Some buildings are built for waiting — for the quiet vigil, for the patience that turns stillness into wonder. This bench was made for exactly that kind of place: the new photographic wildlife hide at Cors Dyfi Reserve, home of Wales's most famous ospreys.
The commission came from Emyr Evans of Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust — a returning client who had asked Free Range Designs to make a beaver storytelling chair for the reserve back in 2020. This time the brief was bigger: a full suite of furniture for a brand-new hide, with this bench as its centrepiece. At 195cm wide, it spans the back wall between two carved oak pillars, each topped with an osprey in flight — wings spread, talons ready, framing the live camera feed just as the real birds frame the sky above the Dyfi estuary. Carved into the back panel is the Cors Dyfi Observatory building — the distinctive silhouette that watchers have looked toward for years — and below it, a family on the boardwalk, taking their first long look at the horizon.
Running along the top of the back panel, in carved Welsh letters, are the words: Nid wy'n gofyn bywyd moethus — "I ask not for a luxurious life," from William Williams Pantycelyn's great hymn. It is a line that has meant different things to different generations in Wales, but in a wildlife hide at the edge of a Dyfi marsh, it means something exact: that the best things cost nothing but attention. When Emyr saw the initial design, his response was immediate: "OMG — that is beyond amazing!!!! No amendments needed."
Key Features
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Flagship bench for Cors Dyfi Reserve — purpose-built for Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust's photographic wildlife hide
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Carved osprey pillars — two full ospreys in solid oak flanking the back panel, framing the live wildlife camera
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Cors Dyfi landscape back panel — Observatory silhouette, boardwalk and family scene hand-carved in relief
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Welsh inscription carved along the top — Nid wy'n gofyn bywyd moethus, from William Williams Pantycelyn's famous hymn
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195cm wide — monumental scale, seats four people; built to anchor a hide or large outdoor space
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Solid Welsh oak throughout, three coats Epifanes matt varnish for lasting outdoor protection
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Part of a continuing relationship — Free Range Designs also built the beaver storytelling chair at Cors Dyfi in 2020
Dimensions
- Width (internal backrest): 195 cm
- Material: Solid Welsh oak
- Finish: Epifanes matt varnish, 3 coats
Your Version
We can build a carved oak bench like this for any wildlife hide, nature reserve, school or public space. Whether you want local species, an inscription in Welsh or English, a landscape panel or a scene drawn from your organisation's work, we will design it with you from first sketch to finished piece. Get in touch to start the conversation.
Typical lead time is 4–5 weeks, though we can work to project deadlines. Prices include VAT.
