ONE of Britain’s rarest birds of prey could be set to fly once again over the skies of Gwynedd under new plans.

The golden eagle can only be found in small areas of Scotland and Northern Ireland, and there are just around 500 breeding pairs of the birds remaining in the wild after they were hunted down in the 1850s.

A new project hopes to reintroduce them to Snowdonia by 2020.

Over the past year, Wilder Britain has been in discussions with landowners, farmers and local communities about The Welsh Golden Eagle Project, a plan to return them to their former range.

Golden eagles have been successfully reintroduced in Ireland by the Golden Eagle Trust for Ireland offering a track-proven template for the project.

Representatives from Wilder Britain have visited the Irish release sites to see first-hand the benefits that golden eagles can bring when reintroduced.

Dr Paul O’Donoghue, the project lead for Wilder Britain, said: “It is amazing to see the support that the whole community has provided to the return of the golden eagle in Ireland.

“A very successful ecotourism industry has been developed around them and the farmers we met had welcomed the eagles.

“It is a fantastic conservation success story that we want to emulate in Wales.”

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