Surrounded by beauty and that rebuilt itself and won’t
A village known for its spectacular views and rich maritime history aims to keep the community alive, as Branwen Jones reports
NESTLED on the picturesque shores of the Menai Strait, between Bangor and Caernarfon, you’ll find Y Felinheli. This Gwynedd village is home to around 1,330 people and is known for its spectacular views and rich maritime history. There’s no better place to experience this than at the Port Dinorwic Marina, which is situated at the bottom of the village. Docked boats waiting patiently for the summer months sit side-by-side with remnants of the area’s industrial past.
For nearly two centuries, this once thriving port was responsible for exporting slate from the nearby Dinorwic Quarry of Llanberis, which was the second largest slate quarry in the world. In 1913 alone, the quarry was able to produce 100,000 tonnes of roofing slate and saw four freight trains transporting the slate from the quarry to the port on a daily basis.
But in 1969, it was decided the quarry would close for good due to a decline in the slate industry. Although the village saw the end of one industry, it saw the growth of another.
The port changed its use to leisure and the marina was built in the 1980s. Over time, Y Felinheli became a go-to destination in itself – but last year, the marina was faced with a new set of challenges.
In June, it was announced that the company which previously owned the marina had gone into administration. Top accountancy firm Azets confirmed that Port Dinorwic Marina Limited had experienced ‘financial difficulties’ in the preceding recent months.
The community of Y Felinheli, who had happened to launch a community initiative called Menter Felinheli a few weeks prior, decided that their first project would be to take up the ambitious plan of buying the site.
Undeniably, the campaign had been an effective and passionate one, impressively raising £127,000 in shares within a matter of six weeks. According to a resident, this was their attempt at keeping the site that had put their village on the map at the heart of the community.
But on Sunday, March 24, the initiative found out it had been unsuccessful in its bid. On Facebook, Menter Felinheli announced that they were told a consortium in Cheshire had bought the marina. Despite the sad news, they said that they planned on developing ‘other exciting projects in [their] community for the benefit of all.’
One that had been following the campaign was 63-year-old Kevin Wyn Jones. The local mechanic admitted the plan was a ‘huge commitment,’ but it didn’t change the fact the recent news came as a blow for the community.
“If they would have been successful, they would’ve been the first community in Wales to buy a marina,” he tells me. “I truly admired their attempt.”
For the last 48 years, Kevin has seen a lot of coming and going in Y Felinheli. Despite having never lived in the village, he admits he spends more time there than anywhere else. The
Caernarfon-born mechanic began working at Central Garage when he was 16 years old back in 1976, before deciding to take the reins as its owner in 1984.
A lot has changed in the village within nearly half a century, Kevin explained. In his office, located right next to the garage, he points at a black and white photo near his desk which shows the petrol pumps that were once located outside the building.
The garage is located on Bangor Road, which is the main road that goes through the Gwynedd village. But at one point, it was also the main road that connected the neighbouring town of Caernarfon with the city of Bangor, both of which are a 10-minute drive on either side of the village. In 1994, a bypass between the town and the city was opened and meant that motorists were able to avoid the Y Felinheli section of the journey.
“It’s a lot quieter than it used to be,” Kevin said. “Before the bypass, we were selling petrol here. Back then, we had so many shops on this street. We had a grocery shop next door, there was a chemist over the road, a post office next door to that and then a café.
“You had print works down the road, and then builder’s merchants over there, we had a clothing shop, a hairdresser and a barber too. It’s frightening how much it has changed. You didn’t need a big town to go shopping, you had everything here. It was chaotic at times due to traffic, but then the bypass came in, and changed how much traffic came through here.
“And then on top of that, the supermarkets in
Caernarfon and Bangor also had an impact on the local businesses here. It was so easy to go to those places as an alternative, and gradually it just killed off the local businesses we had here at the time.”
Over time, Central Garage stopped selling petrol and primarily focused on fixing and servicing cars. The business undoubtedly had to adapt, but business is still booming, largely due to its loyal customers.
