Wales
Machynlleth
The town where Glyndŵr was crowned, a Wednesday market, ospreys fishing the Dyfi.
In 1404 Owain Glyndŵr held a parliament in this small town and was crowned Prince of Wales there, and the Grade I listed townhouse on the site still stands on the main street. Machynlleth wears that history lightly: it is a place of a Victorian clock tower, a Wednesday market, wholefood co-ops and secondhand bookshops, with ospreys fishing the river a few miles downstream.
Heol Maengwyn is the high street, running from the clock tower past independent shops, antique dealers stacked with curios, the Pen'rallt gallery bookshop and the Dyfi Wholefoods cooperative, and every Wednesday the market fills the centre. The Owain Glyndŵr Centre keeps the memory of the town's greatest son, and MOMA Machynlleth shows modern Welsh art alongside the Tabernacle Collection of twentieth-century work. The valley holds UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status; at Cors Dyfi the Dyfi Osprey Project watches the birds through the summer, and the Centre for Alternative Technology, entered by cliff railway, has spent decades in the woods above the town working out how to live more lightly. Each spring a comedy festival puts a cabaret tent in the town centre; for the grandest meal in the region, Ynyshir with its two Michelin stars sits a few miles away. Machynlleth is a base for the Cambrian Mountains and Cardigan Bay, and a town with more ideas per street than anywhere its size in Wales.
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Solo
Wednesday for the market, the bookshops after lunch, and the ospreys at Cors Dyfi first thing the next morning.
Couple
A night in the valley, the co-op and the antique shops, and a table at Ynyshir if the trip is an occasion.
Family
Ospreys on live camera at the wildlife centre, the clock tower and market, and the Glyndŵr story told in the very building.
Friends
Comedy festival weekend, or a market-day weekend of pubs on Heol Maengwyn and walks in the hills either side of the Dyfi.
- The Owain Glyndŵr Centre, a Grade I listed late medieval townhouse, occupies the site of the parliament of 1404 at which Owain was crowned Prince of Wales.
- Heol Maengwyn, under a striking Victorian clock tower, is a high street of independent shops, antiques, bookshops such as Pen'rallt, and a market every Wednesday.
- The Dyfi Valley around the town carries UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status, and the Dyfi Osprey Project watches the birds from its wildlife centre on Cors Dyfi.
- Machynlleth stages its own comedy festival each spring, when a cabaret tent goes up in a market town of a few streets.
Local produce from the Dyfi Wholefoods cooperative on Heol Maengwyn, the high street under the Victorian clock tower.
The market held every Wednesday in the town centre; for a big night, Ynyshir, holder of two Michelin stars down the valley a few miles, is the most famous table in the area.
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