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Emma Marshall, author of a new guidebook,‘Wild Swimming Walks Eryri/Snowdonia’ has shared with us her three favourite waterfalls from the book.

‘Wild Swimming Walks Eryri/Snowdonia’ leads you on 28 walk-swimming adventures in the soaring landscapes of Eryri National Park. As well as many stunning mountain lakes and dreamy rivers, the book features 21 waterfalls. Here are Emma’s favourite three all in one place.

Rhaeadr Afon y Cwm

A woodland trail, at the Craflwyn Estate, near Beddgelert, ribbons through impressive tall pines to reach a secret path up to this beautiful waterfall and emerald-green pool. The fall tumbles down into its sizeable pool in two strands from a crown of rhododendron and mountain ash, making your heart sing and beckoning you to dive into her clear green waters.

The six-mile walk beyond takes in Dinas Emrys, a rocky fortress and legendary home of Wales’ red dragon. Then, over beautiful heathland to meet the Watkin Path and her famous waterfalls and plunge pools, before skirting the lovely, tree fringed Llyn Dinas near the end. This six-and-a-half-mile circular walk is a joy to waterfall lovers and one I can guarantee you’ll return to again and again.

Rhaeadr Ddu

At Ganllwyd, we walk upstream, alongside the cascading Afon Gamlan, through groves of ancient woodland, to reach the mighty Rhaeadr Ddu (Black Waterfall). This broad, multi-stranded waterfall sparkles under a canopy of oak. A careful scramble down over rock brings you to a magnificent, large plunge pool. The twisted branches of the ancient trees and their mantle of green are captivating as you float in the black velvety water.

Beyond the waterfall and the roar of the river, the walk leads across magical hillsides to the ruins of a long-closed gold mine and onto tranquil lanes, passing old stone barns and blossom-laden hawthorn, thrumming with bees. This delicious walk is an easy and pleasant almost four-mile circuit.

\n\n

Pistyll Gwyn

The wild, rugged and rocky Rhinogydd mountains are perhaps Wales’ best-kept secret and a visit to the remote Pistyll Gwyn (White Spout/Waterfall) might be the highlight of your waterfall-chasing year. This postcard-pretty waterfall tumbles four meters into a divine pool beneath. You’ll be tempted to take a Timotei-inspired shower under the elegant single-strand fall.

The walk on which this delightful waterfall can be found is a challenging 10-mile circular, cupped deep within the wild beauty of these secluded mountains. The route takes in two captivating and peaceful lakes as well as the heather-clad sister peaks of Rhinog Fawr and Rhinog Fach.

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From the rolling hills and cloud-topped mountains of the Eryri to the jagged coastlines of Pembrokeshire, the beauty of Wales has long inspired great artists. Sir Kyffin, whose paintings pepper this page, lived and worked only a few miles from us here at Halen Môn and Ben Rogers Jones, from Wales largest fine art auction house Rogers Jones & Co, has put together this beautiful introduction to him and his work for us here. All the images have recently been under the hammer at their auction house.

\"Halen Môn overlooks the wonderful Menai Straits, the body of water separating the island from the mountainous mainland of Wales. A few miles down the coast from the Halen Môn HQ is a cluster of waterside houses known as Pwllfanogl.

Before Thomas Telford’s Menai Suspension Bridge was completed in 1826, there was a ferry port at Pwllfanogl and the Boat Inn would have offered weary travellers respite before and after the ferry crossing.

In 1974, a landscaper painter moved into the Boat Inn, now called Min-y-Môr. The artist was originally from the Island but had been living in London since wartime where he had worked as art master at Highgate School. His name was John Kyffin Williams but more commonly and affectionately known as simply Kyffin (pronounced ‘cuff-fin’).

Sir Kyffin, as he was knighted in 1999, was born in 1916. He was to become Wales best loved artist and ‘the defining artist of Wales in the 20th Century’.

