Project focus: abermaw viaduct, wales

We’re pleased to have been appointed to work with Gwynedd Council to design the Public Realm for the Viaduct Gardens in Barmouth, in Wales.

Matthew Northall, our Project Landscape Architect, is working alongside our Director of Ecology Val Gateley, who is helping to develop a robust planting scheme for this coastal setting.

Barmouth was established around the shipbuilding industry of the 1700s. Ships were built in the shelter of the Mawddach estuary where they supported the booming wool industry in Merioneth.

Barmouth Bridge, also known as Barmouth Viaduct, opened in 1867 and contains a single standard gauge railway track and a pedestrian walkway. It’s a breathtaking part of the world.

Our work involves designs to improve connectivity and common spaces for locals and visitors, de-cluttering the site and removing dense vegetation and enhancing the spectacular views across the estuary and to the hills beyond.

Whenever we start a project we aim to build with nature to ensure that our schemes are of their place. In Barmouth, this means embracing and working with the nature of a coastal environment ensuring that our designs sit within the landscape and not apart from it.

We’re also looking at drainage design and will use open and covered SuDS systems to collect surface water to retain it in planting beds where it will be filtered before draining through the sea wall.

Our planting concept will reflect that of the local flora, with hardy coastal pioneers, multi-stem birch trees and large specimen Scots pine trees. Hardy ferns will provide verdant ground cover and fill cracks between boulders.

We’ll suggest planting of structural grasses, sea cliff flowers like red valerian and sea campion, and upland plant mixes including clover, ox-eye daisies and poppies.

It’s a special project and one we’re loving working on.