Were lucky here at Byrdir to live in one of the UK’s true remaining wildernesses. The quieter autumn season offers a great opportunity to discover and explore this area. And once the summer rush is over we try and reduce our prices a little bit so there’s no excuse not to come and visit.

Standard Rate: £30 per person per night including breakfast
3 Night Weekend Break: £81 per person Inc. breakfasts (10% discount)
4 Night Midweek Break: £96 per person Inc. breakfast (20% discount)

Offer runs from 1st September until 22nd October.

Special Offer : £27 per person per night.

Seeing as walkers are such nice people, we’d like to offer everybody attending the Barmouth Festival of Walking a 10% discount off our usual prices. The event runs from the 20th of September for 8 days. So even if you hadn’t intended on joining the group it’s worth giving them a ring as you’ll get 10% off the price of your stay here at Byrdir.

From ‘Barmouth Walking Festival’

The Festival of Walking is a well established event organised by Barmouth Publicity Association to take advantage of the fabulous walks and dramatic landscape accessible from Barmouth, on the west coast of Wales. Taking place in September every year, the festival gives walkers of all abilities the opportunity to enjoy eight days of guided walks around the beautiful Mawddach Estuary and Southern Snowdonia.

The 2009 programme includes 25 walks, all led by knowledgeable local guides, ranging from short two-hour rambles to full-day high level hikes, all in some of the finest walking countryside in Wales.

Have a look at http://www.barmouthwalkingfestival.co.uk/ for more details about the event.

The Glaslyn Ospreys are now proud parents to three chicks, the second chick was born on Thursday 14 May at 6.10am and the third chick was seen at 5.42am Sunday 17 May.

The recent stormy weather is a cause of concern with some twigs been blown off the nest early this morning (Monday 18 May), however the chicks are safe and well and the mother is doing an excellent job of mantling the chicks to protect them from the elements.

Mantling is one of the vital roles of the mother, if the chicks get wet and cold their body temperature will drop and they become vulnerable, they will need to keep dry and warm at this stage to ensure their successful growth.

The father is also doing his bit and working hard to catch local trout from the estuary down in Porthmadog to feed the chicks. He has been seen bringing between four and five fish to the nest every day, this will help the growth and development of the chicks and in six weeks they will start to learn the basics of flying.

Geraint Williams of The RSPB

We escaped from the farm last week to go to the ‘Small Holders Fair’ which is held every year in Builth Wells on the Royal Welsh Show ground. We don’t get a chance to go to the Royal welsh itself as it’s held in late July. A busy time for us. So the Small Holders Fair provides a welcome alternative.

It’s a great fair and I can highly recommend it. We loved looking at all the pedigree sheep cows and pigs, but our favorites this year were the Alpacas. Very cuddly. I was also tempted into the poultry auction which was being held on the day we were there. 30 minutes and a couple of nods of the head later I was the proud owner of 5 Quail hens. I wasn’t entirely sure how much I paid when the hammer went down. So I was relieved to find that my winning bid was £5 each. Bargin! We managed the journey home with the help of a cardboard box. But at 11pm I was still putting the finishing touches on a hastily constructed coup.

I think the design worked quite well and would probably also suit two or three hens. So I’ve made a note of the steps I took as well as the rough sketches in case anyone would like to copy them. I’m sure the design can be improved on, but it might help as a starting point for people.

Chicken Coup Build Instructions >>

We have two new arrivals at the farm. A pair of Welsh Harlequin Ducks. I let the children choose their names. Hoping they might come up with something traditional and welsh sounding. Rhiannon and Llywelyn perhaps. They quickly settled for Troy and Gabriella of course. Never mind. According to Wickipedia, the breed was first established back in the 1940’s by a farmer from Criccieth which is nice as Criccieth is only 20 miles up the road from us.

Anyway, they seem to have settled in well. Trotting quite happily to the stream every morning and returning promptly to their coup at dusk. The female however, is only laying occasional at this stage. I’ll keep you informed.

