The Cae Gwian estate has been owned by wine expert Hugh Johnson for 31 years

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The world's best-selling wine writer is selling a Welsh forestry estate with complete with a historic gold mine. A price tag of £3.75m has been placed on the 500 acres of land near Barmouth.

Hugh Johnson is a Cambridge University graduate who has been writing about wine since the 1960s, and for decades has compiled his annual Pocket Wine Book, which sells millions of copies in 14 different languages. His family has owned Cae Gwian Forestry Estate at Bontddu for three decades, but now he as instructed agents Tustins to put it up for sale with offers invited in excess of £3,750,000.

The 83-year-old author has personally overseen the estate's development over the years, and it is rated one of the best medium-sized forest in Wales, and features a disused 19th-century gold and copper mine.

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Mr Johnson told North Wales Live: “In the centre are the remains of a 19th century goldmine (though it produced more copper than gold).

“Its water supply, the Afon Dwynant, flows through the heart of the property, while the leat that turned the water wheel of the mine supplies water to four old stone cottages scattered through the trees. We rebuilt the old mine office building with its splendid fireplace as our shelter and picnic place.

“We also made two large ponds; the higher one our tranquil swimming place in the hills. Cae Gwian has not only proved a good investment; it has been our family resort for a generation.”

The mine, in the Dolgellau gold belt, was opened during the gold rush of the mid-19th century. Shafts were dug, railways installed and a water-powered crushing mill was built. The business was floated on the London Stock Exchange. It closed in 1900.

For the past 60 years, the estate has been far more productive as a source of timber than it ever was of gold. Originally it was planted on farmland in the early 1960s, largely with Sitka spruce and Japanese larch, though lower areas retain vestiges of old oak woodland.

Over the years, Tilhill Forestry management. it has been cropped and replanted with commercial species. During this time, Mr Johnson has steadily increased the variety of trees and the proportion of broad leaves.

He said: “Cae Gwian is an unusual forest of exceptional beauty and charm, stretching over two hill ranges, one overlooking the estuary of the River Mawdach, the higher one overlooking the first, a green valley grazed by sheep between, and beyond the rocky massif of Cader Idris to the south and the Irish Sea to the west.

“Stone roads give access to the various compartments of the forest and provide magnificent viewpoints; footpaths (two of them public) follow the stream and lead to other viewpoints.”

In recent years much of the forest has either been thinned or felled. An all-weather road system enables the owner to take advantage of price increases in the timber market even in the depths of winter.

Mr Johnson is proud of the way Cae Gwian’s forests have been developed. At the Royal Welsh Show in 2019, the estate won Gold for the Best Managed Woodland (51-200ha) and Gold for the Best Conifer Planting or Restocking under 10 years old.

A small area of the estate is classified as Ancient Woodland. Tilhill Forestry recently produced a management plan for the whole estate - this is currently approved for the felling of 10ha of mature crop. Its new owner will be able to review this plan and either adopt it or create a new one, subject to approval by Natural Resources Wales..

Mike Tustin, director of Tustins, said: “This is a unique opportunity to own a magnificent slice of rural Wales. The special combination of a Snowdonia National Park location and all the ingredients of an outstanding commercial forest should be attractive to those whose desire to own a fast-growing forestry asset.”

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