The work of the Cambrian Mountains Society is never done! We are constantly seeking opportunities to improve the recognition and respect for this special area by the public, the politicians and the administrators whose decisions affect it. At the same time we monitor policy changes and development proposals day to day, to make sure that conservation of habitats, history and landscape are properly considered alongside economic interests.
If you live in Wales, you can support us simply by asking your representatives at the Senedd or County Council to back our National Landscape (AONB) campaign. If you don’t live in Wales, or if you’d like to do more for us than contacting representatives, think about becoming a member, or donating your time and money in other ways.
Click on the options below to join up or get in touch. Otherwise, carry on reading to find out the sorts of activities we need a helping hand with. Thank you! We appreciate your support.
How can I help?
The Society runs a wide range of activities, for its members and for the public.
Walks programme
Could you lead a CMS walk to share one of your favourite spots? We run monthly walks throughout the summer, relying on the knowledge of a small group of walk leaders. Email our walks co-ordinator Neal, on walks@cambrian-mountains.co.uk.
Educating ourselves to educate others
Could you organise a CMS day trip to show and explain any aspect? The Cambrians cover a huge and diverse area, fascinating for its geology, rivers, plants, animals, insects and heritage of farms, mines, villages and chapels. What makes the uplands special to you might be something other members haven’t even heard about. Send us your suggestions, here.
Running a competition
We’ve run both poetry and photography competitions in the past, and we’d like to run them again and even potentially add an art competition for local artists. All it takes is: getting the word out; collecting entries in; getting the judges to make a decision; and arranging a prize-giving. Simple! If the uplands are your inspiration and you’d like to see how other people perceive them, why not give it a go?
Keeping in touch
If you’re a budding journalist or social media wizard, or could set up a Cambrians WhatsApp or Signal group, you could have a real impact on our reach and visibility. The Society uses communications channels including the website, Members’ Newsletters, Instagram and Facebook. But we could do much more to keep everyone up to date and engaged. Get in touch on Facebook or Instagram!
Liaising with our friends
There’s a lot going on around Wales and a large number of friendly organisations we try to keep in touch with: wildlife and plant charities, the “Friends of” societies for the existing National Parks and AONBs, the County Recorders for all sorts of flora and fauna, and national organisations such as the Woodland Trust, Plantlife, Buglife, the National Trust (which owns three estates in the Cambrians). If you’re a member of theirs as well as ours, could you be our liaison to keep us up to date with their projects and make sure they know about any of our activities which might be relevant to them? Let us know, here.
Spreading the word: summer shows
Can you spare a couple of hours to lend a hand on one of the show days? The CMS stall at shows such as the Royal Welsh, Talybont, Tregaron and elsewhere has been very effective for engaging both with local people and visitors to the area. At present the Trustees do the bulk of the rota, but with a few more Members participating we could have even more such conversations. If you can, it would make a real difference. The 2025 dates are:
Aberystwyth 14 June;
Royal Welsh 21-24 July, Llanelwedd (Builth Wells);
Talybont 23 August;
Tregaron 25 August.
Let us know if you have time to spare to help promote the Society and the National Landscape (AONB) campaign at any of these, here.
Wind farms
The elephant in the room for the Society’s agenda for the next few years will be responding to the multiplication of marine-scale wind farms with turbines the height of a 70 storey building (that’s more than 1/3 the total height of Plynlimon!), now being proposed for all the most visible heights of our uplands. At the moment there are 8: you can see the details here. Fortunately, the National Trust have assured us that the rumour of a further energy park on Abergwesyn Common (adjacent to Drygarn Fawr) was untrue.
This work could easily drain all of our manpower away from any other activity. Even if many of our responses will be built on previous work, each application has to be tracked through each stage. There’s a lot to do just reading all of the material put out by the developers and the Welsh Government planning agency, Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW). If you think you may be able to spare time, every now and then when a developer takes a new step, to read what’s been said and report to our Planning co-ordinator, then please do let us know, here. In 2024 we coordinated training sessions to help local groups get a better idea of what we’ll need to be doing to respond to these. Let Lorna know if you’re interested to see the notes from these, or would like her to give your group a presentation on how to prepare, on secretary@cambrian-mountains.co.uk.
You might be able to save your favourite hilltop!
Fundraising
If you have any skills in fundraising – or are interested to acquire them – we could certainly use some help to get the Society sponsorship, or grants to carry out any of its projects! We currently depend entirely on the support of our members to finance everything we’re trying to do. Of course, if we had more financial resources we could employ someone a day a week to do at least some of the above. Please do get in touch here.