The PaddlerUK magazine September 2015 issue 4 | Page 50

Fairy Glen, Wales,
United Kingdom

“Whilst a little clichéd for a
UK boater, my favourite
section of whitewater has to be
the Fairy Glen, mainly because
I’ve got so many great memories
of it.
“I first paddled it over ten years ago with a
group of guys that I didn’t know, none of
whom had run it before. We were all a bit
apprehensive since ‘The Glen’ had quite a
reputation, but we didn’t encounter any
problems and discovered a classic section of
technical whitewater. Since then I’ve paddled
it in huge groups; I’ve run it solo; I’ve blasted
down with local boaters in sub-8 minute
descents; equally I’ve taken a good few hours
to get down it when the levels were far
higher than I’d done it before and I had no
idea what the features were like.
“I even took my dad (aged 60+) for a lap a
couple of years ago, as it’s one of those classic
rivers that he wanted to do before he got
‘too old’! What makes the section even
sweeter is that it is (just) near enough to
home for an after work summer run when
levels permit.

Tim Burne

PADDLERUK 50

“Sadly the Fairy Glen is under threat from a
Hydro scheme which will severely reduce the
number of days that the river is paddleable.
This is a huge loss as often it is the only section
of whitewater at it's grade in the entire
country that is running. For more information
see http://savetheconwy.com/”