Our mission: Breathing Life Back into North Wales Heritage
Welcome to My Welsh Adventure. We aren’t a corporate hotel chain with endless budgets and identical, cookie-cutter rooms. We are a small, independent family business with a massive mission: to save the historic, failing hotels of North Wales from permanent closure.
To us, these buildings aren’t just stone, slate and mortar; they are the heart and soul of Welsh communities. They are where our grandparents got married, where we gathered for a Sunday roast, and where memories were made for generations. It breaks our heart to see them left behind—so we step in.
The Rescue Missions
Every property in our family has a story of survival. We take on the projects that others walk away from because they are “too difficult” or “unviable.”
More detail coming soon….
2015 – The Victoria Hotel, Pwllheli was built during the 19th-century expansion of Pwllheli, the hotel was positioned near the town’s waterfront as the Llŷn Peninsula grew in popularity as a seaside resort. This was the project that started it all. A much-loved local in Pwllheli, the owners were in desperate need of moving on due to a family emergency but were really struggling to find a buyer as the property needed some serious work. This was a huge first step for us, but this was a hugely rewarding project where we gradually worked through the 9 rooms.
2019 – The Crown Hotel, Pwllheli is situated on Pwllheli’s High Street, the Crown originally built around 1800 to replace an earlier tavern and grew to become the town’s premier 19th-century coaching inn. Today the Crown is Grade II listed, preserving its iconic three-storey stucco facade and historic sash windows. Our wonderful housekeeping manager at the Victoria also worked at the Crown Hotel and informed us that the Crown’s owners were reallystruggling to sell and needed out. This hotel was full of character with huge, untapped potential; but sadly was no longer a viable business. We worked through all of the rooms and the bar & added on a restaurant; now the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ offering authentic Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine. The Crown is now proudly supporting Gwynedd Council as a first backstop defence against homelessness, providing accommodation to those most vulnerable from the local community.
2020 – Dolbadarn Hotel, Llanberis is a Llanberis landmark steeped in history, having been built originally as a coaching inn during 1802 and noted as the oldest building in the village. In 2019 we had just started renovating a building that was not fit for purpose as a Hotel, with the intention of reopening it to tourists. The building had huge issues, it required a full rewire, new fire system and a major renovation throughout, locals informed us that the ensuite above the bar turned into a water feature whenever the guests above had a shower. When the pandemic hit, Gwynedd Council faced a severe crisis in emergency housing. Alongside The Crown, we partnered with Gwynedd council to provide emergency accommodation and a vital first-stop defense against homelessness in Gwynedd. We are deeply proud of this work, and we are fiercely passionate about breaking the stigma around homelessness in our communities.
2022 – The Bull Hotel, Llangefni: A 19th-century inn built by Sir Richard Bulkeley to establish Bulkley Square as Anglesey’s primary market hub, the Bull was a core staging post along the main old post road network crossing central Anglesey, which connected the mainland to the port of Holyhead. Erected around 1850 over the foundations of a prominent 17th-century stagecoach inn known as Pen-y-Bont, the surviving Grade II-listed limestone hotel, stable yards, and tack rooms stand as an exceptionally rare, fully intact example of a pre-railway Welsh coaching complex. The Bull was deemed unviable by the big breweries and left empty, with the help of the original team that were made redundant by the previous owners, we brought it back to life; we have renovated each of the 20+ rooms, and all communal areas.
2022 – Maes y Neuadd Country House, Talsarnau is a Grade II-listed country house hotel with rich structural origins dating back to a 14th-century manor house originally documented as Tyddyn y Doctor. Over its long history, the estate served as a royalist stronghold visited by Oliver Cromwell, the primary residence for the Nanney-Wynne family for centuries, and later became a 20th-century retreat for poet Robert Graves before its conversion into a luxury hotel in the 1950s. During its mid-to-late 20th-century hospitality heyday, the property became an exclusive haven for global icons, famously hosting political figures like Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Ted Kennedy, alongside Hollywood stars Sean Connery and Richard Gere. The 700 year old Welsh Manor house was on the absolute brink of total ruin and had been left empty for several years. Holes in the roof, wild cats living in building, massive damp issues. After 4 years of painstaking restoration, the building is now back to its former glory (and some). We’re really proud of this one.
2024 – The Marine, Criccieth was built in the late 19th century following the 1811 expansion of Porthmadog’s harbour and the later arrival of the Cambrian Coast railway. Originally established by prosperous local sea captains who invested in beachfront properties where their wives could run summer boarding houses, this seaside destination has been welcoming visitors to Cardigan Bay for roughly a century. Once a jewel of the coast and a hub for localweddings, dances and events, it was left in a heartbreaking, derelict state. Following a 12 month + renovation, we’re now fully operational with a thriving team and beautiful rooms.
2024 – Ty Dderw Country Inn, Moelfre was originally a traditional stone working farm, the property offers historic character through its exposed stone masonry, rustic oak ceiling beams, and superb fireplaces. Ty Dderw was closed for 7 years and destined to be turned into flats, we renovated inside and out to save a superb traditional Welsh pub and restaurant with hotel rooms, which is thriving once more.
2024 – The Royal Goat Hotel, Beddgelert is a Grade II-listed property originally built as the Beddgelert Hotel in 1802 by Thomas Jones to capitalise on the early wave of tourism surrounding Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon). The establishment holds a unique place in Welsh cultural history as the exact location where the famous legend of Gelert—the faithful hound mistakenly slain by Prince Llywelyn—was commercialised for the world. To boost hotel bookings, the first tenant manager, David Pritchard, cleverly adapted the folklore and erected the monument known as “Gelert’s Grave” in a nearby meadow, a marketing masterstroke that quickly transformed the village into a major Victorian tourist hub. The property was renamed the Royal Goat in the 1870s following a high-profile visit by Queen Victoria’s son, Prince Arthur. Over the decades, it continued to host notable icons, including Hollywood star Ingrid Bergman while she was filming The Inn of the Sixth Happiness locally. By 2024 the property found itself on the market with severe, unaddressed roof leaks that caused serious damage to the grade 2 listed historic ballroom, bridal suite, and multiple bedrooms. Now fully operational again, we have fully rewired the property, got up to 5 star food hygiene rating, renovated throughout (still ongoing!).
Restoring these properties is a monumental task. Decades of hidden maintenance issues don’t vanish overnight, and as a small family team, we are learning and improving every day. We aren’t perfect, but we are passionate, transparent, and entirely dedicated to the journey of bringing these grand buildings back to their former glory.
Join the Adventure
When you stay at a My Welsh Adventure property, you are choosing to support a local family business that is determined to reinvest in Welsh Heritage. You are choosing history over mass-production, and community impact over corporate profit.
Thank you for understanding our past, supporting our present, and being part of our future.
Follow our restoration journey on socials: https://www.facebook.com/people/My-Welsh-Adventure/61591977203826/
