Upper Conwy Catchment Project

Project
Excavator moves gravel and stone from made made embankment transporting over the river via a converyor belt at Carrog Farm, Snowdonia.

Floodplain restoration in a bid to boost wildlife  

Work has started on reconnecting a section of the Afon Machno with its natural floodplain. Find out how we're using a huge conveyor belt to help with this river restoration in Snowdonia.

The entire Conwy catchment covers over 574 km2 - an area the size of the Isle of Man. There are busy tourist towns including Conwy and Betws y Coed, rural villages such as Cwm Penmachno and remote hill farms such as those on the Ysbyty Ifan estate.

The habitats change across the landscape, from blanket bog and moorland in the higher reaches of the Migneint to ffridd and woodland as you wind down towards lush lowland farms, meadows and estuaries. Rivers travel the entire length of the landscape connecting habitats and homes with the source of water up on the Migneint to the sea at Conwy.

While our work is focussed in the Upper Conwy, we hope to have positive impacts downstream and across the entire Conwy Catchment, as demonstrated by the map and video below. 

Map illustrating the Conwy Catchment project in North Wales Play Video
Floods along a river at Capel Curig, Snowdonia

Why is this project so important? 

Find out how are we working towards creating bigger, better more joined up habitats in the Upper Conwy, that benefit people and wildlife.

Carrog farmhouse next to Cwm Penmachno sign in Snowdonia

Carrog: a flagship farm 

Find out how Carrog Farm at Cwm Penmachno is set to become one of the Upper Conwy Catchment projects' flagship sites.

Find out more

Working with communities 

By involving local communities and working together we can achieve great things! We've organised drop in sessions and special events, as well as attending communtiy events and forging new links within the Conwy catchment. 

Group of primary school pupils designing the mythical Afanc, Conwy

Using the Mabinogion to explore flooding reality  

Are you familiar with the tale of Yr Afanc? According to legend, Yr Afanc was a mythical creature living in the Conwy Valley.

Find out more about Yr Afanc

Latest updates

10 Jan 19

Floodplain restoration in a bid to boost wildlife

In a bid to reconnect a river with its natural floodplain, we've teamed up with Natural Resources Wales to carry out a 1km river restoration project to help slow the flow of water and attract more wildlife, such as brown trout and otter, to the Afon Machno in Snowdonia.

Excavator moves gravel and stone from made made embankment transporting over the river via a converyor belt at Carrog Farm, Snowdonia.

01 Sep 17

A new mascot for the Upper Conwy?

We’ve teamed up with RSPB Cymru to fit a satellite tag and track a young hen harrier, the first for Wales using this technology. As part of the RSPB’s Skydancer project a total of 16 hen harriers have been tracked across the UK. For the first time, people will get to view the flight patterns and distances travelled by Lia, a hen harrier born on the Ysbyty Estate, an area which appears to be growing in popularity with these species. An adventurous harrier, she’s already flown to South Wales and is now near the border at Powys.

Hen Harrier, Gwynedd

11 Jun 17

Carrog BioBlitz

To celebrate Wales Nature Week and Open Farm Sunday we held a BioBlitz event at Carrog this summer. The local community and partner organisations such as Cofnod, Snowdonia Mammal Group, OPAL and Plantlife came along to help us record as many species as we could in one day.

Wood mouse discovered at Carrog Farm, Cwm Penmachno
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