Richard Wilson (1714-1782), born in Montgomeryshire, mid-Wales, would probably hold that mantel. Wilson is considered the father of landscape painting in Wales and is one of the giants in British art history. Big bucks are also paid for work by these Welsh artists - Ceri Richards, Gwen John and Cedric Morris. However, accumulatively Sir Kyffin would be the highest grossing Welsh artist at auction.

Kyffin’s work comes to market regularly and consistently makes many thousands of pounds. The highest auction price as of November 2024, is £62,000 achieved at the Rogers Jones saleroom in 2021. The second highest is £61,000 which was again at Rogers Jones' auction rooms as recently as November 2024.

His oil paintings regularly make sums of more than £20,000 and his works on paper several thousand pounds too. These kinds of prices have been going on (and generally going up) for more than 20 years. Add all the prices up, together with gallery prices too, and you have a significant Kyffin industry. In 2024, we offered 112 works by Sir Kyffin Williams and only three of them failed to sell. The accumulative value of these works was more than half a million pounds. And that is at just one auction house.

Sir Kyffin’s work is very identifiable and that is part of his appeal. For most of his career, when working in oils, Kyffin would use a palette knife to thickly apply slabs of paint to the canvas. His technique was bold and confident, and it meant that he could be a prolific worker - the Kyffin industry started with Kyffin himself. Using his palette knife, Sir Kyffin would not set out to capture the landscape forensically, instead his objective was to simplify the landscape and to introduce mood and expression through colour and application. His landscapes were more often stormy and turbulent as they were quiet. This turbulence a reflection of the weather in the mountains of Eryri (Snowdonia) but also a reflection of Sir Kyffin Williams’ character as Kyffin was an epileptic and suffered from bouts of dark depression.

When Sir Kyffin resided at Pwllfanogl, he painted the mountains, the coastline and the villages of Ynys Mon and beyond. He would also introduce life to many of his canvases in the form of farmers, sheepdogs, cattle, farms, villages and chapels. Timeless dry-stone walls would also be a feature. All these Welsh motifs bring about a feeling of nostalgia when we gaze at his work; the old farmers are our forefathers and the solitary farms our ancestral homes now abandoned, and the remaining stone rubble is a monument to the past - a simpler time when all of us were more connected to our landscape. There is a word in Welsh called hiraeth, which can be best described in English as heart-felt longing for something that is missing, perhaps one’s parent or a place we once knew. Sir Kyffin is the conduit for our hiraeth and I think this is the biggest reason for the artist’s enduring appeal.

Sir Kyffin Williams is an artist that Wales is very proud of and he's home, just a stone’s throw from Halen Môn, is where the artist lived during the most successful period of his life. Sir Kyffin Williams’ death, on September 1st2006, was felt acutely by the Anglesey community but also beyond in mainland Wales and further afield in the world of art.\" Ben Rogers Jones, partner with Rogers Jones & Co Auctioneers & Valuers

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Herbarium, Caz Hildebrand's stylishly illustrated guide to 100 herbs and their uses, is as useful as it is beautiful.

Here, Caz has kindly shared her thoughts on a much-used and much loved herb - rosemary. It's a key ingredient in our brand new skincare range, as well, of course, as an accompaniment to any classic Welsh lamb dish.

\"Rosemary, literally, ‘dew of the sea’ – has always been thrown into graves to signify remembrance, just as brides have for a long time worn rosemary headpieces (they are thought to be a love charm). Love and death go hand in hand when it comes to this woody, evergreen perennial, as the seventeenth century poet Robert Herrick knew:

‘Grow for two ends – it matters not at all, Be’t for my bridall, or my buriall.’

This powerfully aromatic herb, native to the Mediterranean, has lovely blue, butterfly-attracting flowers and blue-grey foliage. Despite its origin, though, it flourishes in cooler climates and is a staple in British gardens.

In culinary terms, rosemary is best used with a certain amount of discretion, since this resinous, slightly bitter-tasting herb, with its notes of camphor and nutmeg, can be strong.

