Plas Tan-y-Bwylch Iolo's Great Welsh Parks

Wales has many wonderful estates

created with the wealth from landowning and industrial families.

Once privately owned,

most of these beautiful parklands are now open for all of us to enjoy.

In this series, I'm uncovering another side to four of these parks.

A side that often goes unnoticed by those who visit.

I'm meeting people with inside knowledge to share.

Exploring less visited corners. And finding night-time creatures.

I'm discovering just how great these parks are for wildlife.

This time, I'm amongst the dramatic scenery of Snowdonia.

About seven miles east of Porthmadog lies the Maentwrog valley.

Perched above the river on a wooded slope

is a house that can be seen from miles around.

This is Plas Tan-y-Bwlch, built by the Oakeley family,

who made their money a few miles up the road in Blaenau Ffestiniog

quarrying for slate.

They made so much of it,

they were able to build not just this wonderful house

but also these magnificent gardens

full of plants from all over the world,

the village of Maentwrog in the distance

and they even changed the course of the River Dwyryd

to improve the view from the house. Now, that's wealth for you.

Today, the house and gardens form Snowdonia National Park's

Environmental Studies Centre.

People come to stay and take part in courses

from photography to insect identification.

I'm starting my exploration in the garden.

It's a place where the Oakeleys lavished

a great deal of their wealth.

It was clearly designed to impress.

Wow! These colours.

You don't get colours like these in native plants in the UK.

Look at that! You could think, looking around at the rocks

and all of these plants here,

that you were somewhere like the Himalayas, couldn't you?

Having a garden full of exotic plants was a sign of status.

A team of 13 gardeners was required to maintain it.

Sometimes, the best way to discover wildlife

is to find a quiet place to sit.

What appears to be a tranquil spot doesn't take long to come to life.

And the garden pond is a great place to start.

Very inquisitive dragonfly here,

extremely territorial insects these are.

It's a male southern hawker,

lovely bluey and black body with a sort of greenish head.

Because I am new, because I have just sat down,

he'll come over, he'll have a look,

he'd probably try and chase me away if he could as well.

Here he comes. They are like helicopters, they'll go up and down, backwards, forwards.

A pond like this is a great place for them, it's quite a big pond, a lot of vegetation.

They lay their eggs in the water here and then that will stay in the water

as a nymph for probably two, three, maybe even four years.

Eventually, they emerge and over here you will see the cases of these nymphs.

They're real alien-looking things and they'll emerge usually first thing in the morning,

dry out, and this beautiful insect comes out the back of them.

They have a sizable territory but it will be centred around this pond.

If you sit and wait he'll come back. Here he comes again.

Come on, old boy, come and have a shufty.

The Oakeleys may have built these gardens for pleasure

but in doing so they created a fantastic range of habitats.

With plenty of stone walls and areas that are now overgrown

it should be the perfect place to find mice and voles.

So, I'm going to carry out an experiment.

What I am going to try and do is get some footage of some of these voles.

I have got a small camera here. That's recording now,

so if I place that on there, in a nice sheltered spot.

I'll bait it with some mixed seeds and I reckon, I'm pretty confident

that in no time at all this will draw out any voles that are nearby.

OK, I'm going to leave that now

and see what the camera gets.

It doesn't take long to get a result. This is a bank vole.

They're often active during the day.

The walls provide them with good cover to hide in.

But other mammal species will be trickier to find,

as they're more active at night.

Do you think this wall, maybe this big wall up here will be any good?

Yeah, and I think that's a pretty good place to put it.

'Kate Williamson's got a useful technique, which should help.'

-There's a pond along here too.

-Yeah, let's go and have a look.

'We're going to put together a trap that captures not the animal itself

'but the footprints they leave behind.

'We need a specially designed plastic tunnel,

'two bits of white paper,

'some animal-friendly ink,

'a few of their favourite foods...'

The hotdogs for our carnivores, who are our hedgehogs and our shrews,

sunflower seeds for our wood mice and bank voles.

'..and somewhere suitable to leave it.'

This is a nice flat surface for it to be on.

'Any visiting mammals will leave their footprints for us to find.'

-In here, like that?

-I think so.

'Just to be sure, we leave a night vision camera trap nearby.'

'With several of these set up around the garden,

'fingers crossed we'll get a good result.

'We'll check them all later.

