When Meirion's Trail came to us with a brief for a storytelling chair in Harlech, they had something specific in mind: a wreck. A ship driven aground on the Welsh coast — salt-bleached timbers, a hull split open, the ghost of something once magnificent.
That's exactly what we built.
The Shipwreck is one of the chairs on Meirion's Trail — a public art walk winding through the town of Harlech, each stop a handmade seat inviting walkers to pause, look, and tell stories. This one sits closest to the dunes, where the land flattens and opens towards Cardigan Bay.
The structure is built from solid oak — the ribs of the hull curved and arched above the seat, with deliberately weathered, painted timber giving the impression of a vessel that's been beached for years. At the apex of the arch sits a carved figurehead: a solitary figure, gazing out to sea.
She was carved from a single piece of oak. Up close you can see the detail — the lines of her form, the careful suggestion of a face turned out towards the water. From a distance she reads as a silhouette against the sky: a figure marooned at the top of the wreck.
The seat itself is built into the arch — you sit inside the hull, sheltered by the wooden ribs on either side. It seats two comfortably. It's one of those pieces where the experience of sitting in it tells its own story before a single word is spoken.
The Shipwreck is now permanently installed in Harlech and open to visitors on Meirion's Trail. If you'd like to commission a storytelling chair for a school, garden, or public trail, see the full listing here or explore our storytelling chairs collection.
