Plas Glyn-y-Weddw in Llanbedrog opens its winter exhibitions as the Winllan woodland recovers

Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, the Victorian mansion and arts centre at Llanbedrog, has opened its winter season of exhibitions. Running until Christmas Eve, the programme features Luned Rhys Parri, Jonah Evans with Patterns in Nature and Legends, Anna Falcini's reimagining Gwen John: soft tissue, and a mixed show of works by 30 artists.

The house has a remarkable story. It was built in 1857 for Elizabeth Jones Parry, widow of Sir Love Jones Parry of Madryn, and later sold to Cardiff businessman Solomon Andrews, who established an art gallery there in 1896 and opened the gardens and grounds to the public.

The gallery closed at the outbreak of the Second World War, when Land Army girls stayed in part of the house, and after the Andrews family sold it in 1945 the building was turned into flats. By the late 1970s it was deteriorating fast. In 1979 the artist Gwyneth ap Tomos and her husband Dafydd bought Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, and through their hard work it was saved from ruin. A charitable trust took over the running of the gallery in the mid 1990s.

The Winllan woodland, part of the mansion's original gardens, was bought in 2008 and a network of paths has been reopened over the years. After Storm Darragh brought down trees in December 2024, work to regenerate the woodland is taking great strides. The wood from a fallen beech tree was offered to artists, and more than 80 creative practitioners connected with Pen Llŷn and wider Gwynedd were selected to take part in the resulting Coed Coexist exhibition, which opened in May.

The Plas is a lively part of peninsula life. It has a café, accommodation, a theatre space and rooms for hire, and it hosts concerts too: in summer 2025, Côr y Brythoniaid raised more than £4,000 for a local cause at a concert there.

Works from the current exhibitions can also be bought through the gallery's online shop.

Parking is free for the first two hours, with charges after that. Opening times and exhibition details are at oriel.org.uk.