'In the meantime, there are some cold-blooded creatures

'I'd really like to find.

'We just need a bit of luck and some sunshine.'

Been talking to the staff and one of the gardeners here

and they say that in the past this...it's like a walled garden...

is a good place to look for reptiles, and the weather should be perfect.

It's been a cool morning but the sun's come out now

so hopefully they'll be out basking, sunbathing

and trying to warm up before they go off and hunt.

A lot of patience needed for this.

About 20 minutes later and I've found my first one.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, what have we got here? Come here, boy,

come here, come here.

Here we are. This one is quite a fast one

and be careful how you handle this one as well.

Slow worm, completely, completely harmless.

It's a lizard, a legless lizard.

Somewhere along the line of evolution it did have legs

but it decided it would be better off without legs

so it's lost them again.

I daren't pick it up by the tail

because one of its defence mechanisms is that its tail breaks off.

Say I was a kestrel now and got hold of it by the tail,

the tail breaks off and wriggles around, so that makes the kestrel think,

"Wow! Here he is, I've got him!"

In the meantime, the animal itself escapes into the undergrowth.

Oh, that's nice, that's really nice. I'm going to put this one back.

You nearly got away, didn't you? You were haring along.

There should be more reptiles here.

And who said you couldn't get lucky twice in one day.

Wow! This was one of those animals I was hoping to find here.

Grass snake, beautiful, beautiful snake. Look at that!

If you look at this one carefully,

if I show you the head, see the eyes?

Very, very pale, it's losing its skin, sloughing,

and it's spraying stuff all over me.

It absolutely stinks, absolutely stinks

and that's a kind of defence mechanism

because it smells as if it's dead. It really does!

Oh, it really, really does stink and I'm going to smell for a while.

But it's the perfect habitat for these because you have got stone walls here

and this one was making its way towards the wall, it was going to hide in there.

But it's come out on this soil and rock here, which is really warm,

It's been warming up, and they are active hunters.

It'll work its way through here looking for mice, voles, toads, frogs and newts.

You used to see lots of them but they have got rarer and rarer

but they are stunning, they are beautiful snakes.

Right, I am going to put her back, and put her back where she was,

which was just up there right by the wall.

You little beauty. That really has made my day.

The garden comprises only a small part

of what was the Oakeley family estate.

The valley and river below the house

played a crucial role in their lives

and the success of their slate business.

At its peak, the Oakeley quarry

was said to be the largest underground quarry in the world.

Initially, the river played a crucial role

in transporting the slate.

To find out more, I'm joining Philip Van Gucci,

who's canoed the River Dwyryd for many years.

The bit of river that the Oakeleys altered, it's this bit here, is it?

These couple of big meanders, these S-bends here.

It is, yes, so they'd have a fine view of the river from the Plas.

-It's amazing, isn't it?

-You can see the old boat house now, Iolo.

Ah, right, they'd have used that to bring a boat out fishing,

probably duck hunting, all kinds of things, wouldn't they?

Yes, I did read that they had a special coracle, a spear fishing coracle.

And otter hunting too. There's a carving up at the house, beautifully done.

It shows them otter hunting with otter hounds.

Yes, I suppose there were a lot more otters in those days.

What's this here? Looks like some kind of...

Well, this was one of the wharfs or quays where the boats drew up.

The boats would have brought up supplies,

loaded them on to flat bottom barges

and they would have been punted up to the wharfs.

-That was coming up but going down they would be taking slates.

-Yes, yes.

-But nature is taking over now with this quay.

-Always does, doesn't it, eventually?

-It's tough going, this bit, Phil.

-Yeah, the wind's got up,

but the valley is much wider here,

so it catches the wind down here.

-Nice house here, lovely house.

-This was the old laundry for the Plas.

-Oh, was it?

-Yes.

-It's still called Laundry Cottage.

-Oh, wow!

Now, this is an impressive wharf here, isn't it?

Yes, this is Tyddyn Isaf, one of the slate wharfs.

I think it's probably the biggest one.

Really good condition, isn't it? Most of it. Wow!

Imagine the hustle and bustle way back then

and there's only us two here,

it's very quiet.

The house was perfectly placed overlooking this beautiful valley.

The Oakeleys loved the views of rugged hills

and wild woodland from its terrace.

And when they stepped out of their back door

they had dramatic gorges to explore.

