Book exposes the surprising truth about visitors at Welsh heritage properties

Amelia Jones

Wales’ heritage sites seem serene, but a closer look reveals the strange and unexpected lives of their visitors.

What really happens when people visit Wales’s National Trust properties? Acclaimed artist Bedwyr Williams spent six months finding out by observing the visitors themselves rather than following the footsteps of the gentry who once lived there.

The result was Tîn Droi (Welsh for ‘dawdling’), a limited-edition book of nearly 600 digital drawings that capture humour, humanity, and small moments that make a day out at a heritage site memorable.

Williams, who represented Wales at the 2013 Venice Biennale, travelled from Anglesey to Newport, documenting everything from the views at Rhossili to gardens at Powis castle.

He also visited Conwy Suspension Bridge, Bondant Garden, Dinefwr, Erddig, Dyffryn Gardens, and Llanerchaeron.

The drawings feature characters from Williams’ Instagram accounts, including the “Man who absolutely loves clothes” and an “AirBnB cleaner,” who become the book’s eyes and ears as they move through houses, gardens, and landscapes.

Each drawing was produced within 24 hours of visiting a property, giving the work a sense of immediacy.

“These houses will be tourist destinations for far longer than they were ever lived in by the gentry,” Williams says. “I was interested in that reality. Couples in cargo shorts wandering around, some people whispering like they might be told off, others very loud. All human life is there,” he added.

He focused on the small details that give each property character, from Lord Anglesey’s 1980s ghetto blaster at Plas Newydd to the servants’ bell system at Tredegar House and the surprisingly varied dog ice cream offered in cafés.

“I’m interested in the banal and the human. The tiny things people say without meaning to be funny,” he said.

The work reflects everyday life in Wales and is bilingual. Followers on Instagram are said to have engaged with the drawings, practising pronunciation and guessing meanings.

Helen Pye, Assistant Director for National Trust Cymru, says the project is part of an effort to reach new audiences through contemporary art. “This project offers fresh ways to experience these remarkable places and the human stories within them,” she says.

Tîn Droi is published in a limited edition of 1000 copies. It launched on 26 November at Hard Lines in Cardiff with an artist talk scheduled at Galeri Caernarfon on 5 December.

Copies are available at selected National Trust shops in Wales and online via the book’s Instagram page: https://bedwyr-williams-2.myshopify.com.