For the flooding of the Tryweryn Valley, see Llyn Celyn

Llyn Celyn

Llyn Celyn is a large reservoir constructed between 1960 and 1965 in the valley of the River Tryweryn in Gwynedd, North Wales. It measures roughly 2½ miles long by a mile wide, and has a maximum depth of...

.

The Tryweryn is a river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 in north Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 which starts at Llyn Tryweryn in the Snowdonia National Park and after 19 kilometres (11.8 mi) joins the river Dee

River Dee, Wales

The River Dee is a long river in the United Kingdom. It travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries....

 at Bala

Bala, Gwynedd

Bala is a market town and community in Gwynedd, Wales, and formerly an urban district of the historic county of Merionethshire. It lies at the north end of Bala Lake , 17 miles north-east of Dolgellau, with a population of 1,980...

. It is one of the main tributaries of the Dee and has been dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

med to form Llyn Celyn

Llyn Celyn

Llyn Celyn is a large reservoir constructed between 1960 and 1965 in the valley of the River Tryweryn in Gwynedd, North Wales. It measures roughly 2½ miles long by a mile wide, and has a maximum depth of...

. Water is stored in winter when flows are high, and released over the summer to maintain the flow in the Dee (water from the Dee is used as the water supply for large areas of north-east Wales and for the Wirral

Wirral Peninsula

Wirral or the Wirral is a peninsula in North West England. It is bounded by three bodies of water: to the west by the River Dee, forming a boundary with Wales, to the east by the River Mersey and to the north by the Irish Sea. Both terms "Wirral" and "the Wirral" are used locally , although the...

 and much of Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

).

Whitewater Sports

The Tryweryn river joins the river Dee

River Dee, Wales

The River Dee is a long river in the United Kingdom. It travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries....

 roughly half a mile downstream from Bala Lake

Bala Lake

Bala Lake is a large lake in Gwynedd, Wales. It was the largest natural body of water in Wales prior to the level being raised by Thomas Telford to help support the flow of the Ellesmere Canal. It is long by wide, and is subject to sudden and dangerous floods. The River Dee runs through it and...

.
The reservoir now at the head of the Tryweryn was created in 1965, to provide water to Liverpool. At that time, the 67 inhabitants of the village of Capel Celyn

Capel Celyn

Capel Celyn was a rural community to the north west of Bala in Gwynedd, north Wales, in the Afon Tryweryn valley. The village and other parts of the valley were flooded to create a reservoir, Llyn Celyn, in order to supply Liverpool and The Wirral with water for industry...

 were forcibly removed..

The Tryweryn is the site of the Welsh Canolfan Tryweryn

Canolfan Tryweryn

Canolfan Tryweryn is the National White Water Centre for Wales, and is based near Bala in North Wales. It developed the first commercial white water rafting operation in the UK in 1986, and since then has grown to become the largest and most well-respected rafting organisation in the UK...

 national whitewater

Whitewater

Whitewater is formed in a rapid, when a river's gradient increases enough to disturb its laminar flow and create turbulence, i.e. form a bubbly, or aerated and unstable current; the frothy water appears white...

 centre, managed by the Welsh Canoe Association. It is an important river for whitewater kayaking

Whitewater kayaking

Whitewater kayaking is the sport of paddling a kayak on a moving body of water, typically a whitewater river. Whitewater kayaking can range from simple, carefree gently moving water, to demanding, dangerous whitewater. River rapids are graded like ski runs according to the difficulty, danger or...

 and rafting

Rafting

Rafting or white water rafting is a challenging recreational outdoor activity using an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other bodies of water. This is usually done on white water or different degrees of rough water, in order to thrill and excite the raft passengers. The development of this...

. The centre features a Café and superb facilities to support whitewater sports. The natural whitewater rapids of the upper section of the Treweryn have been modified (by placing boulders along the river bed) to make them safer and to build playspots

Playboating

Playboating is a discipline of whitewater kayaking or canoeing where the paddler performs various technical moves in one place , as opposed to downriver whitewater canoeing or kayaking where the objective is to travel the length of a section of river...

. The upper part of the river is usually considered to be Grade III

International Scale of River Difficulty

The International Scale of River Difficulty is a standardized scale used to rate the safety of a stretch of river, or a single rapid. The grade reflects the technical difficulty and skill level required associated with the section of river...

. Usually between 9 and 12 m³/s are released from the Llyn Celyn dam. The rapids of the lower section remain in a more natural state. These are of somewhat easier grade, with the exception of Bala Mill Falls.

The regular releases from Llyn Celyn in summer mean that kayak events and trips can be planned in advance, and commercial rafting can take place (most whitewater rivers in Wales rely on recent rain to have enough water for kayaking or rafting).

Access to the upper part of the Tryweryn is uncontroversial - this contrasts with recreational access to many of the other rivers in Wales, (see Rivers Access Campaign

Rivers Access Campaign

The Rivers Access Campaign is being undertaken by the British Canoe Union to open up the inland water-ways in England and Wales on behalf of members of the public. Under current UK law, public access to rivers is restricted, and only 2% of all rivers in England and Wales have public access rights...

for more information), and adds to the popularity of the Tryweryn among kayakers and rafters.

In August 2004, John Prescott, deputy prime minister, was on a rafting trip on the Tryweryn and helped to aid a kayaker who had been injured.