The Beautiful Fairy Glen, but for How Long.

If you have been to Betws-y-Coed then you will probably have heard of or even seen the area of river Conwy known as the Fairy Glen just upstream of the famous Beaver Pool known to Salmon fishermen.
It is truly a magical place to visit and is an easy walk in places then becoming a bit steeper before reaching the viewing point. Access to it is beside the  Fairy Glen Hotel following the path to the side of the hotel. Follow the path through fields for a 15 minute walk. There is an entrance fee to cover maintenance costs. 
There are some steep steps to get to the Glen so just be careful in slippery conditions

 It is also a site of  Site of Special Scientific Interest, which makes it an even more important place , because of the future plans in store. And these plans are to build a dam and divert a great proportion of water  to produce hydro electric power from the water. RWE NPower, in association with Dulas (a North Wales renewable energy company) have put in plans to develop this site .

At present the current location of the river provides a lovely wilderness for tourists to visit either  as a fisherman, walker or  photographer. If the proposed works were to go ahead then the water diversions would reduce the flow and also limit the activities for tourists.

(Picture thanks to Stu Worrall Photography)


The natural beauty of  the current Glen would affect the picturesqueness of the area.
Here is an artists impression of the proposed design.

RWE Innogy have defended their proposal for the new £12m project saying it would produce  4.5mw of energy to power 3,000 or so houses  ( Picture by RWE )


The river is also used by enthusiastic Canooeists and Kayakers but most leave the river further upstream to diembark.

How long have we got  before plans are passed?
More than six thousand people put their names to this  petition to have it dismissed..

800 letters have been sent to the Snowdonia National Park   planning dept and hundreds more letters have been sent to Natural Resources Wales with objections to abstracting water.


We can only wait and see the results.