TROUBLE IN PARADISE

New owners of idyllic lakeside home have sparked anger – and sympathy – with efforts to restrict access to their part of much-visited beauty spot. Andrew Forgrave reports

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A NEWLY arrived family seeking a slice of heaven in North Wales have found themselves embroiled in a heated access row with locals. After buying an historic cottage, reputed birthplace of 6th century poet Taliesin, they discovered the pretty lakeside location was not quite so idyllic after all.

While renovating the old stone cottage overlooking Llyn Geirionydd, a popular lake in Conwy, Simon and Michelle Rothwell soon realised their 42 acres were often swarming with visitors. After despairing over illegal camping, parking and “abuse”, they erected a “Private Property” sign by the lake, a third of which they now own.

The sign inflamed passions among people from nearby Trefriw and Llanrwst for whom access is considered an historic privilege after generations of use. The sign was allegedly swiftly torn down and the property vandalised.

While some people are sympathetic to the family’s plight, others are not. Some professed “shock” they would no longer be able to take their children to the area.

Among scores of angry comments was one from a woman who said: “Are you honestly going to stand there with a pitchfork shouting get off my land or sit in a boat shouting get out of my water?”

A local woman insisted she would not be deterred. “50 years of swimming there, as did my father before me, walking up from the village,” she wrote. “Not going to stop now.” She claimed the lake and its curtilage had been loved by visitors for centuries - “well before anyone could claim it was theirs”.

With Michelle, Simon, a former police officer from Luton, bought the property in October 2024. Later, The Times newspaper included it in a list of the “weirdest homes sold in 2024”, meaning the most distinctive. Overlooking it is the Taliesin Memorial, erected around 1850 to commemorate Taliesin Ben Beirdd (Chief of Bards), the first known poet in the Welsh language, said to be a companion of King Arthur and Bran the Blessed.