The Panorama Walk is located on the Mawddach estuary, about 2km east of Barmouth, on a route aligned roughly north-east to south-west. It is a well-made and well-preserved late Victorian footpath, based on older roads and paths, designed to allow an appreciation of the spectacular natural scenery and picturesque views around Barmouth. Intended to be accessible to most people, it formerly incorporated a tea room and 'pleasure grounds’.

The history of the Walk is not well known, but the Revd. Fred Ricketts, who was very active in promoting and developing Barmouth as a seaside resort in the early years of the twentieth century, is said to have laid out the 'pleasure grounds' near the cafe, and may have been instrumental in the development of the walk. The route is, however, based on older routes. The unclassified road and the path leading to the viewpoint are both shown on the Ordnance Survey 2-in. manuscript map of 1819. As it offers such picturesque views, the route may well have been used in the eighteenth-century, but the levelling, surface and steps of the footpath probably date from the late nineteenth century, as part of the improvements being made to increase the attractions of Barmouth. Panorama Walk is named on the first and second edition Ordnance Survey map. The maps depict a small building at the point where the footpath to the viewpoint branches off, suggesting that a tea room was already present at this time. The levelled site of this building is still visible and nearby are the foundations of another, later, building, on the other side of the path. Local people remember this later building as a tea room and shop, in the 1920s and 30s.

The area was originally known as 'Panorama Pleasure Grounds', and there was a view from the tea room, as well as higher up, although there is no record of gardens here. Any planting seems to have been ephemeral as there is nothing to suggest deliberate planting (apart from a few conifers on the knoll behind the site of the tea room). The woodland which now clothes the site post-dates the period of the walk's greatest popularity when there would have been spectacular views over the estuary along almost the whole length of the path from the tea room to the high viewpoint. Now the woodland extends over the hillside both above and below the site of the tea room, and to obtain a good prospect one must go further along the path towards the viewpoint. There are intermediate points which offer views over the estuary, but the best panorama is from the top of a rocky crag at the end of the path and this high point must always have offered the best views.

The north-east extent of the route flanks older, planted deciduous woodland interspersed with fields, which forms part of the Glan-y-Mawddach estate (nprn 301631).

Sources:
Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 148-50 (ref: PGW(Gd)26(GWY)).
Ordnance Survey second edition 25-inch map: sheet Merionethshire XXXVI.7 (1901).

RCAHMW, 1 July 2022

Site Record

Panorama Walk, Barmouth