Talk:Portmeirion

Copyright status?
Some of the text in the main page appears to be lifted from the official Portmeirion website's descriptions. The Portmeirion website claims (c) 2002.


 * Perhaps you could flag up which text you feel this is? I can't see much of a similarity myself.Ghughesarch 10:35, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Villages in Wales
A recent editor added the category "Villages in Wales" to this article.

While there's some ironic truth to the idea that Portmeirion is "The Village", I'm not sure it counts as a real village. It isn't a political entity, after all, just a commercial establishment within Minffordd.

Should this categorization remain?

Atlant 16:55, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * Was there anything there before William-Ellis got involved? There were houses there, I would say its a village. AHEMSLTD 12:11, 25 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Are you sure there were houses on the property? (Yes, the village of Minffordd was and still is nearby, but I mean right on the property that became Portmeirion. It's pretty desolate on the eastern side of the property, so they would have had to have been in the heart of the development.)


 * Atlant 12:40, 25 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Afraid my "Where" became a "There" thanks to my typing, I was asking IF there were houses before. I agree that it is a desolate area especially before the Slate trade and the 'Cob'. It would not surprise me if William-Ellis had demolished or adapted a few old buildings as part of his 'Development'. AHEMSLTD 18:59, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

The main building of the hotel, and the cottages called "White Horses", "Mermaid" and "The Salutation" existed before Williams-Ellis got involved, hvaing been a private estate called Aber Ia, developed in the 1850s, itself on the site of a foundry and boatyard which was active in the late 18th century. There is the site (and very minor remains) of a mediaeval castle (known variously as Castell Deudraeth, Castell Gwain Goch and Castell Aber Iau) in the woods just outside the vllage proper, recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) in 1188.


 * Whatever was there before was not called Portmeirion; this name was applied to the place by Williams-Ellis. Therefore — this being an article about Portmeirion — the location of a village on the site before Portmeirion is irrelevant (the only recorded thing there anyway was a private estate, not a village), and Portmeirion is not now nor has it been a village.  It's a hotel.  I have changed the "Villages in Gwinnedd" category to simply "Gwinnedd". 12.22.250.4 17:19, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, anonymous poster, this is an article about Portmeirion. However, the previous history of the site is relevant to Portmeirion (since elements of the previous developments on the site still survive). Contrary to your poor information, there are records of a settlement of some sort there before the site became a private estate in the 1840s. Presumably you'd want the article on the English city of York, say, to omit all reference to its pre-mediaeval history because the Romans and the Vikings called it different names? You would have to define village in a very odd way to insist that Portmeirion isn't one. The fact that it's run as a combination of hotel rooms and self-catering cottages doesn't stop it being a small, coherent, group of predominantly residential buildings in the countryside, which is what a village is. Oh, and it's Gwynedd, not Gwinnedd

Gareth (Ghughesarch)

The Green Dome.
I have removed the reference to this building being 'virtually unchanged' again. This is because it had a green roof in the Prisoner series, and was referred to as 'The green dome', this was it's most important feature in the series. As it now has a grey lead roof it is very different, and no longer 'the green dome'. It is certainly not 'virtually unchanged'. Before reverting again please discuss here. Alexander-Scott 09:26, 14 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Perhaps take out the "such as the "Stone Boat"" and leave the sentence as "many of the locations used in The Prisoner are virtually unchanged from the series." Giving specific examples, to me, creates an impression that some (much?) of Portmeirion has changed a lot since the series was made, which isn't particularly the case.
 * Ghughesarch 12:20, 14 March 2007 (UTC)


 * The big change, of course, is that the "helicopter lawn" is now a swimming pool.


 * Atlant 12:34, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Improved gallery
/* External links */ Old link contained few images of Portmeirion amongst thousands of unrelated images - replaced with more relevant gallery

I have removed a link to a search on a geo-image site because the information linked to was not specific to Portmeirion, indeed the vast majority of the many images were nothing to do with Portmeirion.

I have replaced it with a link to a set of Creative Commons images on Flickr, perhaps I can create a wiki media gallery of these images if that is possible? Alexander-Scott (talk) 14:34, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

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Tourist village
I think that calling this a tourist village is rather demeaning, and inaccurate. it is a brilliantly designed and executed hotel.Royalcourtier (talk) 06:29, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Anonymity and fees
"On request from Williams-Ellis, Portmeirion was not identified on screen as the filming location until the credits of the final episode of the series, and indeed Williams-Ellis stated that the levy of an entrance fee was a deliberate ploy to prevent the village from being spoilt by overcrowding." These are two entirely separate matters, requiring separate paragraphs. They should not be lumped into one sentence.Royalcourtier (talk) 06:34, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

The Terror
I’ve been reading Arthur Machen’s 1917 story, The Terror, recently.

The story is partly set in a village Machen calls Meirion, that’s in the far west of Wales, and is a ‘seaside town of some repute with holiday-makers.’

Speaking personally, I feel Machen was referring to Portmeirion: and wondered if someone could verify that, and add it to the article?

09:15, 14 January 2021 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cuddy2977 (talk • contribs)


 * Clearly not, given that construction of the village started in 1925. Nick Cooper (talk) 00:10, 15 January 2021 (UTC)


 * OK, I’ll go with that, Nick. But?  Why did Machen name a area in West Wales, ‘Meirion’?   I’m aware there were buildings there, before Portmeirion was started, but don’t know what they were called, or whether he knew of them.  Cuddy2977 (talk) 21:41, 16 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Might the article Merionethshire help with some background? Feline Hymnic (talk) 21:57, 16 January 2021 (UTC)
 * It's also possible the name existed in some form; also there's the possibility it might have inspired William-Ellis, assuming Machen's village was fictional. 136.159.160.121 (talk) 21:00, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

Additional information
I last visited Portmeirion in the fall of 1991, so that was a long time ago and some of this might no longer apply, but when I was there a vehicle used as a taxi for filming in The Prisoner was parked outside what was then the Prisoner shop. The shop may be gone, but might the vehicle still be there? Also, there was a pet cemetery in the woods of the village, which I don't think is mentioned in the article. Anecdotally I recall the village was also within "sonic boom range" of an air base; I recall walking a wooded path near that cemetary and then getting the life startled out of me after some jet fighter broke the sound barrier nearby. 136.159.160.121 (talk) 21:00, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * No idea about the 'taxi', but the dog cemetery is in a wooded area called "Y Gwyllt" (The Wild) which I thought I understood was connected to (what is now) the Portmeirion Hotel. It would certainly make sense to mention this in the article. There's also a large private beach accessed from the village. Sionk (talk) 14:46, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

i
i don't know how to spell the villiage's name nor that of the hotel, but ths articile seems to consider the letter i to be as whimsical as the vllage tself. Kdammers (talk) 16:23, 12 June 2024 (UTC)


 * what are you on about?  Dank Jae  18:22, 12 June 2024 (UTC)
 * The typos, which I have just corrected. DuncanHill (talk) 18:30, 12 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Bear in mind that if the spelling is in a quote, the mis-spelling might have been in the original document. Though in this particular case the source is off-line, so difficult to check. Sionk (talk) 10:39, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I have linked an online copy so readers can check for themselves. DuncanHill (talk) 11:17, 13 June 2024 (UTC)