Llyn Celyn
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Llyn Celyn is a large reservoir constructed in 1961 in the valley of the River Tryweryn in North Wales.
Construction of the reservoir involved flooding the village of Capel Celyn which caused considerable outrage in Wales and is still remembered with anger. Much of the anger was occasioned because the village was a strong-hold of Welsh culture and the Welsh language, whilst the reservoir was being built to supply Liverpool with water with no benefit to Wales. Liverpool City Council were able to get the legislation enabling the drowning of Capel Celyn passed at Westminster even though 35 out of 36 Welsh Members of Parliament voted against it, with the 36th not voting. This led to an upsurge in support for Plaid Cymru in Wales. In October 2005, Liverpool City Council passed a public apology for the incident.
The reservoir was constructed in order to support the water abstractions from the River Dee as part of the River Dee regulation system and in particular the abstraction by North West Water at Huntington water treatment works. This works supplies water to Liverpool and the Wirral. The reservoir is contained behind a rock gravity dam and, at its upper end, it is squeezed between Arenig Fawr and Arenig Fach, two of the mountains of south Snowdonia.
Water is released from the reservoir into the River Tryweryn which then flows into the River Dee. Most releases pass through a small hydro-electricity plant to supply green electricity to the National grid. The released water first flows into a stilling basin and then down the narrow and rocky valley of the River Tryweryn. This section of river provides facilities for international level white-water canoeing, and rafting. Some water in the reservoir is held in reserve to make special release down the river for specific white-water events. Because the reservoir's principal purpose is to support low river flows in the main River Dee, the best conditions for white-water occur during long dry spells when maximum releases are made from the spillway. During wet weather the releases are throttled back to a minimal maintenance flow.
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