White Horses
Sleeps 4 (7 with bunks)
Room Layout
Bathroom Lounge - Diner
Double Room Twin Room
Kitchen Three bunk beds
Location
Situated on the Quayside about 200 yards from Hotel Portmeirion, White Horses has no road access, and parking is by the main Hotel. We have a small porter van, that can assist with moving luggage or shopping to the cottage. The cottage is situated right on the quayside, and has a small terrace with views over the Estuary.
History
White Horses (part C18, extended 1966; listed Grade II 1971) was
originally a fisherman's cottage. The old part is a single storey
stone building with central chimney stack of traditional Welsh
pattern. Clough's addition links the Observatory Tower to the old
cottage. It is constructed on arches over the path which overlooks
an inset anchorage for boats. The cottage was inhabited for a time
by Thomas Edwards, an infamous South Walian better known locally as
yr Hwntw Mawr who worked as a labourer for William Maddocks on the
Porthmadog embankment. In 1813 he was publicly hanged at Dolgellau
for the murder during a robbery of Mary Jones, the maid at Penrhyn
Isaf farm close to Portmeirion. White Horses' is so called because
with a spring tide and a south-westerly gale, crested breakers
batter its walls and occasionally even break and enter. At one time
Clough used it as a workshop where weaving and dyeing went on. In
1966 Clough converted White Horses into habitable accommodation by
adding two bedrooms raised on arches above the beach footpath. One
of the first residents was Patrick McGoohan who stayed at White
Horses during the filming of The Prisoner in 1966 and 1967.
Further along the coast one comes to a folly lighthouse which
marks Portmeirion's southernmost point. Made of sheet metal and
crowned with an upturned pig boiler and ornate finial it was in
situ by 1963.
Click Here for pictures of White Horses and othe Self Catering Cottages