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Culture

Newspaper’s baffling description of one of Wales’ most famous attractions

24 Aug 2023 3 minute read
Portmeirion

It wouldn’t be the first time and we doubt it will be the last, but yet again a London-based newspaper has shown when it comes to Wales, well, they don”t know what they’re talking about.

It was pointed out to us how a story from the Express online stated that beautiful Portmeirion village was not only described as a seaside town but was also said to have possessed a pier.

Now anyone who has visited the Clough Williams-Ellis’ Italiante jewel in the Welsh tourist crown, would attest to the fact that it is certainly not a seaside town not does it have a pier.

You would have thought that even a cursory online search would have clarified these glaring errors, while also establishing the facts about one of the wonders of Wales.

Despite being located on an estuary inlet, the Express wrote how Portmeirion was part of a seaside town ranking which surveyed customers to find the country’s best coastal destinations.

‘Gorgeous Portmeirion in Wales took the country’s top spot with five out of five stars for its seafront and pier’, the paper wrote.

While we couldn’t disagree with the description of the village as gorgeous most would wonder about its seafront and pier.

When we contacted Portmeirion to check that they hadn’t secretly renamed themselves as a town and quietly built a pier under cover of darkness, a spokesperson reponded: “You’re quite right. I think this was written by someone who’s never been here.”

It wouldn’t be the first time Wales has been subjected to lazy clickbait journalism.

London news website My London recently ran a story with a headline that caused an angry reaction from people in Wales.

The website caused a backlash after titling a travel story with the headline: ‘The underrated seaside town that’s almost impossible to spell correctly but named one of UK’s best and worth the long drive from London.’

The seaside town in question is Aberystwyth and as many people were quick to point out about the ridiculous and ignorant headline, it’s not that difficult to spell.

The offending headline from My London

The article then continued to whinge about the distance from London to the west Wales coastal town, as if it was a journey to Australia.

My London wrote: ‘It seems the only catch for Londoners is that of the lengthy journey to one of the best seaside towns in the UK. To access Aberystwyth by car, Londoners can expect a journey time of around five hours, while train services from Euston via Avanti West Coast services can take around four hours and 40 minutes.’

God forbid those poor entitled Londoners should have to spend time travelling anywhere.

To add insult to injury an image in the story captioned as the town centre was actually a picture from Aberaeron!


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Tomi Benn
Tomi Benn
1 year ago

Let’s hope that readers of such drivel stay away.

Barbara H.
Barbara H.
1 year ago

My goodness. I’m an Australian and I’m appalled by the ignorance. All the technology in the world can’t seem to compete with stupidity!

Frank
Frank
1 year ago

They moved nextdoor to us, uninvited, over a thousand years ago yet they know more about what is going on Mars than what is happening in Cymru.

Rhufawn Jones
Rhufawn Jones
1 year ago
Reply to  Frank

But they were invited – by Gwrtheyrn Gwrthenau, who invited Hengist and Horsa to these isles to help fight the Picts. And they’ve long overstayed their welcome!

Rheinallt morgan
Rheinallt morgan
1 year ago
Reply to  Frank

Where did the Celts come from?

Frank
Frank
1 year ago

We have all “come from” somewhere!! After the last ice age tribes moved northwards but most didn’t come fully armed with only one thing on their mind….. total domination of others!!!

Rheinallt morgan
Rheinallt morgan
1 year ago
Reply to  Frank

Total domination. You mean like the Tudor conquest of England I take it.

Graham Taylor
1 year ago

they did not come from anywhere, they originated in what we now call CYMRU

Cathy Jones
Cathy Jones
1 year ago

Dear Londoners,
Don’t come here…..
Cat…

If I had my way I would make it an even further distance for them to travel….

Rheinallt morgan
Rheinallt morgan
1 year ago
Reply to  Cathy Jones

AH I remember that great rugby team full of Welsh internationals. London Welsh. So many successful welsh people made London their home including Henry 7th. Put there by the nobility of Wales. What did Henry offer them in exchange?

Gareth
1 year ago

The Daily Express should be avoided at all costs. Poor and lazy journalism.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago

Have some sympathy. Any publication produced by minds so tiny that push racism, colony bashing and their ‘frazzle or freeze’ agenda to terrify the elderly depending on the weather must gauge Portmeirion to be as far away as the rest of us perceive the distance to Australia. They sent out a reporter to find Wales once but its’ intelligence capacity expired and it had to be recovered from Reading services.

Riki
Riki
1 year ago

Their ignorance really does make you wonder why exactly Wales is so important for London to keep, hasn’t anyone else ever wondered how it can be so important yet no one in London knows anything about Wales? It could easily be on the other side of the moon for all their knowledge. Well, you can’t allow the Britons freedom while you’ve spent a few hundred years pretending to be them!!

Rhufawn Jones
Rhufawn Jones
1 year ago
Reply to  Riki

Clywch clywch! Cultural appropriation of the highest order!!

Rheinallt morgan
Rheinallt morgan
1 year ago
Reply to  Riki

Considering there are more people of Welsh extraction living in England than Wales you would expect them to know better.

Alan Jones
Alan Jones
1 year ago

Heh heh, remember back when Wembley stadium was being rebuilt & we had the football league final plus the F.A. cup final in Cardiff for a couple of years or so, well the hue & cry from England & London in particular was amusing to behold. ” it’s a small city that doesn’t know how to handle a big occasion ” was one complaint, ” they don’t have the transport infrastructure to cope with the travelling support” was another until quite a few realised we had an airport not too far away as well as trains & a motorway plus… Read more »

Rheinallt morgan
Rheinallt morgan
1 year ago
Reply to  Alan Jones

Well it was home from home for so many of them.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

This is Portmeirion, some old fellow’s Italianate fantasy, a pleasing trick of the eye… An icon known around the world along with Long Shanks’ castles and slate railways… No pier but it does have a concrete boat, a cult TV show and a renown pottery… It stands at the head of the beautiful estuary of the Dywryd flanked by ancient wooded hillsides, stunning geology and silent slate wharves waiting to tell their tale of toil to any curious explorer, you can still taste the gunpowder on the wind when it blows in from the sea beyond the new bridge we… Read more »

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