The sight of brightly-coloured beach huts is a common one in tourist hotspots along the Welsh coastline. But one couple had to do a double take when they happened across four of them in the middle of the Gwynedd countryside.
Barry and Debra Davies were taken aback by the pastel shades of pink, blue and yellow of the huts which were placed haphazardly in an area of cleared forestry a mile from the nearest beach, North Wales Live reports. Off out on a walk on the public footpath in Pen Llŷn near Porth Neigwl, beach huts were the last thing the couple expected seeing, especially as Porth Neigwl doesn't have any.
The nearest locations with beach huts are Abersoch, which is five miles away, and Llanbedrog, another two miles further on.
Barry and Debra, who are originally from Liverpool and were staying their caravan at Gelliwig Farm at the time, posted a photo of the surreal sight on social media. Debra, a retired teacher, quipped: “I think we’re lost! This doesn’t look like the beach!”
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The couple took a detour as they were trying to find a walking route from their caravan park to Porth Neigwl beach. Boggy ground forced a change of route through woodland where they stumbled on the huts.
“We wondered what they were doing there in the middle of nowhere,” said Barry, 64, a retired gas engineer. “We thought that it may be a storage site, or perhaps the place where old beach huts go to die!”
On Facebook, Debra’s post garnered equally intrigued responses. "Mr Tumble’s secret hideout?" suggested one user, while another claimed the couple had found Pen Llŷn’s “beach hut breeding facility”. It transpired that Barry and Debra had taken a route across land owned by the National Trust near the Plas yn Rhiw estate.
Barry had his own theory and told North Wales Live he reckoned the mystery batch may in some way be connected to those at Llanbedrog, where the National Trust rents out around 80 beach huts each season. In winter, the Trust lifts its huts off the sand and stores them on the village's beach car park. For the 2023 season, the huts are expected to be back on the beach in time for Easter.
“The National Trust rents them out and so they are much more accessible than the £200,000 huts at Abersoch,” Barry said. “Perhaps the ones we saw are no longer needed – but they seemed in pretty good condition.”
Until last year, the Trust hired out double beach huts similar to the ones found by Barry and Debra. On Facebook, one man suggested the huts had been there for some time.
The National Trust has been approached for a comment by North Wales Live. Locals think they are being sold off: “They’ve been there for so long that, if someone doesn’t acquire them, they will simply deteriorate,” said one man.
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