Snowdon Mountain & Llanberis Slate Museum: Holiday
June 2018 - page 1
Snowdon is Britain's second highest peak and at some
1,085m (or 3,560 ft) a walk up any of its various trails is not to be
taken lightly! The mountain is located within the magnificent
2,132 square km (823 sq ml) Snowdonia National Park (Eryri), a National
Park since 1951. This area in North Wales attracts oodles of
outdoor lovers to enjoy its stupendous mountain scenery - including us
this year! We've not visited Snowdonia for some 17 years, so
before we get too old to climb Snowdon we returned to ascend the
mountain by way of the very scenic Pyg Track and back down the Miners'
Track. The start point for many of Snowdon's popular trails is at
the busy Pen-y-Pass (on the A4086) so that's where we headed for our
Snowdon ascent...
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Forewarned that the car park at Pen-y-Pass fills quickly, we used the
efficient Sherpa bus service to travel there. Yes, this is North
Wales, and yes, that is a clear blue sky! We first headed...
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...to the small Pen-y-Pass visitor centre and studied the informative
displays on the mountain where we learned that peak (previous photo) is
not the Snowdon summit but the scary Crib Goch. After
refreshment...
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...in the large café at Pen-y-Pass it was time to begin our Snowdon
ascent. The Pyg Track is the shortest route up Snowdon and
involves the least amount of ascent as it already starts at 359m
(1,177 ft)...
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...so that should be, erm, easy then... Well, the initial bit was
and shortly after commencing our climb we stopped to admire the
fantastic view through this gap in the mountain landscape...
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...towards Llanberis and its huge Lake Padarn glistening in the
distance in the sunshine. There were plenty of others on the Pyg
Track and many were descending Snowdon already! Soon...
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...we encountered the first of many steep 'step and boulder' bits to
scramble over but then arrived at this ledge; time once again to take
in the breathtaking mountain views and more photos. After...
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...taking on water and a breather the Pyg Track continued to where the
route to the knife-edged Crib Goch peeled off to the right at Bwlch y
Moch. Yes, up there was the peak we saw back at Pen-y-Pass...
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...while to the left we enjoyed a splendid view of Llyn Llydaw.
Taking a look at our trusty tracking app we saw we'd done almost 2km of
the 5.6km route, well on the way up Snowdon! The Pyg Track...
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...ran fairly level at this point for a good while, although often
loose underfoot so we were thankful for our sturdy mountain
footwear. That's Llyn Glaslyn down there, and after rounding the
bend we got...
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...our first view of Snowdon's summit. Hmmm, still some way
to go then, so at this point we consumed our picnic while observing the
people negotiating the Crib Goch ridgeline on their hands and knees
high...
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...above. After applying more sunscreen on this gloriously sunny
day in Snowdonia we continued along another level part of the Pyg
Track, but presently the route became...
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...pretty steep and rocky at the point where the Miners' Track
merged. This rocky part of Snowdon continued for a good while
until we got to the viewpoint and another well-deserved breather...
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...just before the start of the famous zig zags. Now on the final
leg, the various Snowdon tracks merge just after the zig zags for the
final haul to the...
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...top. Now, Snowdon is an extremely popular mountain to ascend
but it was still a shock to see the summit trig point literally
crawling with...
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...oodles of people! At the 1,085m summit the Hafod Eryri Visitor
Centre houses a Snowdon exhibition and has café, bar, toilets and the
obligatory gift shop. The famous rack and pinion Snowdon Mountain
Railway runs to the summit, which we rode one-way in a previous Snowdon visit. Now...
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...the panoramic views across Snowdonia are simply awesome, they
literally took our breath away (did we have any left?) as you can see
in our selfie above. We fortunately enjoyed fine sunny weather on
Snowdon, but as a mountain in North Wales it can often be in heavy
cloud, wet and windy. Having...
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...ascended the mountain by the Pyg Track, we descended by the Miners'
Track, around 6km (3.7ml) in length. The route took us right down
to the shores of Llyn Glaslyn...
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...and Llyn Llydaw, passing many old mine working ruins of the
Britannia Copper Mines that gives the Miners' Track its name.
Although the terrain was a bit easier than the Pyg it was still
hardgoing...
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...phew! So back at Pen-y-Pass exhausted, aching and knackered
after our day on Snowdon, we boarded the Sherpa bus looking forward to
a well-earned pint which we can report definitely didn't touch the
sides!
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So another day of our Snowdonia holiday and a look around Llanberis, a
mecca for the Snowdon tourist industry. Here's the base of the
Snowdon Mountain Railway and Visitor Centre. A short walk...
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...away is the scenic Llanberis waterfall at Ceunant Mawr; along the
way we spotted the steam train starting its mountain ascent.
After following a...
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...mountain stream we arrived at the impressive Ceunant Mawr Waterfall
cascading down 30m (100 ft) into a small dammed plunge pool.
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Yes you saw that right, it is indeed free entry at the National Slate
Museum in Llanberis! The museum's in Padarn Country Park and is
at the site of the...
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...former Dinorwig slate quarry. Within are workshops and
buildings set-up as if the quarrymen and engineers have just left for
home...
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...including the courtyard with wagons loaded with slate
boulders. Slate has been quarried and mined for hundreds of years
in North Wales so we went to...
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...see the slate splitting demonstration. The craftsman here
expertly demonstrated how slate is neatly split, sized and dressed for
use as roofing and...
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...other applications such as cosmetics. Next up was the vast
iron and brass foundry where figurines were hard at work. Moving
on through the fascinating National Slate Museum to the...
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...spacious workshops where the slate was worked. Notice the
large wheels on the shaft running at roof level, this powered the
machinery throughout the slate works at Dinorwig quarry. On
next...
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...to the row of quarrymen's cottages, each furnished from different
eras. Mike showed his age when he related to many of the fixtures
in the 1969...
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...one! Our pic above shows the living quarters of a typical
Snowdonia slate quarry worker of 1861; each cottage had an upstairs and
back yard to view. Now...
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...this is the massive Victorian waterwheel that powered the machinery
to produce roof slates; the largest in Britain at 15.4 metres
diameter. Water was piped down cast iron pipes from Snowdon's
slopes.
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We found Snowdonia's National Slate Museum in Llanberis
a very worthwhile visit. We haven't shown everything at the
museum; be sure to view Una, the 1905 industrial steam engine, the
works canteen and even the visitors café! Entry is free but the
adjacent car park was £4 on our visit.
If attempting an ascent of Snowdon be warned it's a very
popular mountain! Go equipped for all weathers as it can change
rapidly as we found out on a previous
2001 Snowdon ascent. In fact, Crib Goch is the wettest spot
in the UK! There's a number of different trails apart from the
Pyg and Miners' tracks we used, or take a ride up on the Snowdon
Mountain Railway. The Snowdon Sherpa bus service cost us £2 per
journey and connects Pen-y-Pass to many popular Snowdonia towns.
To find out more about the above places check out our UK
tourism resources.
Now please follow us to our next Snowdonia holiday page
where we visit Snowdonia's rich
slate and copper mining heritage >>>
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