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These facts are correct as of November 2025.

Names

‘Snowdon’ mean ‘Snowy Hill’ (from the Old English/Saxon ‘Snaw Dun’).

The earliest reference to the name ‘Snowdon’ dates from 1095, in an Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, when King William Rufus, in his campaign against the Welsh, proceeded as far as ‘Snawdun(e)’.

It is wrong to say ‘Mount Snowdon’ because it already has the word ‘hill’ (dun) in it, and besides, there is a Mount Snowdon in British Columbia, in Canada, and there is also a Mount Snowdon in New Zealand.

(There are also two mountains called ‘Snowdon Peak’ in the United States. The tallest, in Colorado, is about 3½ times the height of our Snowdon, after which it was named. The other ‘Snowdon Peak’ is in Vermont, and is just 10m higher than Snowdon.)

The Welsh name for Snowdon is Yr Wyddfa (pronounced ‘Uhr-With-va’).

Yr Wyddfa means the ‘large tumulus’ or ‘burial mound’. (By association it can also mean ‘high place’ or ‘eminence’.)

The oldest known reference to the name ‘Wyddfa’ dates from 1198, in a charter drawn up by Llywelyn Fawr, in which he awarded land to the monks of Aberconway.

The name Yr Wyddfa is actually an abbreviated form of Yr Wyddfa Fawr  (the big burial mound). A document from 1284 records it as ‘Weddfa vaur’.

The first known documented use of the word ‘Snowdonia’ was in 1230 when Llywelyn Fawr signed himself as Dominus Snauedoniæ (Lord of Snowdonia).

The name ‘Snowdonia’ formally became the name of the National Park in 1951, when the National Park was created. (Snowdonia was the third area to be designated a National Park in England and Wales – though only by six months – and was the first to carry this status in Wales.

The Welsh name for Snowdonia is Eryri.

The National Park Authority now use the name ‘Eryri National Park’ (instead of Snowdonia), and they now call themselves the Eryri National Park Authority (ENPA) except where legal documentation demands the original name.

The Welsh name for ‘Snowdonia National Park’ is Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri.

‘Eryri’ (the plural of ‘eryr’) means ‘Highlands’ or ‘High ground’.

The name Eryri has nothing to do with eagles (‘eryr / eryrod’), despite the similarity and what some sources still say.

The first documented use of the name ‘Eryri’ is believed to be in the Annales Cambriae, recorded in about the year 816, where it documents both ‘Montes Ereri’ and ‘Hereri’.

Three locomotives on the Snowdon Mountain Railway are named after the mountain and the National Park: No. 3, Wyddfa; No. 4, Snowdon; and No. 8, Eryri.

 At least six ships have been named ‘Snowdon’, the earliest in the 1830s. Currently the name is carried by a bulk carrier, built in 1998 and still working today.

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Geology

The rocks which today make up Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa were mostly formed during the Ordovician Period (i.e. 443.8 – 485.4 million years old). This makes Snowdon older than the Alps or the Himalayas.

During this Ordovician Period, Snowdon – and indeed all of Wales – lay near the edge of a microcontinent called Avalonia and was submerged under the waters of the Iapetus Ocean, a sort of precursor of the Atlantic, though at the time it lay in the southern hemisphere. This resulted in the deposition of marine sediments, which are a major component of the Snowdonia strata.

The movement of tectonic plates was responsible for periods of mountain building which also saw the continents move to their current locations.

The rocks of Snowdon were folded, cleaved, and uplifted during the Caledonian Orogeny, a long-drawn-out continental collision of tectonic plates that occurred during the Silurian to early Devonian times (roughly 350 – 400 million years ago).

This Ordovician era was interspersed with periods of intense volcanic activity.

It was during this period, more specifically some 458 to 457 million years ago, that severe underground (and underwater) volcanic activity resulted in the collapse of the overlying crust to form a caldera (a massive depression).

The mountains are largely composed of the rocks of the Snowdon Volcanic Group, which are mainly rhyolitic tuffs (ash flow tuffs) and lavas. These formed when a huge volume of ash erupted from an underwater volcano.

The rocks that make up Snowdon and the hills around it consist of two types of volcanic material – erupted material in the form of ash and lava (‘extrusive’ volcanic rock), and magma that didn’t make it all the way to the surface and cooled down without being erupted (‘intrusive’ igneous rock). Crib Goch ridge is made up of such intrusive material, while the summit of Snowdon itself is made up of extrusive material.

Snowdon’s summit is near the northern edge of the caldera, which stretched from Llanberis to Moel Hebog, and measured some 7 miles (10-12 km) across. Thus, when we look at the summit area of Snowdon and its surrounds, we are not seeing the outer shape of the volcano, but looking at the insides of its eruptive and its intrusive material.

There are also some sedimentary rocks which were laid down between the eruptions, which highlights a key aspect of the Snowdon volcanic phase, namely that the bulk of the Snowdon eruptions took place below sea level.

Although Snowdon comprises igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rock, it primarily comprises igneous (volcanic) and ‘low level’ metamorphic rock.

Thus, the geology of Snowdon is a mix of volcanic rocks and sedimentary strata. The more resistant Ordovician volcanic rocks dominate the highest ridges, while the lower, less rugged areas are underlain by Cambrian sedimentary rocks.

Snowdonia’s geology has been described as an “intricate detective story” involving volcanic eruptions, tectonic movements, and glacial activity, with different layers of rock telling the story of the Earth’s history over hundreds of millions of years.

The lower slopes are made of younger slates and sedimentary rocks, while higher up are older volcanic layers. Geologists have stated that Snowdon is a “time machine in cross-section.”

Jim Perrin (In ‘Snowdon: The Story of a Mountain’) points out that the Llanberis Path, as it climbs higher, takes the walker on a journey through geological time, from the light-coloured slates and sandstones near the start through darker slates and massive, fractured rocks of volcanic origin around Clogwyn station, through the lavas of the last mile or so to the final slate and ash fossiliferous beds around the summit itself.

Snowdon’s volcanic rocks contain magnetic minerals that can interfere with compasses.

Like other high mountains, Snowdon accumulates cosmic-ray spallation isotopes in its rocks; rare elements formed when cosmic rays smashed into minerals. Geologists sometimes measure these to study how long rock surfaces have been exposed since the glaciers retreated.