“We are very lucky with this village,” Kevin says. “We obviously get the people who live in Felin come to us, but we also get people who work at the nearby hospital [Ysbyty Gwynedd] – it’s handy for them as they head into work, they are able to drop off their car here on the way. And we even get the people that move away from Felin, they’ll come back here too.”
Although the village has seen a lot of change, one thing has remained the same for Kevin and that’s his fondness of the area.
“The community means a lot to me because I feel like I have spent most of my life here,” he says. “The fact that I haven’t slept in a bed here doesn’t change that. When I wake up, this is the first place I’ll go and I feel like I know the community well here. Everyone looks out for each other, there’s always something going on here – it’s that kind of community.”
Thirty-nine-year-old Sarah Williams agrees. Every summer, she and her partner – like the rest of the village – like to head down to the Garddfon Inn pub, which is located right next to the
waterfront. According to Sarah, you get your pint from the pub, head to the wall and enjoy the fantastic views of the strait.
“There’s nothing quite like it,” she adds.
And then in June, the community comes together for a nine-day festival, Gwyl y Felinheli. As Sarah explains, the festival has something for everybody on each day – a carnival, a 10k run, a bingo night, a quiz night and even a German Bierkeller event.
It has become a staple of the village’s life.
“I don’t know of anywhere else that has a festival like it,” Sarah laughs. “But we do and it’s awesome. It’s such a big part of living in Felin, I love it.”
Born and raised in Y Felinheli, Sarah moved away in her 20s to pursue her career as a chef. Moving back to Felin, as she so fondly calls it, was never on the cards. But as time went on, the chef said she had a change of heart.
“I had been away for about 15 years,” she explains. “I went from here to Chester, to Liverpool, to Manchester and then just made my way down south to London. I was there for quite a few years and I loved it.
“But as I had been away for such a long time, getting older, wanting to settle down and wanting to be closer to my family as well, it felt like it was a no-brainer to come back. I wanted to do all the things that I wanted to do in my 20s and early 30s. But then pushing onto my 40s, I just wanted to settle down. It wasn’t something that I had been thinking about long term, it just sort of happened. I just felt more connected to my family and that’s what made me want to go back home.”
Sarah returned to Y Felinheli in 2017. Now she runs her own sandwich deli called Bechdan Bach, which she opened in August 2022. For some time, the site was home to a beloved café called Y Felin Sgwrsio, which Sarah remembers well.
Business has been good for Sarah, she said, and by recently installing a bigger kitchen she hopes she can reach new heights of success.
“Running a business here has been overwhelmingly good,” she says. “I think the word-of-mouth has spread a bit about the business, which has definitely helped, and we see new faces every week. But we also have the regulars come in too. We have the ladies who used to come here when it was Y Felin Sgwrsio – they’ll come here on a Wednesday and a Saturday, and put the world to rights. It’s so lovely to see people carry on with that routine, seeing the same group of people come in and have a panad.”
Upon hearing the news the marina had been bought, she said she hoped this would bring more opportunities for the community.
“I hope the new owners will bring more money to the area and bring more opportunities for the local community as well,” she says.
“I think that’s what’s good about Felin – you have a space for a close-knit community but it’s also a very welcoming village too.
“We get a high number of footfall here, I think that’s down to our location – we are right in the middle of a lot of places. From here you can go to Eryri, Llanberis, Caernarfon and Anglesey – it’s the perfect place.”
And on a clear, blue day in Y Felinheli, it’s easy to see why. Fellow resident and freelance photographer Kristina Banholzer remembers the first time she viewed a house in the village with her partner, Gwion.
Originally from the nearby Bethel and Caernarfon areas, Kristina said she always thought the village was a beautiful place: “The first house we saw, we went on the balcony and saw the Menai Strait and thought to myself: ‘I can see myself living here’.”
