Lake Vyrnwy canoes

Lake Vyrnwy reservoir was built in the 1880s to supply Liverpool with fresh water. The new lake meant that the farms and houses of the people of the valley would be lost underwater. In order to create the large lake the valley of the River Vyrnwy had to be closed off by the huge stone dam and the whole valley behind the dam which contained the old village of Llanwddyn was flooded.

Work on the dam building project began in 1881, and for the next eight years the dam wall at the bottom of the valley was steadily getting higher while the people living in the village went about their everyday lives. The buildings of the old village were knocked down after the people moved out, and even the remains of the dead were removed from the churchyard and reburied next to the new church.

The dam itself is pretty impressive, 26m high from the bed of the lake to the sill for the overflow, but almost twice that if measured from the buried foundations to the top of the final structure. The dam is 357m long and the base is 36.5m thick.

The level of water in the reservoir was very low yesterday, but not low enough to see the remains of the village. It's going to rain heavily tomorrow, so the level might reach the lip of the dam.