One of the floor slabs in Hafod Eryri states: “Under your feet are volcanic ash, viscous lava and shale”

Snowdon is not a volcano, dormant or otherwise, and has never been, despite Pennant (1778) referring to Glaslyn as lying in a “horrible crater” (which was to lead many later travellers to expect to see a more traditional volcanic crater). However, the mountain building was associated with general volcanic activity, as has been seen.

Fossils can be seen on the bedrock at the summit; these are shell-shaped Brachiopods and typically measure 1 – 4cm across. These fossils confirm that the best part of 500 million years ago Snowdon was on the seabed, being formed. This pre-dated the volcanic activity. (One of the floor inscriptions in Hafod Eryri states that the fossils are 165 million years old; this is clearly wrong.)

It is quite remarkable that any examples of fossils still exist at the summit given that the search for and sale of them in former times was so prevalent. (In 1849, Edwin Lees wrote of people “fossilizing”, i.e. some “twenty or thirty gentlemen all hard at work breaking stone upon the top of Snowdon.”)

The Clogwyn Du’r Arddu syncline can be seen from the Llanberis path, and was formed over thousands of years, as the earth moved and transformed horizontal deposits into vertical layers of rock. This fold is noted for how it preserves the younger Ordovician volcanic ashes of the Lower Rhyolitic Tuff Formation in its core, with older mudstones exposed in the valleys flanking it.

In numerous places on the paths, examples of vertical rock strata can be seen where the rock has been tilted a full 90˚. There are many examples on the Llanberis Path, and a particularly good example (though only visible from the train) is in Halfway cutting, above Halfway bridge.

On Snowdon there are examples of hexagonal columnar jointing like that at the Giant’s Causeway. Good examples are on a bluff of the Lower Rhyolitic Tuff Formation above the Bwlch Cwm Llan quarry track (about halfway between Pen ar Lôn and Bwlch Cwm Llan quarry), and the dolomite formation at Clogwyn Pen Llechen, on the far side of Llyn Teyrn. Lesser, poorer examples, in Rhyolitic ash flows, are on the first steep bit of the east ridge of Crib Goch and on Crib y Ddysgl.

The bands of white rock that can frequently be seen are quartz.

This quartz formed as follows: During and after volcanic eruptions, cracks and cavities formed in the cooling lava and tuff. Later, hot, mineral-rich hydrothermal fluids circulated through these cracks and fractures. These fluids carried dissolved silica (SiO₂), along with other minerals. As the fluids cooled or reacted with the surrounding rocks, the silica crystallised out as quartz. This filled fractures and faults with white to translucent quartz veins.

Slate is found on Snowdon. This forms from the metamorphism of fine-grained sedimentary rocks like shale or mudstone, under relatively low pressure and temperature conditions.

The main metal mineral found in the rocks of Snowdon is copper.

The big tectonic uplift that created Snowdon is long over, and the UK is considered tectonically stable, with only very slow motions as part of the Eurasian Plate; these motions don’t meaningfully change mountain height anymore.

However, there is another movement that should be considered, and this is a rebound upwards movement after the last Ice Age (called ‘glacial isostatic rebound/adjustment’). When the massive ice sheets melted, their considerable weight lifted, and Snowdon has been very slowly springing back up ever since. GPS and geodetic measurements suggest an uplift rate of about 0.5 – 1mm per year. (By comparison, parts of Scotland, which were under thicker ice, are rebounding at twice this rate.)

Whilst this uplift can be measured in millimeters per year, general erosion can be measured in meters per thousand years, so whilst Snowdon is gaining height in the short term, on a geological timescale it’s being whittled away.

The soil on Snowdon tends to be naturally acidic; the pH level of the soil is generally low, typically around 4 to 5.

Snowdon’s thin soil is fragile, by virtue of its altitude, and a survey in 2008, comparing soil changes over 40 years, showed that soil pH had increased and that “shifts in vegetation and soil composition are clearly identifiable after 40 years.”

The scattering of ashes on the mountain is not encouraged as it changes the soil’s natural ‘pH’ level, encouraging the growth of non-indigenous vegetation.

Similarly, disposing of non-native organic litter, such as orange peel and banana skins can also affect the soil’s pH balance.

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The Ice Age

The Ice Age started some 2.6 million years ago, and since then there have been many glacial periods, with ‘inter-glacials’ between them.

Most of the glacial erosion evident on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa today occurred during the last Ice Age, a glacial period which started about 110,000 years ago and ended about 12,000 years ago.

The Ice Ages are largely responsible for the shape of Snowdon’s pyramidal peak today and for much of its current form, notably arêtes (ridges) and cwms.

Glaciers eroded three sides of the mountain, creating the cwms of Cwm Glaslyn, Cwm Clogwyn and Cwm Tregalan, and leaving the arêtes of Bwlch Main, Bwlch y Saethau and the summit ridge to form its characteristic pyramidal shape.

Another famous arête is Crib Goch, its distinctive, sharp-edged shape having been formed by two back-to-back glacial valleys.

The scooping out of additional cwms such as Cwm Glas, Cwm Hetiau and Cwm Caregog has left further arêtes, such as Crib y Ddysgl and Y Lliwedd.

Other examples of glacial features include glacial lakes (e.g. Glaslyn, Llyn Llydaw and Llyn Glas), ribbon lakes (e.g. Llyn Padarn, Llyn Peris, Llyn Gwynant and Llyn Cwellyn), moraines (e.g. in Cwm Dwythwch and Cwm Dyli, including at the end of Llyn Llydaw), rôche moutonnée (‘sheep-back rock’ – good examples can be seen in Cwm Du’r Arddu), scree (e.g. on the slopes of Crib Goch and the Llanberis Pass) and striation marks on rock (e.g. on the Rhyd Ddu Path).

Snowdon was once much higher than it is now; ice has been responsible for much of its wearing down.

It is believed that in the last Ice Age the summit itself was not actually under ice, but stuck out above it.

The dramatic discordance between rounded summits and steep rock walls marks the interface between the Ice Age and pre-glacial relief.

During the Little Ice Age (from about 1300AD to about 1850AD, so quite recently), Snowdon may have had miniature glaciers tucked into shady north-facing corries like Cwm Dyli. Scientists have found evidence of very recent glacial activity there.

Snowdon does not have permafrost because it is not high enough to be cold enough. (Permafrost is defined as ground that remains at or below 0°C for at least two consecutive years.)

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Geography

Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa is in Eryri / Snowdonia National Park.

