Beacons Slipway, Conwy Marina
Beacons Slipway is Conwy County Borough Council's launching site at Conwy Morfa, on the west side of the Conwy Estuary just inside its mouth. The estuary runs north past Deganwy into Conwy Bay, with the Great Orme beyond. Conwy Castle and its town walls, Telford's suspension bridge of 1826 and Stephenson's tubular railway bridge all stand at the head of the estuary, under two kilometres upstream.
Conwy Marina occupies the basin where prototype Mulberry harbour caissons were cast during the Second World War. The Welsh engineer Hugh Iorys Hughes designed them, and the units built at Conwy Morfa were towed to Garlieston in Wigtownshire to be tested against the rival designs. The flooded casting basin was later converted to around 500 pontoon berths and opened as a marina in 1992, the largest in Wales.
Above the town the estuary narrows into the Afon Conwy and stays tidal for about 16 kilometres, as far as Tan-lan near Llanrwst on spring tides. Trefriw, near the top of that reach, was once the largest inland port in Wales, and Tal-y-Cafn carries the only road bridge between there and Conwy. Below the town the estuary broadens over sand and mud banks that dry at low water.
The estuary is notified as the Aber Afon Conwy Site of Special Scientific Interest, and its mouth adjoins the Traeth Lafan, or Lavan Sands, Special Protection Area, classified in 1992 for its wintering birds. The RSPB's Conwy reserve lies on the opposite bank, 47 hectares of lagoons, reedbed and saltmarsh raised from spoil dug out for the A55 tunnel between 1986 and 1991. Oystercatcher, curlew, redshank and great crested grebe are among the birds the designations cover.
Nearby
On Ffordd yr Orsaf in Deganwy, on the far shore of the estuary opposite the slipway.
Touring pitches and static caravans on Bryn Lupus Road above Deganwy, open from March to January.
WebsiteTouring caravan and tent park on 100 acres above the Conwy valley, about 3.5 km south of the town.
WebsiteConditions to check
At half ebb on spring tides the outflow through the narrow parts of the channel can reach 7 knots.
SourceThe bar across the estuary mouth dries at chart datum, and a second drying patch, The Scabs, lies beside the C6 red can buoy.
SourceThe harbour authority's buoyed approach channel to Conwy and Deganwy runs past the slipway, and the authority records that the buoy positions are not to be relied on as fixed waypoints.
SourceConwy Marina lies behind a half tide sill gate, so boats enter and leave it in the few hours either side of high water.
SourceQuestions
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