Tyddyn Sydney Bach     

Where the mountains and the countryside meet the sea...

... and the islands float by...

...swans flock to the sea...

...and mountains paddle at night...

...lions hide to avoid going home...

...and the sun refuses to sleep!!

View from Treborth Quay under Britannia Bridge

Tyddyn Sydney Bach is located in the secluded grounds of a large cottage in the village of Treborth, between the internationally famous Britannia and Menai Bridges crossing to Anglesey, close to junction 9 of the A55. Treborth is as old as the Faenol Estate, which dates from Tudor times. Treborth means a homestead and a ferry and was probably associated with one of the many ferries operating across the Straits. In the nineteenth century it became the site of the one of the greatest works of engineering of the railway age, the Britannia Bridge, and home to the hundreds of workers and their families.

Anglesey from Treborth Quay

Bangor Pier

Treborth is on the outskirts of the University City of Bangor with her restored Victorian pier, Port Penrhyn and beautiful Cathedral where Deiniol founded his monastic community in 525 AD.

Bangor has attracted visitors for centuries and it became the destination for day trippers from Liverpool from late Victorian times. To accommodate the many visitors arriving by sea on the daily pleasure steamers, one of the United Kingdom's longest surviving piers was built, which at its peak saw upwards of a quarter of a million visitors a year.

Bangor University

Hirael bay from Port Penrhyn

The pier is located on the western side of Hirael Bay and to the east is Port Penrhyn, which in the heyday of slate export saw ships waiting for cargoes bound for all nations and was probably the greatest of the Welsh slate ports. Both the pier and the port are listed buildings representing important aspects of our cultural and social heritage. Nowadays visitors can stroll along the pier to enjoy the scenery, enjoy home-baked scones at the cafe or even to have a go at fishing. Permits cost 2 pounds per day - bring your own rod. Crabbing lines and bait are 50p respectively.

Port Penrhyn

Menai Straits and Snowdonia in Summer

Bangor has long been established as the gateway of North West Wales and was the staging post for coaches from London to Holyhead for travellers to Dublin. Bangor continues to occupy this position to the present day with the completion of Telford's Holyhead Road in 1826, the building of the Robert Stephenson's Chester to Holyhead railway, which reached Bangor in 1848 and the completion in recent years of the A55 North Wales Coast Road.

Menai Straits and Snowdonia in Winter

View of Menai Bridge

Bangor also provided the base for the building of two of the world's great bridges which span the Menai Straits at Bangor, the Menai Suspension Bridge designed by Thomas Telford and the Britannia Bridge designed by Robert Stephenson, within a short walk of Tyddyn Sydney, and both celebrated by Prosiect Menai (www.prosiectmenai.co.uk).

View of Britannia Bridge

Saint Deiniol Cathedral

Within Bangor lies the cathedral of St. Deiniol, which stands on the site first dedicated in 525 AD as the cell of Deiniol the Celtic Cleric. Bangor was chosen as the site of one of the colleges of the University of Wales and became the University College of North Wales in 1884. Coleg Normal was established before the University in 1858 and was first opened in 1862. Bangor received its Royal Charter in 1883 to become a city.

Saint Deiniol Cathedral

Bangor Town Clock

The City of Bangor has the longest high street in Wales, panoramic views from Roman Camp and an 18 hole golf course on Bangor Mountain which was designed by James Braid, famous golf architect and Open Champion. The course is open to non-members and has clubs and trolleys etc for hire (www.st-deiniol.co.uk).

Bangor was twinned in 1974 with Soest in Westphalia, Germany (www.hanseaten-soest.de) and enjoys frequent exchanges between Soest and Bangor Citizens.

The history of North Wales is colourful and there is much to see around Bangor. This history ranges across great houses, to castles, to some of the greatest sites of industrial archaeology and some great little railways.

Bangor Library

Bodnant Gardens

North Wales is the home to some of the National Trust's (www.nationaltrust.org.uk) greatest treasures, including Penrhyn Castle, Plas Newydd and Bodnant Gardens. CADW (www.cadw.wales.gov.uk) is the organisation in Wales responsible for overseeing works on the built heritage, which includes grand houses, castles and even fish weirs in the Menai Straits. Many of the works cared for by Cadw are castles (www.castlewales.com), which include some of the finest castles to be found anywhere in Europe. Among them are the World Heritage Site of Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech.

Penrhyn Castle

View from Top of Snowdon

The area also includes probably the greatest density of preserved railways in the United Kingdom including The Welsh Highland Railway (www.whr.co.uk), The Ffestiniog Railway (www.ffestiniograilway.co.uk), The Llyn Padarn Railway in Llanberis (www.lake-railway.co.uk), and The Snowdon Mountain Railway (www.snowdonrailway.co.uk) among others.
North Wales has been famed for its mineral wealth in gold, copper and slate and there is evidence to be found in Parys Mountain (www.angleseymining.co.uk), on the Great Orme and the Llanberis Slate Museum (www.museumwales.ac.uk), as well as numerous other sites.

South Stack

Portmeirion Village

One of the largest regions of mountain scenery in the United Kingdom is Snowdonia National Park (www.snowdonia-npa.gov.uk), which has attracted and inspired artists and tourists for several centuries, including Turner.

This beautiful environment is combined with numerous wonderful wildlife sites managed by the Countryside Council for Wales, the National Trust and the RSPB among others. The Countryside Council for Wales (www.ccw.gov.uk) is responsible for wildlife in Wales and designates sites of special scientific interest and special areas for conservation.

Dinas Dinlle

View from Portmeirion

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (www.rspb.org.uk) has identified several areas of interest. The area is bounded by equally beautiful coastal scenery that includes secluded inlets, quiet sandy beaches and dramatic cliffs and rocky islands.

North Wales has many artistic, cultural and academic links including the University, music festivals and collections of paintings. The Bryn Terfel Festival at Faenol (www.brynfest.com) takes place every year in August and is a feast of modern and classical music, again within a short walk of Tyddyn Sydney. Bangor University (www.bangor.ac.uk) has occupied its site overlooking the City of Bangor for well over a century and is famous particularly for its studies of marine science, among numerous other disciplines. The National Trust is custodian of Whistler's work at Plas Newydd, where the fascinating and intriguing mural can be seen in the dining room and the many paintings at Penrhyn Castle.

Penmaenmawr Beach