Take advantage of our Summer Short Break Deals. Now that the weather has made a turn for the better its time to show off those legs once again. Our little part of north Wales has some of the best and cleanest beaches in Europe. So don’t forget your flip flops (socks optional).

Weekend Break: £81 per person (10% discount)
Friday, Saturday, Sunday Night. Including breakfasts.

Midweek Break: £96 per person (20% discount)
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night. Including breakfasts.

Offer Ends 16th July 2009

To check availability please use our enquiry form

We’re very proud that ‘Upland Escapes’ have selected us as one of their accommodation providers for their packaged walking holidays. Upland Escapes, founded in 2005, offer flexible and guided walking holidays for their clients. With established destinations in places such as the Austrian Alps the French Pyrenees and Grand Canaria they were keen to establish another base in Snowdonia.

It’s particularly pleasing that such experienced walking experts considered the mountains at our back door would offer the best walking experience to their clients. In turn, we’re very impressed by the package they offer. Thoroughly researched guided walks combined with gourmet picnics and our accommodation of course. Best of all they’ve asked Sheena and Gary, a local couple, to act as their guides or ‘upland managers’. You couldn’t hope to meet two nicer people.

Mountain landscapes and miles of sandy of beach are a rare combination destined to make the soul sing. The Rhinog Mountains are a secret wilderness of rock, heather and grassland, cut by streams and dotted with lakes. Upland Escapes

Dell, our border collie continues to be a favorite of many of our guests. If I’m digging in the garden however, she has a slightly annoying habit of carefully placing a stick exactly at the the point where I’m about to sink my spade. I usually throw it to one side slightly annoyed. But this is exactly what she wants naturally. She tears off to fetch it before carefully placing it at the nose of my spade once again.

This great sketch was drawn by James Nash, one of our guests over the Easter holidays.

I’ve been busy putting some seeds down again this year. Nothing too exiting at the moment. I’m hoping that it’ll be ok to use some of the seed that I have left over from last year as well as a couple of new verities I’ve bought online. We’ll soon find out I guess. Unfortunately I never organized a proper diary to record what I did last spring. I did scribble notes on various pieces of paper but never really gathered them all together. So one of the new toys I bought over the winter was a proper label printer. I bought the Brother GL-200 Garden Label Printer, £24.95, which can automatically print the date on each label. I’m very pleased with it. Every time I do something in the garden I make one label for the marker in the ground and stick a second label on a plank which I’ve screwed to the greenhouse door. The plan being that the plank will give me a diary that I can ponder over next year.

I’ve also invested in an automatic watering system. The tomatoes grown in the greenhouse were a big success last summer. Popular with our children and the B&B guests. So I’ve added a second bed to the greenhouse so we can grow some more along side the peppers and aubergines. The automatic watering will hopefully make life a little easier during our busy summer months. One of the disappointments of last year was some of the longer root vegetables. Parsnips and carrots. I think it was a combination of starting the seedlings in guttering and the fact that there are just too many stones in the soil in our raised beds. In hindsight I should have put better or sieved soil in the beds, but it seems like to much effort to do much about it now. I’m intending however to start the seedling off in some old toilet roll tubes filled with compost. I’ll transplant them, tube an all, into the ground when ready. Again, we’ll wait and see if this helps.

I’m also trying to be more realistic about what we as a family will actually end up eating. The artichokes that I grew last year ended up being left in the fridge. We didn’t really know what to do with them. The beetroot was another crop that grew well but wasn’t so popular on the dinner table. I know we should work on new recopies etc, but concentrating on veg that we know how to cook makes sense for now.

A pair of Red Kites seem to be regulatr visitors to the farm these days. We see them most freequently in the morning hovering over the fields next to the house. They’re easily distinguished from our resident Buzzards by their forked tails, giving them their welsh name “Boda Wennol” or Swallow Hawk. The UK Red Kite population was, at one stage, reduced to 10 breeding pairs in remote locations in Mid Wales. Their reappearance at Byrdir is testament to the success of the conservation efforts of many local people there.