Daniel Day-Lewis film location set for red squirrel fight back
Io ACC Planning DocumentsA near derelict cottage which featured in a movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis could be used to help protect Anglesey's red squirrel population.
The stone building and surrounding woodland at Clyddyn, Pentraeth, was used in the 2025 film Anemone about family bonds, directed by Day-Lewis's son Ronan.
Plans submitted to Anglesey council could see the property, thought to have been a gamekeeper's cottage until the 1970s, converted for use in conservation projects to help manage red squirrels and pine martens.
The documents described red squirrels as a "priority species in Wales, facing ongoing threats from habitat fragmentation [and] competition with invasive grey squirrels and disease".
The site is said to be a central location to control invasions by grey squirrels from Beaumaris, with 60 removed since February 2024.
Planning documents also said pine martens played "a key ecological role as a native predator" and contributed to the natural control of grey squirrels.
The main proposal is to convert the cottage for storage, erect a timber building adjacent, and turn a former pigsty into a bat roost.
It would be used to store biological records, equipment and as occasional working space for the maintenance of conservation equipment.
Getty ImagesThe plans said a Victorian railway carriage - used as an active night feeding roost by bats - would remain "unaffected".
The planning submission said the applicant had managed red squirrel and pine marten conservation on Anglesey since 1997, including being involved in the reintroduction of red squirrels at Newborough Forest, Plas Newydd and the Dingle in Llangefni.
"His current work on behalf of Red Squirrels Trust Wales is to prevent grey squirrels recolonising Anglesey through the control of mainland populations and the removal of the animals found on Anglesey," it said.
The application has yet to be considered.