Snowdonia was designated a National Park in 1951.

Snowdon is in the county of Gwynedd.

The Snowdon massif covers an area of approximately 50 square miles (about 130 square kilometers).

The Snowdon Massif is the upland area extending beyond the summit of Snowdon itself, largely bordered by the settlements of Llanberis, Penygwryd and Beddgelert.

The massif is delineated by the surrounding valleys on three sides, though not on its north side, namely: by the Llanberis Pass to the north; by Nantgwynant to the east; and by Nant y Betws above Rhyd Ddu and Nant Colwyn below. (The name Nant Gwyrfai is sometimes used.)

A circumnavigation of the massif is largely the route of the annual Snowdonia Marathon, i.e. 26.2 miles (42 km).

Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa is part of the Snowdonia mountain range, not the Cambrian range.

The nearest sea from the summit is less than 10 miles away, as the crow flies. Parts of the Menai Strait are about 9¾ miles away. However, the nearest open sea is due west at Llandwrog, which is nearly 11 miles away.

The nearest other national park to Snowdon’s summit, as the crow flies, is the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. (The Bannau Brycheiniog / Brecon Beacons is 4 miles further.)

The largest settlement at the foot of the massif is Llanberis.

The nearest settlement to the summit (as the crow flies) is Rhyd Ddu, at a little over 2½ miles.

The nearest city from the summit is Bangor, which is less than 12 miles away as the crow flies, though not visible from the summit.

The word ‘bwlch’ can be translated as ‘pass’ or ‘col’ and features in several locations on the mountain.

‘The Lady of Snowdon’, a natural feature on the slopes near Derlwyn, on the Snowdon massif’s northern edge, overlooking Llyn Peris, is best seen from the region of Padarn Park.

Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa is located within the Eryri Dark Sky Reserve, a designation aimed at mitigating light pollution to preserve natural nocturnal environments.

The Eryri Dark Sky Reserve is one of the best locations in the UK for astronomical observation, offering exceptionally low levels of artificial light and clear skies that provide remarkable views of celestial phenomena, including the stars, the Milky Way, and other astronomical events.

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Maps

The first map drawn which showed Snowdon (‘Snaudun’) was  by Matthew Paris, a Benedictine monk, in the 13^th century.

Humphrey Llwyd’s map of Wales in 1573, showed the names ‘Snowdon Hil’ and ‘Y Widna’ (Yr Wyddfa).

The Snowdon O.S. paper map has the Conwy Valley / Dyffryn Conwy on its reverse.

The shop at Pen y Pass sells a small version of the O.S. map, to the same scale, but only showing the massif.

The O.S. map shows both the name ‘Snowdon’ and ‘Yr Wyddfa’.

On the O.S. map, the summit of Snowdon shows a ‘V’ (clear on a blue background), meaning ‘Visitors’ centre’.

On the O.S. map, the 5-sided blue star at the summit indicates ‘Another tourist feature’.

Both Bwlch y Moch and Bwlch Glas are named on the O.S. map.

Allt Goch is not named on the O.S. map, but the cliffs of Clogwyn Coch below are named.

The Halfway café on the Llanberis Path is marked on the O.S. map as ‘Halfway House’.

Google Street Map covers the 6 main paths up Snowdon, allowing people to ‘walk’ up these paths. This was done using the portable Google Trekker in 2015/16. The Google Trekker weighs 22kg (nearly 3½ stone) and is fairly top-heavy. Its 15-angle lens camera takes 360-degree pictures every 2.5 seconds.

In 2021 the Park Authority produced an official app to help when walking on Snowdon; it’s called ‘Llwybrau’r Wyddfa’ (Snowdon Paths). A mobile signal is not needed, and GPS allows the user to find their exact location on a map and to follow specific paths, with access to information and detail along the route.

As of 2025, the app has been downloaded some 33,000 times.

The exact location of the summit cairn, using an O.S. grid reference, is SH 60905 54410.

The summit, in coordinates, is 53°4′6.59″ N, 4°4′34.43″ W, also defined as 53.068572, -4.076220.

These coordinates are displayed on one of the granite slabs on the floor of Hafod Eryri, as “Snowdon:  53˚ 4’30” Latitude, 4˚ 4’ 35” Longitude”.

The what3words reference for the summit pillar is ‘perfectly.traffic.decking’.

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Weather

Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, like the rest of Wales, has a maritime climate. However, the specific conditions on Snowdon itself are more akin to a mountain climate, with harsher, more unpredictable weather, even in summer. What it is not rated as is ‘Tundra’, even though the mountain shares some tundra-like characteristics, especially at the summit.

The mountain often generates orographic clouds, formed when moist air hits the mountain, is forced up, cools, and then condenses into mist.

To explain that further, Snowdon’s high rainfall is explained by the fact that air reaching the mountain is often moisture-laden from crossing the ocean, which, on hitting an upland area, rises and cools, and because cold air can’t hold as much moisture as warm air, the water particles condense to make clouds and – if there is enough moisture – rain.

Thus the mountain often creates its own microclimate, trapping clouds around its peak even when surrounding areas are clear. This phenomenon, sometimes called “Snowdon’s hat,” contributes to the often wet conditions that help sustain its unique plant life.

That’s why Snowdon can be in thick cloud even on an otherwise sunny day — it’s making its own weather.

The climate at the summit is invariably much more extreme to that at the foot of the mountain.

Mountain weather is altogether more changeable and fickle than elsewhere, and is often hard to accurately forecast.

In summer, the temperature at the summit can reach up to 30°C, whilst in winter it can be as low as -20°C.

The temperature at the summit is invariably cooler than lower down, though the rate of drop per 1,000 ft (called the ‘lapse rate’) varies according to conditions. When the air is dry the temperature drop is about 3°C per 1,000 ft (300 m); when the air is saturated the temperature drop is less marked, more like 1° or 1.5°C per 1,000 ft.  It is therefore practical to assume an average 2°C temperature drop per 1,000 ft.

Snowdon summit (at 3,560 ft / 1085 m) will therefore be on average some 7°C cooler than Llanberis, and 5°C cooler than Pen y Pass. This is without the effect of windchill, which is always more exaggerated at altitude. Some weather websites show windchill temperatures as the ‘feels-like’ temperature.

It is not unknown for walkers to suffer from hypothermia even in mid-summer.