The Oakeleys loved this area because of the fact that it is so picturesque

and you can see signs of an old path that they would have built

all the way along here.

That would have been their fun fair rides,

that was what really scared them. They would have said,

"Right, let's go for a walk above the gorge."

The family used their wealth to add to the beauty of the area

by building dams and making a series of pools and waterfalls.

They created Llyn Mair, beautiful in every season.

And the estate also included large areas of woodland

which they managed for timber.

So, I'm going to include it in my exploration.

I'm joining moth recorder David Brown, whilst he sets up his latest survey.

You must have done this hundreds if not thousands of time, I would have thought.

Probably thousands of times, I would imagine, since 1968, when I first started.

Well, well, well.

And what makes this woodland so good for moths?

Well, it's the fact that it's ancient woodland,

and that's always a great place for moths.

A huge diversity of species rely upon ancient oak, beech, birch.

-I've recorded 350 species of larger moth here at Plas.

-350?

-Yes, in the last 20 years.

That's doing mainly the work in the summer in June and July.

We've had some fascinating migrants here such as striped hawk moth and scarce bordered straw.

These are ones that have come all the way from the Continent.

From North Africa and the Mediterranean.

Everyone knows about the migration of the cuckoo or the swallow

but moths travel thousands of miles.

Thousands of miles, yes.

With moths, it's often a one way ticket.

That's a shame, that's a shame.

Right, well, let's see what we get.

Come on, let's go and have a cup of tea. Or a beer, I'll buy you a beer.

Thank you, that sounds good.

As dusk falls it's not just moths

that will be active in the woodlands.

The resident pipistrelle bats

are leaving their roost in the roof of the old stable block.

They'll hunt for insects amongst the mature trees.

And, with nightfall, I'm hoping the footprint tunnels around the garden

are attracting lots of small mammals.

It's a sunny morning in the Maentwrog valley.

Kate and I are eager to find out what mammals

have left their footprints for us to find.

It's the same as the last one. Just push those through, that's it.

-Oh, wow!

-Blimey.

-A lot of activity, isn't there?

Yeah, these are all small mammal tracks.

The mice have got four toes on the front feet and five on the back.

I mean, there's a nice four print.

You see, one toe sticks out

at a slightly different angle to the others.

I think down here I'd expect mainly wood mice, perhaps bank voles.

Because it's darker and less ground vegetation.

Yeah, there's not the grassy vegetable matter

which the field voles want to be feeding on.

But I would imagine, cos of the sheer volume here,

it's a good sign, it's a sign of a healthy environment.

I think so. Plenty of small mammals

means there's plenty of food for those higher up the food chain.

The good thing, Kate, is, we also set up a camera on this one,

so what we can do is have a look and see what information is on the chip.

That will hopefully show us what's gone in and out of here.

-Right, here we go, Kate.

-Oh, there we go.

-Wood mouse.

-That's a wood mouse, yes.

-And he's gone in as well.

-It's in the tunnel.

-Eating.

-Ooh!

-They're great jumpers, aren't they?

-They are, they are.

-Hang on, hang on, whoa, whoa.

-There's three of them.

-Three wood mice again.

-Oh, playing leapfrog.

Oh! It's got a huge bit of hotdog. Taking the whole lot away.

You greedy little so-and-so, you're supposed to leave that there.

-It's got to be nearly a quarter of his size.

-It is.

Oh, off he goes.

I tell you what, we had the camera out the night before as well.

Let's just give this one a go.

Well, there's something there already.

Yeah, wood... Hmm...hard to tell.

The way it's hopping and leaping is very mouse-like.

Let's try this one now.

-Oh! Wow, that was quick!

-That was quick, wasn't it?

-Ooh!

-Ooh! Weasel?

-It's a mustela of some sort, isn't it?

-A stoat weasel.

-And then it's over here.

-Is it a mink? No.

-No.

-It had something in its mouth.

-Yeah, it looked like it, didn't it?

Probably one of the mice coming here to feed. Well, well, well.

-Shall we go back and have another look?

-Yeah, let's have another look.

Hold on then. Oh, here he goes, that's too fast, isn't it?

-It's when he comes back. It's very small.

-It's very small.

-Think it's a weasel?

-I was thinking weasel.

Cos it's so quick, you can't... it's carrying a prey or something.

It's got a mouse or a vole, hasn't it?