It is a natural accompaniment to roast meat – so much so that, in Italy and France, butchers are in the habit of giving customers a small bunch to cook with their purchase.

The partnership with lamb is perhaps best known – tiny sprigs of rosemary, slivers of garlic and sometimes anchovy are inserted into slits in a leg of lamb before roasting – but it works well in most robust savoury dishes and is particularly good scattered over sautéed potatoes or roast squash towards the end of cooking.

It also makes a surprisingly successful addition to desserts; poach a sprig or two with autumn fruits, add it to an apple pie or use it to flavour a dark chocolate ganache or mousse. Rosemary flowers can be frozen in ice cubes to make a pretty addition to summer cocktails.

\n\n

How to grow rosemary

Rosemary is easy to grow, particularly if it is propagated from cuttings. Plant in a sunny spot and prune regularly to prevent it from getting lanky. Water evenly.

Eat it with

Lamb, beef, pork, veal, rabbit, chicken, peppers, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, cabbage, parsnips, squash, oily fish, lentils, anchovies, olives, chocolate, apples, pears, plums, oranges.

Why not try?

If you have a mature rosemary bush in your garden, strip the leaves from a few stout branches and use the stalks as skewers for seafood or chicken kebabs, sharpening the ends first.

Rosemary for healing

An infusion of rosemary can be taken for tiredness and headaches; a massage rub can soothe aching joints; inhaling essential oil from a tissue can stimulate the brain. Researchers are looking into the use of rosemary to enhance memory performance.

\n\n

Our thanks to Caz for sharing.

You can find her beautiful book, Herbarium, here.

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\n\nOur Smoked Water has been making waves for a couple of years now, but last week we were incredibly excited to hear that we'd won an award for the 'Best Ingredient' from the World Food Innovation Awards. The judging panel were impressed that it is 100% natural, more consistent than smoking an ingredient yourself and can either add a background savouriness or an intense edge of bonfire depending on how much is added to a dish.\n\nWe sell it to everyone from Marks and Spencer for loaves of sourdough, to local fudge company Matt and Ben’s for their buttery sweets, along with a whole host of prominent chefs. Innovation has been a driving force of our company for more than two decades and it’s fantastic to have that recognized on a world stage.\"\n\nDon't take it from us, though. Below are a couple of testimonials from chefs who were kind enough to share their love of the product.\n\nBen Ford, chef and restauranteur\n\n'One of my greatest discoveries recently was the smoked water that David is producing at Halen Môn, it has a soft smoky finish that many foods and cocktails could benefit from.\n\nDavid and I share a passion for smoke and this is a great example of how his out-of-the-box approach to life has opened the door to how we look at the foods we prepare.\n\nAs a chef who utilizes wood fire a lot, those flavours are a large component of my food. I am constantly looking for new ways to bring the flavours of naturally smoked foods indoors.'\n\nEd Smith, chef and author of On The Side\n\n'I’m a big fan of Halen Mon’s oak smoked water. It’s a key component in two recipes in my book, — as part of a salad dressing, and in a ‘smoky’ ratatouille. In both cases it adds a warming, rounded and of course smoky depth of flavour to the dishes. It’s a quality that you normally can’t get without going through the whole smoking process yourself, which is of course logistically and relatively admin heavy, particularly for the home cook.It’s not acrid or bitter, which is impressive — other condiments offering an immediate smokiness often are.\n\nAnd if you try and smoke things at home, or use a smoke gun, you’ll often find the smoke is unpleasant, rather than beneficial.\n\nBasically, Halen Mon’s oak smoked water has become as useful and legitimate an addition to my larder as the likes of Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, toasted sesame oil and fish sauce.'\n\nIf you've bought a bottle and aren't sure what to do with it, try our Smoked Water recipe section, including:\n\n

\n\n

\nEasy Smoked Flatbreads\n Sweet + Smoked Pork Belly\n A Smoked Negroni\n Smoky Corn Chowder\n

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