Snowdon receives some 200 inches (5m) of rain annually, with more in a wet year. This is about 8.5 times the amount received in London, and over five times the UK average.

Crib Goch is one of the wettest spots in the United Kingdom, with an average of 4,473 millimetres (176.1 in) of rainfall a year measured over the past 30 years.

The rain gauge just below Crib Goch, at 713 m, averages 376 mm (14.8”) monthly and holds the UK record for the highest-ever monthly total; during the month of December 2015 it received 1396.4 mm (54.98”).

The prevailing winds come from the south-west, which means that some paths are more sheltered than others. Many who have ascended via the Pyg or Miners’ Tracks will recall the experience of emerging onto the ridge at Bwlch Glas, to be met with a very different type of weather on the western side of the mountain.

The highest fixed anemometer (wind-speed gauge) on the mountain is at Clogwyn station, and informs the railway whether it is safe to run trains.

The strongest wind ever recorded on Snowdon was about 150 mph, despite what it says on the floor of Hafod Eryri, where it states: “The wind can blow at speeds of up to 200 mph at the summit.” (The strongest gust ever recorded in the UK was 173mph, at Cairn Gorm summit in Scotland in 1986.)

Wind speed often increases significantly as the air is squeezed between the mountain mass and the upper atmosphere, or when funneled locally between peaks or ridges. This is known as the ‘funnel effect’.

Annually on the mountain, it rains on fewer days than there are dry days.

The summit receives an estimated 1,200 hours of sunshine annually, a reasonable figure, but nevertheless fewer than most other parts of Wales.

It will come as no surprise that the months of June, July and August offer the longest hours of daylight and are statistically the warmest months, making the weather generally more settled.

A temperature inversion (often wrongly called a cloud inversion) is the weather condition when the summit and other peaks, for instance, are poking out above the clouds and in sunshine, but everything below is in cloud.

William Wordsworth described an inversion on Snowdon in 1793, as did Charles Babington in 1832.

A Brocken spectre is the feature when you can see your shadow on the cloud below, with a rainbow-coloured halo round your head. They are often associated with temperature inversions but also rely on the direction of the sun and the distance from the cloud.

The earliest documented sighting of a Brocken spectre on Snowdon was in 1804 by J. S. Duncan, who was mightily impressed; his guide less so, having seen it before.

Over the years, several people have died or been injured from being struck by lightning at the summit.

In 1842, the Bishop of Norwich, who had gone up to visit his son who was one of the Ordnance surveyors at the summit, wrote: “The officers’ hut on the very pinnacle of the mountain must have received the discharge of an electric current.”

An early death by lightning occurred in September 1884.  A group of people were at the summit and took shelter in one of the huts, but one member of the group, Mr Thomas Livesey, had never witnessed a thunderstorm from the summit in 16 years of visiting Snowdon. Wanting to see it, he stepped outside towards the other hut when the lightning struck. At the inquest it was suggested that the iron bands which ran over the roof may have attracted the lightning (although the roof was corrugated iron anyway).

In 1956 a man was killed by lightning on the summit cairn. The cairn was reportedly so charged with electricity that no one was able to approach it for a while.

The summit’s misty clouds can hold a huge amount of static electricity. Under certain stormy conditions, climbers have reported their hair standing on end or ice axes buzzing — a warning sign that lightning is about to strike.

The weather affects the running of the railway and therefore Hafod Eryri’s opening hours. It is only open seasonally from May to late October, and then only proceeds past Clogwyn if the wind does not exceed three consecutive gusts of over 50 mph.

Snow does not persist on the highest parts of Snowdon all through the winter months; it invariably comes and goes over the winter, notably between the end of October and the end of April.

Back in the 16^th century, William Camden, writing of Snowdon in his Britannia, stated that “it’s cover’d with snow, all the year round”; this naturally led some early travel writers to expect to see snow on its slopes.

Pennant, writing in 1778, gave the fullest and most accurate description up to that time, pointing out that “the fable … concerning the continuance of snow the whole year, is totally to be exploded.” He described a climate somewhat similar to today’s.

Snow levels declined in the 1990s, such that a survey in 2004 suggested that “based on the current rate of change, Snowdon may lose its winter snow cover by 2020.” This has clearly not been the case.

Snow has been known to fall at the summit in June and September.

Ground Conditions reporting on Snowdon starts in November, and reports on the conditions are published twice weekly (usually on a Tuesday and Friday) throughout the winter.

In April 1909 it was reported that there were snowdrifts up to fourteen feet deep in places on the railway, and that workmen were employed in clearing it away ready to re-open for Easter Monday. (Unlike today, the railway used to open to the summit at or before Easter, but heavy snow was not uncommon after this.)

Snow on the railway line was for many years cleared by hand, using men with shovels. In the latter 20^th century the railway had built a snow-blower, a wagon with a powerful fan on the front, pushed by a diesel. However, its life was short-lived. Today the preferred method of clearing snow is to use a mini-digger on a wagon; the digger’s bucket is profiled to fit over that of the rail, including the rack rail.

In January 1855 an article in The Times, entitled ‘Is Snowdon or the Crimea the colder?’, told of two men who ascended Snowdon, where “the snow on the mountain was nearly three feet in depth, and the ice in many places lay in sheets more than half a mile in extent”. They added a little snow to their brandy, which froze in a matter of minutes.

Another early recorded winter ascent of Snowdon was in 1860 by John Tyndall and Thomas Huxley. Between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve they travelled up from London and back, ascending with Robin Hughes, the Capel Curig guide (who didn’t think they were intending to reach the summit). The snow was knee-deep from the outset, and both men were woefully under-equipped. They made the summit where “the huts at the top were all cased in ice, and from their chimneys and projections the snow was drawn into a kind of plumage by the wind.”

On the eastern slopes above Llyn Llydaw, at about an altitude of 500m, there is a weather station established in 1995 by Bangor University, the only one in Wales to take part in the UK-wide Environmental Change Network (ECN) survey, which measures changes in climate, air, soil and water, and how the environment changes over time.

Over the years, this weather station has recorded a trend of higher spring and summer temperatures, and wetter and less cold winters on the mountain.

The Met. Office website has a detailed daily weather forecast available for Snowdon summit.

In 1993 a weather station was set up on the roof of the former summit building, with data sent to the Wardens’ office at Pen y Pass.