Kristina and Gwion are firmly settled in Y Felinheli, which they have called home for the last 12 years and where they have decided to raise their two children.
“I never thought I’d be a community-minded person, but what’s great about Felin is that you have your core people – a good group of people that care about the community and the people in it,” she says.
“I think it brings out the best in people and I think it has brought the best out of me too. Over time, I’ve realised how happy people are here – I don’t know if there’s something in the water here or it’s the fact that we live right next to the water, but people are always happy here.
“It’s a known fact that people who live in strong communities are happier and they live longer. There is something so nice about walking down the street and knowing so many people here.”
Like most villages, towns and cities in Wales, Y Felinheli was struck by the impact of Covid-19. In 2020, Kristina decided to launch a project called ‘Coping with Covid’ which documented the lives of Y Felinheli residents amid the coronavirus pandemic. But what started as something to keep Kristina occupied during lockdown became so much more than anticipated.
“I got to know a lot of people that I didn’t know before then,” she says. “There were some people that were living alone, and being able to do this
project with them meant that I could spend time with them and make a change in their lives.
“It also taught me that giving someone a photo is a gift – there was one woman who lived on her own, her family lived across the border who couldn’t come to see her. The fact that I was able to take a photo of her and post it online meant the world to them. They all thanked me for taking a photo of her and spending time with her. It was a lovely experience, people really enjoyed seeing these photos posted online and it was escapism for many people”.
She adds: “It was also a celebration of the community that we have here. What was nice about it was that people could get to know each other better, they realised that they were similar in some ways and that we were all in the same boat during this difficult time.”
The coronavirus pandemic also brought up other challenges for small Welsh communities like Y Felinheli. In recent years, an increase in second homes and holiday lets has been blamed for
I don’t know of anywhere else that has a festival like it. But we do and it’s awesome. It’s such a big part of living in Felin, I love it
hiking up property prices in parts of coastal and rural Gwynedd. This became a particular issue during the pandemic years, where there was a surge in the number of people that were seeking rural Welsh life over big city living. Kristina herself saw it first-hand.
“During lockdown, we realised that second homes and holiday lets were a big issue in communities in Gwynedd,” she says. “We saw that people were buying these houses as second homes, at times they would buy them without even going to look at the place, they would buy them online.
“Where I live now, we have two Airbnbs right in front of us. My partner’s parents also have an Airbnb right next to them. There’s a lot of them popping up.”
Although the Welsh Government has introduced new legislation to try to tackle the influx of second homes and holiday lets, Kristina feels more can be done on the community side of things. The mother-of-two is training to be an
estate agent alongside a friend.
“The idea was inspired by Felinheli and the community we have here,” she says.
“We felt that there’s a good feeling here, there’s good things happening here and we want to take the good things out of this community and sprinkle it elsewhere in other communities.
“We are training to be estate agents and we are hoping to open our very own estate agency where the focus is on celebrating communities. Of course, we understand why people want to buy houses here – it’s an amazing place. But where are these local people who forget their principles and heritage when they sell their houses? They don’t think about their community or neighbours, they forget about themselves.
“It’s the people that are around you that are the ones that will help you and support you, they’re the ones that make you feel happy and a part of something. I want to create a business that looks into that and reminds people how lucky we are about having communities like this.
“Of course, our business will be about selling houses but it will be much more than that. It will be about bringing humanity back into selling homes.”
It’s that sense of community, Kristina says, that has played an integral role in her personal life and in her work. Arguably, it was that same sense of community that became the driving force behind buying the marina.
Although Kristina admits she’s ‘gutted’ about the result of the community’s bid, she remains hopeful that this will mark a new chapter in the village’s life.
“What’s great about Felin is that we have a lot of people, we have inspiration and a vision where other things can happen,” she says.
“There are other things we can look into and adapt, there are other spaces in this village that we can build on, and we are so lucky that we have a group of people that want to make it happen. If anything, it’s an exciting period for Felin.”