Helfa Gelf is a treasure hunt! Not only can you discover Conwy’s hidden gems, the artists working within the county’s beautiful landscape, but you can also follow a series of clues to discover actual treasure buried somewhere in the county.

The clues are hidden in the Helfa Gelf Treasure Book (request a free copy via our contact page), on the web-site, in the artists’ studios themselves and other special places. Solve the clues and reveal the treasure’s secret location. The first to dig it up, keeps it!

Five beautiful gold rings have been made by five of the UK’s leading jewellers: Bryan Illsley, Nina Bukvic, Catherine Mannheim, Michael Carberry and Tina Engel. Each ring is held in a beautiful porcelain ‘clam-shell’ casket specially hand-crafted by Sophie Lowe, one of Conwy’s own international ceramicists.

The clues have been devised by Phil Brown, well known to many as cryptic crossword compiler for various North Wales newspapers. However, you don’t need to be a crossword specialist to solve this conundrum, no specialist training required just a good mixture of dedication, perspiration and inspiration. Anyone can have a go and it should be great fun.

The hunt has been developed over many months in the greatest of secrecy. Only Phil and one independent witness knows where the treasure is buried. Only Phil holds the answers to the clues and, in fact, not even Phil knows where all the clues are! All of us in the Helfa Gelf team are as in the dark as you on this, but we’re not allowed to participate so get clue-solving - we’ve been in suspense for months already!