Galeri Betws-y-Coed

Galeri is an independent gallery on the main road through Betws-y-Coed, the honeypot village at the gateway to Eryri, showing and selling the work of Welsh and emerging artists — paintings, handmade jewellery, ceramics and craft — rather than the mass-produced souvenirs a tourist village usually offers. It is a small, owner-run shop of the kind that gives a place a bit of cultural backbone: somewhere a visitor can buy something actually made in Wales, by someone named. In a village that sees a great many walkers pass through, Galeri is a reason to stop for the art rather than the tea towels.