La dolce vita
Charles Dark tells Philip Reynolds about his Italian influences – and his ambition to make a small corner of Wales a ‘must’ for sportsmen
You could be forgiven for thinking that leaving behind la dolce vita in Italy for the drizzle-cloaked hills of mid Wales was, well, a strange decision. To do it twice, perhaps falls into the category of needing your head testing.
Those tempted to agree with that assessment have not reckoned with the pull of the green, green grass of home. The word hiraeth in Welsh expresses an indefinable feeling of missing something; a longing for something from the past.
Charles Dark, owner of the Wynnstay Inn in Machynlleth, may have been brought up in the Surrey hills from seven but he is from a Welsh family, and Wales made a lasting impression. His longing was such that he decided to make his life there with his wife Sheila. He had a plan. That plan revolved around his love of good food and wine, allied to a passion for the sporting life. Besides, Wales is beautiful, too, if not quite so climatically favoured.
Charles discovered shooting towards the end of his school years in the late 1960s. His friends used to visit his home in Surrey with their muzzleloaders, no doubt high up on many schoolboys’ wish lists. His first serious experience of shooting was on a relative’s farm in Dolgellau, where he spent holidays.
As with his friends in the Surrey hills, this was old school shooting, with hammerguns. Charles describes it as a touch of “le longue carabine”, Hawkeye-style in The Last of the Mohicans.
He progressed to a side-by-side, which he still shoots – a BSA. A “gentleman’s gun”, as he calls it. “It has always been side-by-sides. They just feel comfortable. They are lighter than other guns and do the job.”
Italian job
It was Charles’ Italian ‘job’, or more accurately his wife Sheila’s, that came before the shooting and Wales. The couple met while pursuing their careers in advertising and marketing in London in the 1970s, and Charles followed Sheila out to Milan. It was here they made the good life for themselves and raised their son Bertie.
It was in Milan that Charles nurtured his love of Italian cuisine and wine, something that can be enjoyed at the Wynnstay today.
He has spent half of his adult life in Italy and can speak the language fluently. Whisper it, but a lot better than he can speak Welsh.
One aspect of Italian life that Charles didn’t altogether take to was the way they go about their shooting, though he concedes they “make fantastic guns”. He said that when shooting game an Italian party, which usually numbers around 20, surrounds an area of woodland in 4x4s and then sends the dogs in. He said this approach led to a
“A good day’s shooting then back to a damn good fire and a pint”
number of confrontations with people and animals making incursions onto his land.
Towards the end of the 1990s Charles and Sheila decided to return to the UK and were going to buy a pub in his childhood home of the Surrey hills, but that fell through and it was then the chance to purchase the Wynnstay “popped up”. If Machynlleth was good enough for Owain Glyndwr to hold a parliament for Wales, it was good enough for Charles and Sheila.
Taking on an 18th century coaching inn
was, however, no mean task. “We did not know the hotel business but we understood marketing,” he says.
They must have done something right as over the ensuing nine years from when they bought the Wynnstay in 1998, Charles and Sheila built up the business and doubled the turnover. It was during this period that he started to shoot properly and make sporting connections in the community, least not with the Jones family, who now run the Dovey Valley Shooting Ground nearby. Charles obtained his shotgun licence and enjoyed his shooting, including visiting shooting shows across the border when the opportunity presented itself.
Lure of Liguria
However, in 2003, the lure of Liguria proved irresistible and Charles and Sheila returned to Italy, selling the Wynnstay to a member of staff, though they kept an interest. The sale didn’t work out and they returned to Wales in 2016, repurchasing the Wynnstay, taking a considerable financial hit in the process.
At least their second sojourn in Italy allowed Charles to develop his wine business, something which customers of the Wynnstay enjoy the fruits of today. The coaching inn serves many boutique Italian wines that are not widely available on the open market. The return to Machynlleth also saw Charles re-establish contact with the sporting community in the area, which is now a cornerstone of his business. Charles’ good relationships with a few shoots provide an enticing package for those prepared to venture to mid Wales.
Connections
His friendship with Richard Jones of Dovey Valley can provide visitors with a comprehensive package of clay shooting while staying at the Wynnstay. The same can be said for his connection with a few shoots, all of which are developing.
Charles does not organise the shooting through the hotel, as that would have complex insurance implications. However, because of his relationships, he can point people who want to shoot in the right direction. It is a reciprocal arrangement and the quid pro quo for Charles acting as an informal facilitator is that they lodge at the Wynnstay.
Charles’ aim is for the
Wynnstay to become the destination of choice for sportsmen and women shooting or fishing in the area.
If you want value for money for a day in the field, you could do a lot worse than looking at what is on offer. Within 20 minutes’ drive of the Wynnstay there are three shoots as well as the shooting ground. There are driven days available with pheasant and woodcock; another with duck, snipe and teal as well.
So far on one of the shoots there have been a limited number of birds, but next season the owner is planning on at least 7,000. All this for £200 to £250 per Gun, per day. There is room for up to 11 Guns on the largest shoot and Charles has bought three pegs. Shooting is always on a Saturday, once a fortnight in November and December and every Saturday in January.
If clays are your thing, Richard Jones at Dovey Valley will see you right most days of the year, in all winds and weathers and for all abilities. And for those who like to fish, there are five sea trout rivers and six lakes nearby, with day permits available for most.
Charles’ vision is well on the way to fruition. He wants people to know that be it Dovey Valley or the shoots, it’s something special and “worth the journey”.
A good day’s shooting then back to the
Wynnstay for a “damn good fire and a pint of real ale, good wine list and convivial atmosphere”, not to mention a menu of fine local food. That doesn’t sound like too
much of a hardship. La dolce vita, indeed.