More recently, in April 2019, a new solar-powered weather station was sited on the roof of Hafod Eryri; this records temperature, such as is given on the website https://snowdon.live

The early wooden huts at the summit were often damaged by winter storms. Even today, most winters cause minor damage at Hafod Eryri, such as blocks coming loose or falling out due to freezing conditions.

On 29^th June 1927, there was a rare total eclipse of the sun, with the narrow path of totality passing across North Wales and part of the North of England. Llanberis’ hotels and boarding houses were full of visitors keen to go up Snowdon by foot or by train, and many others camped nearby. The eclipse was to start at 5:20 a.m., with the moment of totality due at 6.24 a.m., so the Snowdon Mountain Railway ran special trains to the summit between 3:30 and 4:40 that morning. The summit huts were naturally crammed full. However, cloud and rain blotted out everything.

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Cwms

A cwm is best defined as a bowl-shaped depression caused by glacial erosion.

Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa has many cwms, not all of them named.

The booklet ‘Snowdon in the Ice Age’ states: ”The Horseshoe is a masterpiece of cirque glaciation, with each of four rock basins superimposed on its neighbour in a descending cirque staircase almost 5km long.” (It defines these as Upper Glaslyn, Cwm Glaslyn, Cwm Llydaw and Cwm Dyli.)

The wide cwm that the Llanberis path and railway largely overlook on the way up to Clogwyn is Cwm Brwynog.

The large cwm below the western side of the summit is Cwm Clogwyn.

There are a number of ‘stacked cwms’ on Snowdon: Cwm Clogwyn, between the Rhyd Ddu and Snowdon Ranger paths leads down into Cwm Treweunydd; Cwm Tregalan leads down into Cwm Llan; Cwm Glas and Cwm Glas Uchaf lead down into Cwm Glas Mawr; and Cwm Glaslyn leads down into Cwm Llydaw, which itself leads down into Cwm Dyli.

The wide cwm between the Rhyd Ddu path and the South Ridge is Cwm Caregog (‘Rocky Cwm’).

The cwm that the hydro pipeline runs down is Cwm Dyli.

Cwm Hetiau (‘the Cwm of Hats’) is so called because train passengers often lost hats near Clogwyn Station, they ending up in Cwm Hetiau. Local lads used to retrieve them and sell them in Llanberis.

The O.S. map did not start naming Cwm Hetiau until the 1970s.

The cwm which the low part of the Watkin Path runs up is Cwm Llan.

The cwm between the upper part of the Watkin path and Allt Maenderyn (the South Ridge) is Cwm Tregalan.

The cwm below Clogwyn y Garnedd, on the east side of the summit, and which Glaslyn is in, has no official name on the O.S. map, despite being a classic example of a cwm. The name ‘Cwm Glaslyn’ is used by some sources.

‘Cwm Llydaw’ is also not named on the O.S. map, though some sources use the name; indeed, some consider this an extension of Cwm Dyli.

The two cwms visible below Clogwyn Bridge (towards Llanberis Pass) are Cwm Hetiau and Cwm Glas Bach.

The cwm surrounded by Moel Eilio, Foel Gron and Foel Goch is Cwm Dwythwch with, in it, Llyn Dwythwch.

All the cwms on Snowdon contain a stream or river network, and most contain lakes.

Tomato Gully (in Cwm Clogwyn) is so named because it is below the sewage plant for the summit, and where liquid has seeped out and contains tomato seeds, these have been known to germinate and grow.

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Ridges

The booklet ‘Snowdon in the Ice Age’ states: “The plan of Snowdon today is dominated by a stellate pattern of six ridges radiating from or about Yr Wyddfa.”

These 6 ridges, to their full extent, are, from shortest to longest:

• the south ridge & Llechog ridge (3 – 4 km long)
• Crib Goch & Lliwedd (5 – 6 km)
• the northern ridge flanking the Llanberis Pass (8 km)
• the north-west ridge (10 km)

The most famous ridge on the massif is undoubtedly Crib Goch.

There are two ridges on Snowdon called Llechog (meaning “having the nature of slate, slaty; abounding in slate, rocky, stony”). The more accessible of the two is the wide ridge, traversed on the Rhyd Ddu Path, separating Cwm Clogwyn to the north, and Cwm Caregog to the south. The other is a craggy small ridge, passed on the railway, close to Rocky Valley Halt, its steeper side dropping down to the Llanberis Pass.

The South Ridge (Allt Maenderyn) is located south(ish) of the summit; it runs south from Clawdd Coch near the top of the Rhyd Ddu Path.

The South Ridge path, from Clawdd Coch down to Bwlch Cwm Llan quarry, is just over a mile (1.15 miles) long.

The distance, as the crow flies, from the highest point on Crib Goch, across to the highest point of Y Lliwedd just over a mile (1.14 miles).

The 4 peaks of the North-west ridge, a.k.a. Moel Eilio ridge, (as seen from the Llanberis Path) are Moel Eilio, Foel Gron, Foel Goch and Moel Cynghorion.

The name ‘North Ridge’ may refer either to Crib Goch’s north ridge, which is a less well-known means of ascending it, or to the ridge of hills on the uphill side of the Llanberis Path, from Derlwyn up to Clogwyn.

The South-east ridge is the old Watkin Path route from Bwlch y Saethau up to the summit, via the edge of Clogwyn y Garnedd.

The Y Gribin ridge walk/scramble runs from near Glaslyn’s outflow up to Bwlch y Saethau. (‘Cribyn’ is another word for ridge; it is marked as ‘Cribau’ on the O.S. map.)

If you were traversing the narrow ridge section of Bwlch Main, you would be on the upper Rhyd Ddu Path.

The ridge section of the Watkin Path between Bwlch Ciliau and Bwlch y Saethau is just under ½ mile in length.

The word ‘bwlch’, meaning a gap or a pass, often refers to a low point or saddle along a ridge (which may also allows easier passage from one valley to another). Examples of ‘bwlchs’ on ridges include Bwlch Coch, Bwlch Glas, Bwlch Main and Bwlch y Moch.

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Lakes

There are a dozen named lakes on the Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa massif. These are (clockwise from the north): Llyn Bach, Llyn Glas (Cwm Glas), Glaslyn, Llyn Teyrn, Llyn Llydaw, Llyn Glas (Cwm Clogwyn), Llyn Coch, Llyn Nadroedd, Llyn Treweunydd, Llyn Ffynnon y Gwas, Llyn Dwythwch and Llyn Du’r Arddu.

