Detour Pit Stop #110: Portmeirion, Wales, UK

ThIS picture-perfect village is the 50-year folly of a welsh architect and a magnet for fans of the prisoner and the cars that it starred.

Clinging to the cliffs of the North Wales coastline, just minutes from the great driving roads of Snowdonia, is Portmeirion. Incongruous with the rest of the region, its pastel hues, classic Italian-style architecture and manicured gardens are like a taste of Amalfi in miniature.

Architect Clough William-Ellis bought the site in 1925, opening first a hotel in 1926 and then, over the course of five decades, developing the rest of the plot into the most fabulous folly.

Photo Bradley Pritchard-Jones / Unsplash

Today almost the entire village is available as holiday accommodation, with 32 rooms and 13 self-catering cottages on its narrow streets.

Cars aren’t normally allowed in the village, with a fleet of electric golf carts used to ferry visitors around. Turn up in a Lotus (or Caterham) Seven or a Mini Moke, as famously featured in The Prisoner, which was filmed here between 1967-68, and you might be allowed to pop in for a photo or two, however.

"Portmeirion itself seemed, to me at least, to steal the show from its human cast,” said its architect and the show’s legacy is still very much alive today as there’s an annual Prisoner Convention and an official shop on site.

Portmeirion really is one of the wonders of Wales and a picture-perfect pit stop on any road trip in the region.

Words Nik Berg Twitter | Instagram
Photography Nik Berg / Shawnanggg / Yukon Haughton / Jiamin Huang

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ROADBOOK

CLASS: FABULOUS FOLLY

NAME: Portmeirion

ROUTE: Portmeirion, Penrhyndeudraeth

COUNTRY: WALES, UK

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