Lake Vyrnwy: Shelter backed to boost visitor facilities at Powys reservoir

The shelter will improve facilities for people visiting a sculpture park at Lake Vyrnwy

An outdoor activity and events shelter has been approved as the first stage of plans to improve visitor attractions at a reservoir in Powys.

The RSPB and water company Hafren Dyfrdwy are aiming to boost tourism by creating a Lake Vyrnwy Experience.

The shelter will improve facilities for people visiting a sculpture park.

Car parks, landscaping and pathways could be improved next and a visitor centre built to promote the area's history and conservation work.

Consultants Heritage Design said the aim was "to improve the visitor experience, the ability to deliver activities and solve existing issues around the management of visitors around the site which are problematic during busy periods".

Villagers were moved to allow the dam to be built in the 1880s

The Grade I-listed Vyrnwy Dam was built between 1881 and 1890 and was the first large masonry dam in the UK.

When it was completed the reservoir was the largest in Europe and provided water to the city of Liverpool via a 100km (68-mile) aqueduct.

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The old village of Llanwddyn was flooded following construction of the dam, with 37 houses, a church and two chapels among the buildings lost.

A new settlement had been built lower down the valley by the then Liverpool Corporation for the people who lost their homes.

Further plans to boost visitor facilities at Lake Vyrnwy will be submitted to Powys County Council in the coming months, subject to the availability of lottery funding, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.