Most of the lakes on Snowdon lie in glacial hollows.

Llyn Llydaw, passed on the Miners’ Track, is the largest lake on Snowdon, measuring 45 hectares / 110 acres.

Llyn Llydaw has an estimated capacity of 765 million gallons, and it is marked on the map as a reservoir.

Not surprisingly, Llyn Llydaw is also the longest lake on Snowdon; it is just over a mile long.

Llyn Llydaw is also the deepest lake on Snowdon at 58 m / 190 ft. This is despite Glaslyn’s legendary reputation for being bottomless.

Although ‘Llydaw’ is the Welsh name for Brittany, no strong link between the two names has been established (although some suggest that miners from Brittany used the barracks at Llyn Teyrn, having to leave when the Napoleonic Wars broke out in the early 19^th century). Others tenuously propose that ‘Llydaw’ may be a corruption of ‘lludw’ (ash), because of the ash-like deposits allegedly sometimes found along the shore, or that ‘llydaw’ comes from ‘llydan’ (meaning ‘wide’), i.e. ‘extensive shoreline’.

Llyn Bach (in Cwm Glas) is the highest lake on Snowdon, at 747 m  (2,450 ft).

Llyn Bach (in Cwm Glas) is also the smallest named lake on Snowdon, measuring about ¼ hectare (½ acre).

Because of both its size and height, Llyn Bach readily freezes over in winter.

Some 19^th-century travel writers called Llyn Bach Ffynnon Felen (‘Yellow Pool’)

Llyn Glas (also in Cwm Glas) was formerly called ‘Ffynnon Frech’ (‘speckled pool’); one source dates from 1690. Although the O.S. Map of 1889 uses the name Llyn Glas, its former name continued in use into the 20^th century.

Llyn Glas, in Cwm Glas, has a small island with a couple of small conifers growing on it.

Llyn Glas and Llyn Bach in Cwm Glas are the lakes seen by fewest people because they cannot be seen from any of the main paths.  (Llyn Dwythwch can just be seen from the Llanberis Path.)

Glaslyn was formerly known as Llyn Ffynnon Las, or just Ffynnon Las (‘Blue Pool’), a name used until the mid-19^th century.

Glaslyn has an old dam and sluice at its outflow, dating from when it powered the old crushing mill at the outflow and the later one by Llyn Llydaw.

Glaslyn is the lake which sees the most paddlers and swimmers.

Llyn Cwellyn was formerly shown on maps as ‘Cae Uwch y Llyn’. (It has been suggested that this might be the origin of the name Cwellyn.)

Cwellyn was formerly anglicised as ‘Quellyn’.

Llyn Dwythwch (in Cwm Dwythwch, just briefly visible from by Hebron Gate on the lower Llanberis Path) is the lowest named lake on Snowdon.

Cwm Clogwyn has three lakes in it; Llyn Glas is the smallest of these.

Llyn Treweunydd, in Cwm Treweunydd below Cwm Clogwyn, was an artificial dammed lake fed by the lakes above it and built to provide water for Glanrafon quarry. It is now silting up at an almost visible rate.

The lake with the shortest name is Glaslyn.

The lake with the longest name is Llyn Ffynnon y Gwas, passed on the Snowdon Ranger Path.

It is the copper content in Glaslyn which gives it its blueness (and its name). Llyn Glas in Cwm Clogwyn is said to suffer similar pollution.

The path with the most lakes passed on it is the Miners’ Track, which passes Llyn Teyrn, Llyn Llydaw and Glaslyn.

Llyn Teyrn is the smallest of the three lakes passed on the Miners’ Track, measuring just 5 acres in size.

‘Llyn Teyrn’ translates variously as ‘monarch, sovereign, king, prince, lord, ruler, leader’. Some suggest that this might refer to the King Arthur legend associated with the area, or to the princes who are associated with the Beddgelert area.

Two paths have lakes close to their halfway point: the Miners’ Track (Llyn Llydaw) and the Snowdon Ranger Path (Llyn Ffynnon y Gwas).

The cwm with the most lakes in it is Cwm Clogwyn, with the three lakes of Llyn Nadroedd, Llyn Coch and Llyn Glas.

Excluding Glaslyn, there are two lakes called Llyn Glas on Snowdon: one in Cwm Clogwyn and one in Cwm Glas.

Two lakes have former copper mines adjacent to them: Glaslyn (the Britannia mine) and Llyn Du’r Arddu (Clogwyn mine).

George Borrow, in his book Wild Wales (1862), was passing Llyn Cwellyn and was offered to be shown this lake, described as “the black lake in the frightful hollow in which the fishes have monstrous heads and little bodies, the lake on which neither swan, duck nor any kind of wildfowl was ever seen light.” Borrow declined the offer. (It is true that the trout here do have large heads.)

Five large valley lakes surround the massif: Llyn Padarn, Llyn Peris, Llyn Gwynant, Llyn Dinas and Llyn Cwellyn. (Six if we count the smaller Llyn y Gader/Gadair at Rhyd Ddu).

Robson Green swam in Llyn Llydaw for his Extreme Swimming programme, said in the programme to be the coldest in Britain. (It was 7˚C at the time so it was by no means Britain’s coldest).

Llyn Cwellyn was popular for angling, containing Arctic Char, also found in Llyn Padarn, on the other side of Snowdon.

Although the Miners’ Track is the only main path which actually skirts any lakes, lakes can be seen from all of the main paths, though on the Watkin Path not until the ascent above Bwlch y Saethau.

 The Miners Track is the only path which crosses a lake (on the Causeway).

George Borrow, in his Wild Wales (1862), was passing Llyn Cwellyn and was offered to be shown this lake, i.e. “the black lake in the frightful hollow in which the fishes have monstrous heads and little bodies, the lake on which neither swan, duck nor any kind of wildfowl was ever seen light.” Borrow declined the offer. (It is true that the trout here do have large heads.)

The stream feeding Llyn Glas in Cwm Clogwyn runs down a gully called ‘Ffos Owain Glyndŵr’, also known as ‘Y Gwter Las’; Owain Glyndŵr’ is alleged to have hidden here at some point.

Trout were at one time caught at Llyn Llydaw, but they died out as a result of the copper working, and it is reported that at one time drinking the water caused a severe sore throat. In 1912 Arthur Lockwood, of the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel, put 12 trout in the lake (on the east side of the causeway) and they seemingly thrived.

