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Forty-five thousand acres up there are kept free of artificial light. On a clear night you can stand outside and see the Milky Way straight overhead, and not many places in Britain are still that dark.

North of that the country lifts into the mountains of Snowdonia, and the forests take over around Betws-y-Coed and Dolgellau. Anglesey, off the north-west corner, is flat and green with woods running right down to the shore.

Britain came out of the First World War having cut down most of its own trees. The coal mines needed timber props and the trenches had eaten the rest, so in 1919 Parliament set up the Forestry Commission and told it to plant.

Planting started on the hills round Betws-y-Coed in 1921. Down at Dolgellau another forest was renamed in 1935 for George V’s silver jubilee, and it is still called Coed y Brenin, the King’s Forest.

The red squirrel is Britain’s native one, small and rust-coloured, and the bigger grey from America drove it out of most of the country. Anglesey was down to about forty reds. The greys were cleared off the island and reds let back into the woods, and by 2016 not a grey was left.

Around seven hundred reds live on Anglesey now. Walk quietly through the pines at Newborough or Pentraeth and you might see one cross the path in front of you.

Coed y Brenin is still open to anyone on foot, and it has mountain-bike trails graded like ski runs. They run from easy green ones up to something you would want a helmet for.

Above Betws-y-Coed the paths through Gwydir forest go past old lead workings and small lakes hidden in the trees. You can walk out to one, swim if you are brave, and be back in the village for lunch.

Lodges by region: Anglesey · North Wales Coast · Mid Wales

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