‘Portmeirion should have been called The Home for Fallen Buildings,’ Sir Clough once joked. He described the place as ‘an architectural explosion,’ saying that it is all’slightly bogus.’ Everything in Portmeirion is scaled down, making it a village of ‘archways you can walk through, but only just.’

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But its creator’s verbal explanation is not the best way to get a feeling for what Portmeirion is all about. Sir Clough expressed the belief that ‘The place itself must do the talking, and you will approve or detest what it is trying to say according to your own individual bias. Pavlova, on being asked to explain what she meant by one of her dances, rather tartly replied: ‘If I could put my meaning into words, do you think I would go to all the trouble of dancing it?’ I feel a little that way myself, for if what I have actually planned and built can’t reveal what I am after, still less will my words.’

Portmeirion strikes many visitors as very much like a stage set, and not just because people still associate it with the 1960s cult television series ‘The Prisoner,’ starring Patrick McGoohan, which was filmed here. Among the storybook scenery that greets visitors is a surrealist petrol pump; a statue of Hercules; the town hall that’s nothing of the kind but makes a good meeting place; a ‘Gloriette’ that, as Sir Clough said,’serves no useful purpose’ but is ‘handsome and jolly’; and a dome that would not disgrace a cathedral city. The village also has several shops, including one selling Portmeirion pottery and gifts, an excellent bookshop and a ‘Prisoner’ information centre.

To encourage visitors to explore, Sir Clough provided them with more than 20 miles of woodland walks that criss-cross the peninsula and lead to secluded beaches all along the headlands. Some of the most evocative views awaiting walkers are of sun-dappled woods, and of sunsets beyond the tree-fringed shore. At the very least, people who wander downhill towards the hotel, perhaps to test its fine reputation for seafood, should continue on as far as the turret and light-house along the beach.

Although Clough Williams-Ellis said he preferred his landscapes to have people in them, this kingdom by the sea is never more romantic and evocative than when the day visitors have gone, leaving the piazza quiet in the cool of the evening.

Cars would be out of place in such a setting, and except for the busy little estate service vehicles and the occasional lorry rushing fresh supplies of fizzy drinks to the quaint village shops, they are not allowed.

Portmeirion’s creator urged people to think of the place as ‘light opera,’ and it is indeed fun to be part of its chorus, not just when the sun shines but when sea mist introduces a soft focus.

Portmeirion is owned by a charitable family trust set up by Sir Clough and his daughter and son-in-law. It is managed by the founder’s grandson, thus ensuring that it not sold or adversely developed, but that it remains as Sir Clough had envisioned it when he first set eyes upon this perfect sight for his dream village.

To see pictures and learn more about this fascinating place, visit the Portmeirion Village website at www.portmeirion-village.com/en/index.php.

This article was written by Bryn Frank for British Heritage.

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