Glaslyn had trout in it prior to the copper mine workings.

Whilst not a lake, the ‘infinity pool’ near Cwm Glas Mawr, overlooking the Llanberis Pass, has received much interest since local farmer Wyn Mostyn Jones built it in 2016 as a green energy project. Its popularity forced the erection of a sign which states: “Please note that this pool is a private water supply to the properties below, therefore no bathing is allowed.”

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Rivers

The combination of high precipitation and steep glacial valleys means that the rivers descending from Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa are often fast-flowing and contain numerous waterfalls and cascades.

Afon Hwch flows over Ceunant Mawr (‘large ravine/gorge’), the largest waterfall on Snowdon, near the viaducts at the foot of the Snowdon railway. The waterfall gives the name to Waterfall Halt on the railway.

Afon Hwch largely has its source in Llyn Dwythwch in Cwm Dwythwch, itself draining the slopes of Moel Eilio, Foel Gron and Foel Goch.

Water from the pool of Ceunant Mawr was carried in pipes to power the 50-foot waterwheel in the Dinorwig Quarry workshops (now the National Slate Museum).

Before construction of the railway started, it was announced that it would be an electric railway. To this end, the company acquired the rights to water from Afon Hwch to drive generators, and there was a plan to build a dam in Cwm Brwynog and also enlarge Llyn Dwythwch. However, the plan was dropped.

The waterfall of Ceunant Mawr was once descended by kayak, an event which was filmed.

A tributary of Afon Hwch is Afon Arddu, which flows down Cwm Brwynog, from near Clogwyn Du’r Arddu.

The waterfall of Ceunant Bach (‘Small ravine/gorge’) is some ¼ mile upstream of Ceunant Mawr, near the confluence of the Afon Hwch and Afon Arddu, just on the other side of the railway line, less than 300m from the Llanberis Path mountain gate. They can best be seen from the train.

Snowdon’s main river is Afon Glaslyn, which flows from Glaslyn, through Llyn Llydaw, then down the Nantgwynant via Llyn Gwynant and Llyn Dinas to Beddgelert; it reaches the sea at Porthmadog.

On Snowdon’s south side, Afon Cwm Llan flows from Cwm Llan, its catchment area being Cwm Tregalan and the lower part of the Watkin Path.

The most popular river for swimming in is Afon Cwm Llan, which forms the pools and waterfalls by the Watkin Path.

There are also impressive waterfalls on Afon Glaslyn as it flows down Cwm Dyli, but few see them. (The Capel Curig Path used to come up this way before Pen y Pass developed.) These falls in Cwm Dyli can be seen from the Snowdon viewpoint and the road in the upper Nantgwynant.

The Snowdon massif is largely encircled by rivers: Afon Nant Peris (which flows down the Llanberis Pass); Afon Glaslyn (which flows down the Nantgwynant); and Afon Gwyrfai and Afon Colwyn (which flow north and south respectively from the watershed near Rhyd Ddu).

Afon Treweunydd is fed by the three lakes in Cwm Clogwyn and also Llyn Ffynnon y Gwas.

The Watkin Path is the only main path which crosses over a named river (i.e. over the Afon Cwm Llan just past the top of the falls).

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Heights

The height of Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa is today given as 1,085 m / 3,560 ft (although the last imperial O.S. map recorded it as 3,559 ft, and satellite measuring in 2014 confirmed it as 1,084.87 m / 3,559.3 ft).

The height is measured to the highest bit of bedrock, calculated as being some 80 cm below the paved-stone base on which the summit pillar currently stands.

A standard trig point was built on Snowdon in 1961, its height at the time given as 1,086.002 m.

In Great Britain, heights above sea level are based on the Ordnance Datum at Newlyn, established between 1915 and 1921, i.e. over a century ago. Since then, however, sea levels have risen some 20 cm / 8 inches, so one could argue that Snowdon is now lower than the established figure.

In terms of height (and ignoring distance), walking from Llanberis to the summit is the equivalent of a 4,875-step staircase. Walking up the Watkin Path would exceed a 5,000-step staircase.

In 1682, John Adams and John Caswell (his principal assistant) surveyed Snowdon using quadrants with telescopic sights, and estimated that its summit was “at a height of 1,240 yds.” (3,720 ft / 1,130 m).

Edmund Halley, of comet fame, was secretary of the Royal Society, and on 26 May 1697, he climbed Snowdon, and using modern barometer tables, he measured the height at 3,565 ft., which was remarkably close to its real height. He had a considerable dislike of mountains.

In July 1777, Major-General William Roy, a Scottish military engineer and surveyor, conducted both a trigonometrical measurement and barometrical measurement of Snowdon. The former gave a height of 3,555.4 ft, the latter a height of 3,548.9 ft.

In 1819, the Rev. F. J. H. Wollaston independently remeasured Snowdon, using both boiling water and pressure. He arrived at a figure of 3,546.25 ft.

A survey by the Royal Engineers in 1827 as part of the ‘Ordnance Trigonometrical Survey of Great Britain and Ireland’ gave the O.S. a figure of 3,570 ft., and a later official survey in 1842 established the height at 3,571 ft. A survey in 1886 established the height of Snowdon as 3,560 ft., today’s figure.

Scotland has 75 peaks higher than Snowdon (with a prominence of over 30m / 98 ft). However, if considering a greater prominence of over 600m (1,969 ft), Snowdon is listed 19^th.

Snowdon has a prominence of 1,039m (3,409 ft), so ranks 3^rd in the British Isles, after only Ben Nevis and Carn Eige.

You’d have to fly over 200 miles north to find a mountain higher than Snowdon. Ben Lui (Beinn Laoigh), in the Grampians, at 1,130m / 3,710 ft, is the nearest and is 232 miles away.

Hundreds of millions of years ago Snowdon was much higher, but has eroded down to its current height.

Snowdon is only 20 m (66 ft) higher than Carnedd Ugain.

Carnedd Ugain, at 1,065 m / 3,494 ft, is the second-highest peak in Wales, although, with a far greater prominence, Carnedd Llywelyn (a metre lower) is usually considered the second highest.

The Pyg and Miners’ Tracks start at Pen y Pass, the highest of the start points, at 359m / 1,178 ft.

The Watkin Path starts at Pont Bethania, the lowest of the start points, at 60m / 196 ft.

