How Wales became home to outdoor centres

Wales has a long record of outdoor centres, and several of them still run courses today. Each began for a different reason, from wartime training to Welsh language youth camps.

Aberdovey, 1941

Outward Bound opened its first school at Aberdovey in 1941, with support from the Blue Funnel shipping line. We cover it in more detail in our piece on Outward Bound at Aberdovey.

Plas y Brenin

Plas y Brenin at Capel Curig in Snowdonia began as an inn. One source says Lord Penrhyn built it in 1798 and another says 1801, so the date depends on which you read. It served as a mountain warfare training centre in the Second World War.

The Central Council for Physical Recreation acquired the building in 1955, using funds from the King George VI memorial fund, and named it Plas y Brenin, meaning “The King’s Place”. G.I. Milton was its first warden. John Jackson, who started as chief instructor, became its second director and held the post from 1960 to 1976. The centre says the Mountain Training Trust has run it on behalf of Sport England since 1997.

Urdd centres, Glan-llyn and Llangrannog

The Urdd is a Welsh youth movement, and it opened several residential centres where young people could take part in activities in Welsh. The Urdd’s own history page says Glan-llyn, near Bala, was set up as an outdoor centre in 1950, when Plas Glan-llyn became available to rent. One other account says the Urdd bought it in 1964, so the sources do not agree on the date of purchase.

At Llangrannog, on the Ceredigion coast, the Urdd paid £18,000 for Cefn Cwrt farm in 1968, after renting the camp’s land for years. The 1970s brought a great deal of building, and the centre opened all year round for the first time.

Plas Menai

Plas Menai, on the Menai Strait, was built as a national centre for water sports and outdoor pursuits. The Welsh Joint Education Committee suggested a centre of this kind in 1973. Construction began in November 1978 and it opened officially on 23 September 1983, though building work was not finished until 1985. Another source gives an earlier opening date and an earlier name, Plas y Deri.

Council centres

Many Welsh outdoor centres were also run by English local authorities for school groups. Glasbury House on the River Wye, near Hay, is one example. It was run for the London Borough of Redbridge and closed in 2015 after funding cuts. It reopened in 2019 under new owners as the River Wye Activity Centre.

What this means for you

Many of these places now welcome groups, schools and families, and a lot of the commercial centres in Wales grew from the same tradition. Our coasteering page lists Welsh providers, and our Snowdonia climbing piece covers the mountains around Plas y Brenin.

Sources

This covers a few of the best known centres only. We found nothing reliable on the many smaller county council centres of the 1960s, so they are not included.