And that prey item was quite big compared to...

-It was sort of this size.

-So, I would say weasel.

Well, well, well. That's a nice record. That is a really cool record.

The garden is clearly a haven for small mammals.

I'm also keen to find out how David got on with the moth traps.

David!

-Ah, good morning.

-What have we got?

-Not bad.

-There's quite a few species here.

-Wow!

-There's some nice biggies here, aren't there?

-We can see a nice large moth here.

-This is a Great Prominent.

-Oh, wow!

That's a species which is indicating ancient

sessile oak woodland.

Oh, that's a nice one too, it's a big chunky thing.

And of course it's highly cryptic

on the lovely moss-covered tree trunks.

And in the same family we have a Lesser Swallow Prominent,

that's a little more widely distributed than the Great Prominent.

But still really nice, really smart moth.

And you know, to anyone who says,

"Ah, moths, just boring brown things that hang around at night,"

just come and have a look at one like that. It's beautiful, isn't it?

And Hebrew characters, even I catch those.

That's about the commonest moth at the moment.

-It is.

-This is the Iron Prominent.

-Iron Prominent. It's almost black, isn't it, this one.

-It is.

But it does have certain features which look like rusty iron,

reddish markings on the...

Yes, I can see those,

and the light reflects off them as well, doesn't it?

Here we have a very common moth at this time of year.

-Clouded Drab.

-Clouded Drab.

I can see why it's got the name drab,

-it's not the best-looking of moths.

-No, no.

-That's more or less it, isn't it?

-I think so.

Another Clouded Drab and that's it.

And it's no wonder, is it, if you've got 350 moths here at least.

You know, you've got all these bats and you've got all these birds,

you know, feeding on a lot of these, I dare say, which must break your heart.

I sometimes see the bats swooping around my light at night

wondering how many special moths are being consumed.

The moths may be one reason the woodland is special

but there's plenty of other wildlife here too.

The Ffestiniog Railway runs past the back of the house.

I've come to Plas Halt to catch the next train

and explore the woodland further.

Bore da. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

This is the way to travel. It's a bit like having a portable hide going through the woodland here

looking at all the birds.

This was built in 1836 and it was to carry slate

from Blaenau Ffestiniog down to the coast.

The trains came in later because it ran by gravity and horses pulled it back up.

Of course, it's been kept open really for the tourists.

There is actually a reason for me being here.

I'm going to see Huw Jenkins, a local naturalist who lives in the woodland

and whose house has its very own stop.

Cheers, brilliant, thank you very much. Diolch.

-Huw, sut wyt ti, boi?

-Welcome to Campbell's Platform.

-Thank you very much.

Your very own platform as well, boy.

-Shall we go for a walk into the wood?

-I would like to show you something special.

I can show you some wild goats, all being well.

This morning, they were behind us over there and they went down the bank.

We need to be pretty quiet, do we?

They're not too sensitive, they're not too worried. They see me enough.

-They might be a bit scared of you though, Iolo.

-Yeah!

Ah, there you go.

-Big curly horns.

-Ah, yes I see, I see.

There's currently five - three males, two females.

They've had no kids this winter nor the previous winter so, I'm not sure.

Why's that then?

These ones are getting a bit long in the tooth.

What's the origin of these, Huw?

I like to think these once belonged to Huw Lloyd,

who lived in my house. I've got his will.

He died in 1684, it went to probate,

there's a list of every item he owned, including 59 goats,

and I reckon they escaped and they're still running wild today.

-You reckon these are descendants of his goats?

-Yeah.

Well, you couldn't ask for a better place, could you? You couldn't.

And to have goats on your doorstep as well,

that really is something, isn't it?

I wasn't that keen when they ransacked my vegetable garden though.

Everyone I know has had a run-in with goats.

These goats are currently enjoying not only the twigs and bark of the trees

but also the new spring leaves.

This time of year is perfect for finding woodland birds,

who are busy building their nests.

These old oak woods are at their best now,

with the leaves just emerging, looking really, really fresh.

They are full of holes, which is fantastic for nesting birds,

but in this particular wood the Countryside Council for Wales

have put up nest boxes.

The main reason for that is not just to provide more nest sites,

but also it makes it easier to monitor the birds.

I'm on my way to meet Gareth Evans, whose job it is to go and check all these boxes.

-Hiya, boy, how are you?

