and the Green Knight’s.
It’s thought that according to the times of the poem, Gawain would have arrived at the Well just in time for the feast of St Winefride.
To visit: The holy well costs just 80p per adult to enter, and the chapel is free to visit with a refundable deposit. If you’re travelling from far you may want to consider staying at the Pilgrim’s Rest/Guest House, run by the Sisters of Winefride’s Well. Ensuite accommodation is available for 31 visitors.
Ardudwy
This area in Gwynedd features prominently in much Welsh mythology, including the Third and Fourth Branches of the Mabinogi, but also served as inspiration for the His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman.
Written in 1990, The Broken Bridge takes place in Cardigan Bay and the surrounding area. Speaking about his work, Pullman claims that his time living in North Wales educated his sensibilities and feelings, as well as encouraging his interest in the visual arts. The love that his protagonist Ginny feels for the landscape is a reflection of his own.
To visit: While you’re in Ardudwy, why not visit the local Theatr Ardudwy, showcasing amazing concerts and events and with stunning views across Cardigan Bay, then take a stroll down to Dyffryn Beach – rated #1 out of 1 things to do in Ardudwy – and then stay the night in Ty’r Graig Castle.
Gwaenynog
Beatrix Potter’s uncle once owned this incredibly beautiful garden near Denbigh, where she spent her years as a young girl. She recorded visits to the garden in her coded journal, wrote about and painted the verdant, flowering gardens.
She drew the garden many times throughout her youth, which would later become the setting for her book The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies. 17 of the 26 illustrations are of the garden, its archways, walks and flowerbeds, but most notably she included the kitchen garden, which has now been restored.
The gardens can be visited on request.
To visit: stay in the Gwaenynog Farmhouse B&B, or the adjoining campsite – you can even get married here!
Llandudno
The beautiful seaside resort is perhaps one of the most contentious additions to this list, as it’s difficult to say whether it truly served as an inspiration or not.
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland may have been in part inspired by a young girl named Alice Liddell; he almost certainly wrote the story for her, even if she wasn’t an inspiration. However, some literature historians have drawn connections between the fact that Alice’s family owned a holiday home in the Victorian seaside resort, and some of the settings of Alice in Wonderland.
The town itself has decided that for tourism purposes, it is the home of Alice in Wonderland, and as well as a marble White Rabbit sculpture the town has implemented a trail of wooden sculptures carved like characters from the book. Some have suggested that parts of the book were written at St George’s Hotel, although Carroll’s fastidious notes never mentioned anything about it.
It’s possible that some elements of Alice in Wonderland were based upon what the young Alice Liddell told him about her holidays there, but right now that is only supposition.
To visit: stay at St Tudno hotel, the building which was once owned by the Liddell family, and which Lewis Carroll may have visited. And make sure to go on the Alice In Wonderland trail!
Aberystwyth
Although Malcom Pryce was born over the border in England, his most well-known series of novels take the unlikely venue of Aberystwyth for noir fiction.
Dubbed “the king of Welsh noir”, the Aberystwyth Noir chronicles take place in an alternate universe version of Aberystwyth, best known as a seaside resort and university town. He uses the juxtaposition of the sleepy Welsh town with the grittiness of American noir to create humour, and enjoys including incongruities such as a huge Druid population, and the tradition for prostitutes to wear stovepipe (Welsh) hats.
He does manage to sneak in links to existing Welsh culture, however – the main character is a huge fan of cawl, models pose for fudge boxes and knitting patterns, and the protagonist’s father runs donkey rides on the beach.
To visit: feel like you’re in a noir novel by taking a ride on the longest funicular electric cliff railway in Britain, then head down to the Aberystwyth seafront and promenade, where you can try out a donkey ride for yourself!
If all of this has you feeling inspired to write, why not check out the Ty Newydd Writing Centre? The National Writing Centre of Wales runs courses and workshops for new and established writers looking to perfect their art.