A Year at Nant Ddu

Arenig Fawr is a mountain range in Snowdonia and hosts the heighest grazing flock of Welsh Mountain Sheep in the country. Their shepherd is Glyn Williams and this photographic project will tell the story of his year farming them. 

This project came about when I was exploring Snowdonia on a weekend off from work. I needed to be in Shropshire for a photography assignment on the Monday and thought it would be fun to explore the area, as the weather was forecast to be good and I would then be an hour from my job. Along with staying in Llanberis, I stayed at Nant Ddu, where Sue & Mark welcome guests, and loved everything about the way of life, the scenery and the every changing environment around them. You can stay at Nant Ddu by visiting their Airbnb page here.

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26th February 2018

The temperature was -10 including wind chill and while staying at Nant Ddu, before heading on to work, I took these photographs to document the season.

12th June 2018

The ewes and lambs are gathered in groups of around 100 so they can be health checked and the lambs ear marked.

16th July 2018

All 1000 ewes and their lambs are gathered off the mountain sides and brought to the lower levels in two sections, so they can be sheared the following day.

17th July 2018

500 of the ewes, with their lambs, are gathered into the farm where they are seperated from their lambs. While the lambs have another health check the ewes are sheared, before they are all turned out onto the hillside for another six weeks.

The same process will happen the following day, so the entire flock has been sheared and health checked.