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Dark Skies Places in the Wye Valley

Sadly 90% of the UK population cannot see the Milky Way from their homes, but the absence of light pollution in much of rural Wales and along the borderlands in Herefordshire has made these places some of the world’s great destinations for stargazing. On a clear night in the Wye Valley National Landscape, look up and you can see dark skies and myriads of stars, alongside iconic landmarks such as Harold’s Stones and Tintern Abbey. Way back in the 1880s thousands of tourists flocked to Tintern on special rail excursions to view the harvest moon rising through the rose window of the abbey.

Today, for the best dark skies viewing, head up to Beacon Hill, near Trellech, where there is minimal light pollution. Or enjoy Dark Skies benches, where you can take the weight of your feet and sit and enjoy the stars, in Fownhope and Llangrove churchyard.

Enjoy the View from Fownhope’s Dark Skies Bench

We absolutely love this eye-catching new ‘Dark Skies’ bench, which has been recently installed at Fownhope Recreation Ground as part of our Dark Skies work. To help you identify what stars you can see from the bench each month there is a QR code to scan. December’s highlights include Taurus (the Bull) rising in the east, Pegasus, gliding through the night on his great square wings and Ursa Major (the Plough), a constant through the deepest winter nights. There’s lots more interesting info to discover on the Fownhope website, so head over to their brilliant new web pages: You won’t be disappointed! Christ Church in Llangrove also has a dark skies bench in the churchyard.

We are working to keep our skies dark…

We are lucky to have so many places in the Wye Valley National Landscape where we can enjoy the stars at night. Sadly only 5% of people in the UK can enjoy the wonder of a truly dark starry sky because light pollution has increased by 400% in the last 25 years, having a profound and negative impact on people and wildlife. As well as interrupting our sleep patterns light pollution is a major driver of insect decline, especially winged insects and caterpillars.

The Wye Valley National Landscape has been working to encourage people, businesses and corporate buildings to turn lights off overnight, to reduce light pollution and carbon emissions. Dark Sky lighting is low energy and low carbon and retrofitting lights reduces carbon emissions as well overall energy consumption. Night lighting currently accounts for an eye-watering 15% of the global electricity resource!

Funding for small businesses and local communities to reduce light pollution

We’re inviting small businesses and local communities to get in touch about funding available to help reduce light pollution.

This project is funded through the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Landscape Sustainable Places funding programme, so is only available for communities and businesses on the Welsh side of the National Landscape. Successful projects will need to demonstrate a significant impact on the landscape.

Contact Gwenno Jones gwenno.jones@denbighshire.gov.uk to find out if your project might be eligible. The deadline for applying is 30th September.