Thread by @OwsWills, It's a place where nature and legend intertwine. It's a place of [...]

OwsWills

It's a place where nature and legend intertwine. It's a place of international significance.

Secreted deep in the Ceunant Llennyrch gorge, at the beating heart of the Snowdonia National Park, a wild, hidden prehistoric rainforest lies undisturbed by man…

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Coed Felenrhyd has stood largely untouched for 10,000 years.

And in this unique wood's sheltered gorge setting, in a region where it rains on average 200 days a year, the streams and waterfalls that cross the landscape have created an ecosystem where life thrives.

Extraordinary plants and ferns abound on the forest floor, while rare lichens, mosses and liverworts cloak the gnarled oaks, ash, hazel and birch.

The lichen is astonishing - species including "blackberries in custard" (Pyrenula hibernica) are found nowhere else in Britain.

This ancient place is one of Europe's best remaining examples of Atlantic oak woodland, or temperate rainforest.

But it's more than simply a remarkable ecosysytem, Coed Felenrhyd fringes the resting place of the mythical Pryderi, King of Dyfed in Wales' tales of the Mabinogion.

As well as rare plants and fungi, the rainforest is home to wood warblers and redstarts, whose populations are declining elsewhere in Europe.

There are brimstone butterflies and the rare lesser horseshoe bat, while otters hunt in the glistening Afon Prysor at the forest’s edge.

This bewitching, primeval rainforest doesn't simply contain some of the rarest species, it is - in itself - an exceptionally rare habitat.

These precious oakwoods in the ancient kingdom of Meirionnydd are of global importance, and deserve the utmost care and special attention.