1c Fair
Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw
Llanbedrog, Pwllheli, Gwynedd,
LL53 7TT
Tel: 01758 740763
Email: enquiry@oriel.org.uk
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Wales' Oldest Art Gallery:
Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw Gallery recently celebrated its centenary-and-a-half making it not only one of Wales' most picturesque art venues but also its oldest. Nestling in the village of Llanbedrog on the Llŷn Peninsula, in an area of outstanding natural beauty, the Gothic styled Mansion was built in 1857 as a Dower house for Lady Elizabeth Jones Parry of the Madryn Estate. Indeed Lady Love Jones Parry's ghost is occasionally seen walking the upper landings.
Attracting over 70,000 annual visitors it was awarded the Gwynedd Business Award for Tourism in 2007. Monthly exhibitions by premier artists from Wales and beyond are a key feature of this venue and many a great artist have exhibited their work at the gallery over the years. Today, you can also enjoy adult and kids art workshops, musical concerts, lectures, craft fairs and many other activities at Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw.
Wedding Bliss
For the love-birds amongst you, the venue is also licensed for civil wedding ceremonies. In recent years it has become a very popular matrimonial venue due to its romantic setting. The gallery is licensed to serve alcohol and quality caterers are in situ, running the very popular Tea Room. Ian and Lorna Roberts who own and run Caffi'r Oriel can cater for all your catering needs.
What finer location in which to get married? On clear days the backdrop of Cardigan Bay and the mountains of Snowdonia are unrivalled for your special day's photographs. During the autumn months the woodland on the adjacent headland is ablaze with reds, golds and browns and the spring produces a fine display of daffodils. Inside, the grand Jacobean staircase provides a dramatic backcloth for photographs as does the fireplace in the main hall, in which log fires burn on cooler days.
Come and Stay
You can even stay at Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw. The back annexe of the gallery houses a self-catering let that sleeps up to 12 people and it has full disabled access throughout.
This Grade II* Listed Victorian Mansion overlooks the magnificent mountains of Snowdonia and Cardigan Bay and the National Trust owned Llanbedrog beach is only a 2-minute walk away. It is difficult to imagine a more splendid location for a holiday.
Further History
This dower house of Plas Glyn-y-Weddw was built in 1856/57 for Lady Elizabeth Love Jones Parry of the Madryn Estate. The structure is a superb Victorian Gothic mansion designed by Henry Kennedy and listed Grade II* by CADW. Plas Glyn-y-Weddw has long been associated with art as it was purpose built to house the widow's own art collection. With its magnificent Jacobean staircase, hammer beam roof and 10 airy gallery spaces, it rightly bears the name Gallery in the Vale of the Widow (trans. of Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw).
After the death of Lady Elizabeth in 1883, her son Sir Duncombe Love Jones Parry, a lively Baronet and MP for Caernarfon, who assisted in the founding of the Welsh colony in Patagonia, let the mansion to the Angerstein family. They were notable bankers and art collectors of Russian provenance; indeed the elder Mr. Angerstein was said to be a child of the Czarina Anna. Today the only clue to the Angersteins' involvement with Glyn-y-Weddw is the gravestones of their pet dogs buried in the Plas' garden.
In 1896 the mansion was sold to the Andrews family of Cardiff. They were entrepreneurs who developed the West End of Pwllheli, established a horse drawn tramway between the Gallery and Pwllheli and opened the mansion to the public. The mansion offered art, music, dancing and other entertainment for visitors and local people.
The mansion survived two world wars and was acquired by a Welsh artist Gwyneth ap Tomos and her husband Dafydd in 1979. They lovingly restored the gallery in the 80s and early 90s and founded a body of Friends of the Gallery who now number over 1200.
In 1996 the Gallery was acquired by a trust formed by the Friends, with Lottery, ERDF and other funding and in the following years major restoration of the Gallery took place.
Today the Gallery is a thriving Arts Centre, with its own picture and print collection and an important display of Swansea and Nantgarw porcelain on loan from the Andrews family, descendants of Solomon Andrews who first opened the Gallery to the public. It also houses two celebrated sepulchral monuments of local Welsh saints from the 6th Century and an exhibition of the mansion's history.
Make this a must visit destination in 2008 - with free entry to the gallery and an award winning tea room and craft shop to enjoy there is something for everyone at this most relaxing of locations - a warm Welsh welcome awaits you all (families in particular) at Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw.
