Glynllifon Amphitheatre

1989 - 1991

This was my first public art project, created in close and enjoyable collaboration with Meic Watts.

Wales was at the forefront of developing public art projects in the late 1980’s, driven by the vision of The Welsh Sculpture Trust, soon to change its name to Cywaith Cymru and nurture many successful projects over the years. The Trust and Gwynedd Council identified the potential to create a celebration of the ‘Writers of Gwynedd’ in the extensive but overgrown Victorian grounds of Parc Glynllifon near Caernarfon.

For a few years, Parc Glynllifon became a focal point for artists and landscape architects, as Gwynedd Council created what was in effect a testbed for innovative land art, creating interest across the UK. Meic Watts and I won the commission to develop a performance space that worked with the landscape of Victorian parkland, celebrating the dramatists Saunders Lewis and John Gwilym Jones.

We designed, and then somehow were allowed, to create a large and very ambitious amphitheatre, scooped out of the hillside adjacent to an existing island, which became our stage. Paths through the surrounding woodlands were restored, to lead the visitor to discover formal terraces of slate, giving way to more organic granite walling as the auditorium rises up the hillside. Viewing platforms, niches and carved lettering lead the viewer on a journey up the terraces, reflecting the contrasting themes and style of the two dramatists. Water was to cascade down channels and pools, bringing life to the language and site.

Sadly, although there were an initial handful of performances, changes in personnel and priorities resulted in the potential of the amphitheatre never being fully realised over subsequent years. But the imaginative stonework in the woods remains, and rewards discovery. It may yet have its day in the future: the carved words could well complement the speech of actors echoing around the terraces, and live music rise across the sound of the stream.

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