Borth Community Hub is celebrating after being awarded a National Lottery Community Fund grant for £412,000 to develop its Nature Hub project at Ynyslas.

Volunteers, friends, trustees of the hub and other stakeholders were joined by the Lottery's Fern Towers and guest of honour Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Dyfed Ann Jones. Guests heard speeches from Mrs Jones, representatives from the Lottery and Natural Resources Wales, Borth Community Hub Manager Helen Williams, and Cllr Carol Bainbridge on behalf of the Trustees.

Since the Hub took over the visitor centre from Natural Resources Wales last August, visitors and local people alike have enjoyed intergenerational art sessions, weekly nature discovery walks each Wednesday, nature awareness sessions run by WWBIC, Halloween and Christmas activities and a range of nature based family activities, as well as the community café run by volunteers.

These activities have complimented the Borth Community Hub activities run from its Clarach Road base: the Friday Community café lunches, Borth Active for families, the Dementia Friendship Group, the Creative Group for Older Adults, the Men’s Shed and the Lego Club.

Last year the Borth Community Hub won the Ceredigion County Council award - Community Charity of the Year.

Helen Williams, Borth Community Hub Manager said: “From our inception in 2008 as the Borth Family Centre, the Hub’s work has grown considerably and this has only been made possible by the enthusiasm and hard work of our volunteers and trustees. Our acquisition of the YnysLas Visitor Centre has added to our resolve to provide services and experiences to local people and visitors.

“Our new Nature Hub has one priority above all else, to make nature and our precious local environment all the more accessible to everyone.

“It is easy to forget just how important Ynys Las is to local people, and globally as part of a UNESCO biosphere.

“We fervently believe in the educative role of our nature hub and it is always a delight to see young people taking part in our activities. We look forward to develop our educative role even further.

“We remain very grateful to the Lottery, to our volunteer trustees and all our volunteers over the years, who have always been so willing to give of their time and expertise.”

The Ynyslas visitor centre was one of three that Natural Resources Wales decided to close in March 2025 as it looked to cut costs.

The other two centres, Bwlch Nant yr Arian near Ponterwyd and Coed y Brenin near Dolgellau remain under lock and key while a lengthy tender process takes place to find new organisations to run the popular sites.

Final submissions are not expected until the summer, meaning both sites will remain closed this season.

Recently, automated parking cameras have been installed, which charge £12 to park for the day at the sites and restrict parking after 12am, which has been met with anger from stargazers who visit the quiet spots on a clear night.