The Great Orme: a new chapter to our coastal story

It’s a wildlife paradise, regarded as one of the top five most important botanical sites in Britain. A place where you can find flora and fauna found nowhere else on earth.

Thanks to your overwhelming support towards our campaign to save and look after important places on our coast, today, the Great Orme in North Wales is better defended against insensitive development and its fragile landscape and threatened rare plants and insects can be better safeguarded for the future.

We’re pleased to announce that we have acquired Parc Farm near the summit of Pen y Gogarth/the Great Orme, near Llandudno, and the grazing rights over the majority of the dramatic headland.

This marks the 50th anniversary of our Neptune Coastline Campaign – a fundraising initiative which has enabled us to protect 157 miles of coastlines in Wales for people to enjoy and nature to thrive.

Creating space for nature

This acquisition comes just weeks after we launched our ambitious strategy aimed at nursing the natural environment back to health and reversing the alarming decline in wildlife.

Pen y Gogarth is an internationally renowned botanical site and is home to a wild cotoneaster that does not exist anywhere else in the world and two unique sub-species of butterfly; the Grayling Thyone and the Silver-studded Blue. Its limestone expanses are also home to numerous nationally vulnerable plants and invertebrates, as well as rare birds such as the chough.

National Trust Director for Wales Justin Albert said: ‘Our absolute priority in taking on this fantastic site is to put in place a specific conservation grazing regime to ensure the survival of these species and habitats and one of our key aims will be to provide access to parts of the Great Orme that have until now been fenced off.’

‘Not only is the site of national importance in conservation terms, but it is also a much loved asset to Llandudno and we are looking forward to working closely with the community and key partners such as Plantlife, RSPB, Conwy County Borough Council, Mostyn Estates and Natural Resources Wales to ensure the best possible future for this special place.’

Our coastal story

The Welsh coastline has played an important and proud part in our coastal story, with Dinas Oleu in Barmouth being the first piece of land to be donated to us in 1895; Whitford Burrows on Gower becoming the first acquisition after the launch of our Neptune campaign in 1965 and now the protection of a vast area of the Great Orme has highlighted our celebration of the Neptune Coastal Conservation campaign’s 50th anniversary.

Justin Albert added: ‘We cannot underestimate the significance of Pen y Gogarth as a unique landscape, nor its significance to the natural heritage of Wales.’ ‘This stretch of coastline encapsulates the beating heart of what we as a conservation charity are all about – looking after places of natural beauty rich in wildlife, creating space for nature and conserving our rich coastal heritage’.

Anyone wishing to help us look after the Great Orme should email wn.volunteer@nationaltrust.org.uk