David Markland
I recently re-read the wonderful little book A Snowdon Stream by W.H.Canaway, first published in 1958. It is a collection of anecdotes and musings about fly-fishing the Afon Gwyrfai, the river that runs through the beautiful valley I am blessed to live in. Sadly the fishing isn’t what it was when Canaway was casting his flies on the water but right opposite my house is a long, deep, slow pool where I love to skinny-dip in the summer. So, I was amused to read again the start of Chapter Three of the book:
Edmund Hyde Hall looked at Betws Garmon a hundred and fifty years ago and exclaimed, “Nakedness is the great characteristic of the parish”. It is only fair to point out that he was not referring to the sartorial eccentricities of the inhabitants, but to the lack of trees.
Maybe, or perhaps Hyde Hall had a crystal ball and had divined me across the mists of time enjoying my little bit of naturist heaven?
By the way, the valley is no longer arboreally naked either, the lower slopes of the mountains are now heavily wooded as the photo shows. This is fortunate for me as they provide a screen from the road for my nude swimming, although tourists taking a steam train ride on the Welsh Highland Railway, which runs along the other side of the river, sometimes get a view they weren’t expecting to see in Snowdonia!