-Iawn.

-All right? Good.

-Do you want me to take that?

-OK, fine.

-I'll take that for you.

I'll take the notes, then, OK?

-So, what was in here last time?

-Pied flycatcher.

-Oh, was it? Oh, right.

-Nest and eggs?

-A complete nest.

-Let's have a look.

-Oh, wow! One, two, three, five eggs.

-Oh, five eggs.

Five sky blue lovely pied flycatcher eggs.

Typical pied flycatcher nest too, dried grass and dried leaves.

That's all they have, isn't it?

So what was in this next one last time?

-A blue tit hen on the nest.

-Oh, right.

They're feisty little things, aren't they?

Very aggressive. They're more protective than the pied flycatcher

when you open the top of the box.

I tell you one thing, dangerous job you've got coming along there.

It's a blue tit sat on there, and it's all wool.

It looks so cosy, but she looked up at me as if to say,

"What are you doing? Get off."

I'll just leave her, I think, that one.

Right, next one.

Notice how I'm doing all the hard work here.

So, what was in this one before?

There's a pied flycatcher, a complete nest.

-A good chance there could be eggs or even a hen on the nest this time.

-Oh, OK.

Yeah, oh, right.

I'll leave her but there's a hen on the nest there, so I'll leave her.

That's unusual, isn't it? They usually leave, don't they? They're quite jumpy.

Yes, they're more jumpy than the blue tits, so onto the next one, yes?

Brilliant, Gareth. That's lovely, that is.

There was a blue tit's complete nest with seven eggs.

See if she's on here. Oh, lovely nest.

One, two, three, four, five, seven eggs, so that's a full clutch now.

Moss around the outside and lined with wool.

Fantastic, isn't it? Lovely.

So, what have you got? How many boxes in this whole wood?

In this actual site we've got 25 boxes.

15 were blue tits and five pied flycatchers,

so it seems that the blue tit is very dominant on this site.

Yeah, fantastic.

I've almost finished my exploration of the old Oakeley Estate.

But back at the house there's a special event taking place.

It might help us find one or two more species before I leave.

This is fantastic because it is Bio-blitz day in Plas Tan-y-Bwlch

and what that means is that they've got a group of about a dozen experts,

they've got the public here to just blitz the whole site

to try and record how many spiders they can find, how many moths,

dragonflies, birds, reptiles, amphibians,

anything and everything, and it's brilliant, it's a fantastic day.

With all the extra eyes, ears and expertise here today

I'm wondering what else we can find.

There's no surprise that the mammal group found a vole.

But the moths trappers have captured a species David and I didn't.

That's called an elephant hawk moth

and it's one of the most beautiful moths you can catch.

It has this lovely yellowy-green and pink colour.

Common but so few people know they are out there

but if you put out a moth trap and you'll catch... I think they've caught four or five here.

It's absolutely stunning, just look at that.

I'm also introduced to an unusual survey technique

which adds another species to our list.

It shows you are never too old to learn.

I have witnessed something here that I have never seen in my life before.

OK, take it away, Richard.

I hope this works now, I've built you up.

So give it a tap and see what happens.

Here he comes. What we have got here is a mesh web spider

-and you can fool them into coming out with a tuning fork.

-Look at that!

You can see him going for it, he's definitely totally fooled.

So, does the fork vibrate like an insect would in the web?

It does, yeah. If you think of a fly trapped up on that silk he'd be buzzing away.

And that tuning fork is just mimicking the fly buzzing there.

I've got to be honest, I've never, ever seen that before.

I find that incredible. I love that.

It's fantastic to see all these people enjoying the wildlife.

And I've been surprised with the variety of creatures we've found here.

There's no doubt that the Oakeleys have left a wonderful legacy here.

The mature woodlands, the gardens, it's all become a real haven for wildlife.

And I think the mixture of natural and manicured means that it's particularly good for reptiles.

And it was a real privilege for me to be able to hold a grass snake,

and a big one at that. That doesn't happen every day!

But I think the most important legacy is the fact that this hasn't been left as a living museum

to times gone by.

It's actually used as an education centre,

educating the next generation of naturalists.

Next time, I'll be exploring my last great Welsh park,

Stackpole Estate in Pembrokeshire,

where I'll glimpse an underwater world...

This is a real hotspot for roach.

..get up close to birds...

and go on the hunt for otters.

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