Lakes & lochs in WalesWales

Supplying Birkenhead from the Denbigh moors, it sits in conifer plantation on the open Hiraethog uplands.

Conwy

The highest and largest of the Elan Valley reservoirs, its long dam holding back water for Birmingham in the Cambrian hills.

Powys

Intensely green and once believed bottomless, this tarn lies high in Snowdon's cwm on the Miners' Track.

Gwynedd

Built to slake the thirst of Liverpool, this Berwyn-hills reservoir is marked by its Gothic straining tower and long stone dam.

Powys

South Wales's largest natural lake, holding a rare early-medieval crannog in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons.

Powys

Its name means water-lily lake; this large shallow reservoir on the Anglesey moors is good for wildfowl and trout.

Anglesey

Open moorland grazed by sheep and grouse surrounds this reservoir on the Denbigh moors of Mynydd Hiraethog.

Conwy

Out on the Denbigh moors of Mynydd Hiraethog, it lies in open sheep country north of Bala.

Conwy

Above Ogwen in the Glyderau, its outline is sometimes likened by walkers to a map of Australia.

Conwy

Drowning the village of Capel Celyn for Liverpool's water, this reservoir became a rallying point for Welsh nationalism.

Gwynedd

One of Britain's greatest Iron Age hoards came from this small Anglesey lake, votive metalwork cast into the water.

Anglesey

Source of the River Conwy, this moorland lake sits high on the wild Migneint plateau above Ysbyty Ifan.

Conwy

The deepest lake in Snowdonia, a bleak reservoir in a trench between the Carneddau and Creigiau Gleision.

Conwy

Below Mynydd Mawr on the western approach to Snowdon, this deep lake holds the rare Arctic charr and supplies Caernarfon.

Gwynedd

Legend links it to Merlin and the fighting dragons of Dinas Emrys, in the Nantgwynant valley below Snowdon.

Gwynedd

Bronze and Iron Age metalwork recovered from this Rhondda cwm lake gave its name to a period of prehistory.

Rhondda Cynon Taf

A favourite for wild swimming below Snowdon's flanks, in the upper Gwynant valley on the road to Pen-y-Pass.

Gwynedd

In Snowdon's eastern cwm, a causeway on the Miners' Track crosses this dark lake below the summit.

Gwynedd

Anglesey's largest natural lake, a shallow marl water rich in birdlife amid the island's low farmland.

Anglesey

Set in the woods of the Vale of Ffestiniog, this ornamental lake lies beside the narrow-gauge railway near Tan-y-bwlch.

Gwynedd

Richard Wilson, pioneer of British landscape art, painted Snowdon reflected in this Nantlle valley lake.

Gwynedd

Paired with Llyn Padarn at Llanberis, it is the lower reservoir of the Dinorwig pumped-storage station inside the mountain.

Gwynedd

Built for hydro power on the Meirionnydd moors, it was long overlooked by a now-closed nuclear power station.

Gwynedd

Below Cadair Idris, this natural lake lends its Welsh name, Llyn Mwyngil, to the narrow-gauge railway beside it.

Gwynedd