The wolf is free!

For four years the willow wolf in Coed y Bleiddiau has been imprisoned within a picket fence. It was for his own good really, to keep hungry goats away. But now he’s a fully grown, mature wolf, strong enough to withstand a bit of bark nibbling, so the wardens have removed part of the fence in order that children (adults too) can crawl into his stomach and exit through the oversized tail. 

Not everyone recognises our beautiful sculpture as a wolf, some just don’t get the howling jaws pointing up to the skies. But from today people with smartphones and a barcode scanner can find out all about it via a pair of QR codes. The top code gives a snippet of information direct from the code to the phone and the bottom code gives much more information via a link to the website historypoints.org  

Across from the wolf is the old Railway Inspector’s cottage which many people stop to admire but few know much about its colourful history. All can now be revealed on the QR code.

These are just two of the many ‘history points’ to be found along the edge of the Ffestiniog Railway and are part of the 750 history locations across Wales. I asked Rhodri Clark how he chose the name for the website and the project. ‘Everyone’s familiar with cash points, history points is the same but dispensing history.’

This is a really good and unobtrusive way to signpost the countryside in an unobtrusive way. You can get lots of information which is easy to update and translate into multiple languages; so much more flexible and enduring than an interpretation board, much cheaper too. Well done Rhodri and everyone who contributes to creating historypoints.org