Out and About with Ops&Ops: Portmeirion

What do Brian Epstein, the Italian Riviera and a couple of cult TV shows have in common?

I recently hit the road to spend a couple of days in the North Wales haven of Portmeirion, the Italianate village built into a Snowdonia cliff overlooking the Dwyryd estuary. A colour saturated extravaganza of dwellings, stone pathways, towers and folly, surrounded by a riot of exotic flowers and trees.

This is Portmeirion’s centenary. Designed and built by Clough Williams-Ellis over 50 years, his ‘home for fallen buildings’ was built using reclaimed and salvaged edifices and artifacts. With the natural landscape as a backdrop, it is a veritable film set. 

I stayed in the blue and coral painted Bridgehouse No4, one of the many houses and rooms in the actual village known primarily as the location for the 1960s psychedelic thriller The Prisoner. It was a familiar location for No6 Patrick McGoohan, who also starred in the precursor spy drama Danger Man, the first six episodes of which were filmed here.

A magnet for 1960s VIPs, it was a regular haunt for Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein who was so taken with the Bridgehouse Cottage he designed and commissioned wardrobes to be built there and remain to this day. Jerry Lee Lewis stayed at Belvedere Cottage in 1974, and George Harrison hosted his 50th birthday party here.

Portmeirion is a total escape from the outside world. But it is more than a fairy-tale village with grottos, bridges leading nowhere and a life-size chess board. Strolling past the Art Deco hotel that sits just above the estuary bank, the coastal path and steps descend down and down to a huge sandy cove, deserted when I went. Climbing back up through 70 acres of The Gwyllt (Wildwood) there is much to see – a Japanese lily-covered lake and pagoda, an explosion of autumnal colour, and a dog cemetery – where the former hotel owner buried her beloved pets.

At night, the village is dimly lit adding to its charm and allows for a magical walk to the hotel for dinner and drinks. In the morning a pre-breakfast amble with few other visitors in sight magnifies how surreal, yet enchanting, it all is.

I loved the colours and light of Portmeirion, its playfulness and joy so apparent, and lots of inspiration to bring back home.