The place
A quiet, secluded conservation project at the head of the Artists Valley: twenty years of planting, restoring and making room for the wild.
Blaeneinion is a secluded conservation project set in 75 acres at the head of the Artists Valley, near Machynlleth in West Wales. We are slowly making a place for wildlife and for people, one with a bit more habitat and a bit more life in it each season, for whoever comes after us.
Over the years we have planted around 34,000 native saplings, alongside a 2.5-acre forest garden with around 100 fruit and nut cultivars and some 800 soft-fruit bushes. It is slow, patient work, turning a hillside into a place that feeds birds, beavers and folk alike.
We have spent many years growing food here, at one point supplying around 200 portions a week to a local box scheme. Personal health and a busy world put that on hold for a while, but we are forever planting, and we do hope to offer real, tangible support to local folk again in the seasons to come.
There has never been a better time to plant a garden, my friends.
The sanctuary
We love our beavers, and no wonder they love this place. In September 2020 we were honoured with the River Restoration Centre's River Champion status for the wetland habitat they have helped to create.
Our family of Eurasian beavers feed in the early evenings, right by the fire pit, in the same spot every day. They are unusually tame and used to people. Sit fairly still, keep quiet, and you may be enthralled to watch these beautiful native creatures chomping on carrots and apples so close by. Please be kind to them; they are wild creatures and only come because they trust us to be calm and peaceful. Our breeding pair have had kits five years running, so the extended, multi-generational family is perhaps ten strong now, all living together in their lodge.
A stone's throw from the Ynyslas RSPB reserve and the Dyfi Osprey Project, there is wildlife everywhere here. Our 75 acres are home to buzzards, kites and owls; in summer the swallows, redstarts and spotted flycatchers nest. Resident mammals include polecat, pine marten, stoat, fox and badger, alongside our own (rather grumpy) geese, very relaxed chickens and super-friendly farm cats.
Who you might meet
Blaeneinion is a private property, run a little differently to what you might be used to. It is a little pocket of freedom, honour, charm and quiet magic, where everyone is welcome and everyone is equal, the owner included.
We ask only that those who visit take responsibility for themselves and tread gently on the land. There are no pages and pages of terms here; just a simple agreement, written plainly, and a shared understanding that we cause no harm and no loss to one another. Please do come :)