In the 19^th century, a rumour emerged several times that Snowdon was not Wales’ highest mountain – Carnedd Llywelyn was. On the last occasion, in 1890, much indignation ensued, with some suggesting that landowner Sir Edward Watkin (of Watkin Path fame) should employ 2,000 men and horses to carry rubble from Llanberis Quarry to the summit of Snowdon, to make it higher than Carnedd Llywelyn. Ultimately the Director General of the Ordnance Survey was compelled to step in to make a public statement and quell the rumours.

At 995m, Bwlch Glas is over 3000 ft (3,264 ft).

The nearest 3000er to the summit is Carnedd Ugain, exactly ½ mile away as the crow flies.

These four peaks on the massif – all encountered on the Snowdon Horseshoe – are ranked in order of height as follows: Yr Wyddfa summit, Carnedd Ugain, Crib Coch, Y Lliwedd.

Clogwyn Bridge (770m) on the Llanberis Path and the Intersection (750m) on the Pyg/Miners’ Tracks are at much the same height, but Clogwyn Bridge is marginally higher.

The spot height of 750m is a particularly useful one as this is roughly the height of:

• the Intersection of the Pyg Track and Miners’ Track
• the height of Clogwyn bridge on the Llanberis Path
• Bwlch Ciliau on the Watkin Path
• where the Rhyd Ddu Path reaches the edge of Llechog
• the Snowdon Ranger Path above Clogwyn Du’r Arddu

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Ancient cultures

The end of the Ice Age about 12,000 years ago allowed trees to grow again. Just centuries ago, the tree-line was very much higher than it is today, with the mountain’s lower slopes tree-clad up to about 600-700m, on the slopes of Cwm Dyli and well beyond the height of Llyn Llydaw (450m).

The trees were for the most part the sessile oak, with some alder on wetter parts and birch higher up.

In Neolithic times (c.4000 – c.2500BC) people had moved from being nomadic  hunter-gatherers to settling down to grow crops and rear animals. Snowdon’s lower slopes were inhabited.

The earliest farmers were living on the lower slopes of Snowdon in the Iron Age. These earliest farmers grew oats.

Cattle were the animals kept by these earliest farmers; sheep came later.

Neolithic man had also learnt the art of polishing stone tools, which meant that the igneous rock outcrops on Snowdon became an attractive prospect for the first time.

The transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Ages was marked by the invasion of the Beaker people (so called from the distinctive vessels buried with their dead). Although no artifacts have been found on the massif itself, they almost certainly lived in the area.

The oldest culture (with evidence) associated with Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa is the Bronze Age (c.2500 – c.800BC).

A 10-ft Bronze Age dug-out canoe, carved from a single tree trunk, was found in the silt of Llyn Llydaw when the water level was lowered to build the Causeway in 1853. Nearby are also the remains of two hut circles.

The canoe, damaged on one side by the miners when dragging it to the surface, is now on display in the National Museum of Wales. It is the only such canoe to have been found in Wales.

There are a few cairns, hut-circles and mounds of burnt stone – used, it is generally assumed, by family groups of the late Bronze Age for cooking meat – around the northernmost spur of the long ridge running down from the summit over Moel y Cynghorion to Moel Eilio and Cefn Du.

The ‘Snowdon Bowl’ is a Celtic type of bowl, discovered high on the north-eastern scree slopes of Crib Goch above Cwm Beudy Mawr in 1974. The handle has a Celtic design resembling a cat’s head, and is decorated with red enamel, inlaid into a bronze surround. It is believed that this was probably a religious offering to a god or goddess, and was likely originally buried even higher up.

Only a small part of the body has survived. It once had a bronze body with a rounded base. The handle was attached with a decorated mount. Late Iron Age bronze-workers perfected the technique of applying red glass insets to create colourful designs.

The ‘Snowdon bowl’ is now on display in the National Museum of Wales.

The Bronze age was a dry period which contributed to the denuding of the tree growth on Snowdon.

The Iron Age (c.800BC – c.74AD) saw the inhabitants living in stone hut circles. The remains of Iron Age hut circles can be found in Cwm Brwynog, Cwm Dwythog and Cwm Dyli.

The Llanberis Path passes between the sites of two former long-huts, some 100m below Hebron stile.

The upper area of Cwm Dyli, by the outflow of Llyn Llydaw, has yielded the remains of flint arrow-heads, stone implements, and also slag refuse from the smelting of copper ore.

If there were any ancient artifacts on the summit, they would likely have been removed or destroyed by the earliest structures on the summit.

Although archaeological surveys have been carried out, no definitive prehistoric remains have been identified near the summit.

Between about 500BC and 300BC the Ordovices moved into the area and onto the lower-lying outskirts of Snowdon, bringing the Celtic language and their Druid teachings.

The best part of 2,000 years ago there was a Roman marching camp at Penygwryd, with tracks heading to Capel Curig, down the Llanberis Pass and down the Nantgwynant. There is no record of the Romans on the mountain, but the natives certainly took refuge from the Romans on the mountain.

Despite what some have suggested, the name of Carnedd Ugain (meaning ‘twenty’) is not believed to have anything to do with the Roman XX^th Legion which was based in Chester, and was for a while stationed at Segontium, near Caernarfon.

Following the withdrawal of the Romans, Irish-speaking tribes inhabited the area, taking advantage of the uplands around Snowdon which the Romans had cleared for settlement and cultivation.

The was much fighting between the Irish and the local Welsh people. There are stories told of an Irish city at Muriau’r Dre (close to Cwm Dyli power station), and the battle at Bwlch y Gwyddel (see later).

Snowdon has close links with King Arthur and Rhita Gawr.

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King Arthur

In the 5^th century, the giant Rhita Gawr (‘cawr’ means ‘giant’), on defeating the twenty-six kings of Britain, cut off their beards and fashioned a great cape out of them to protect himself from the cold. At some point after this, Rhita demanded Arthur’s beard to patch his cloak. Arthur refused, and an angry Rhita marched with his armies to confront him on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa. In the resulting confrontation, Arthur won.

According to legend, Rhita Gawr was buried under the original summit cairn (which gives Yr Wyddfa its name).

It was Arthur who reportedly commanded that a cairn be built over the body, this forming Gwyddfa Rhudda (‘Rhita’s Cairn’). (Following the rules of initial consonant mutation, ‘gwyddfa’ becomes ‘yr wyddfa’.)

Rhita Gawr features in the story of Culhwch ac Olwen from The Mabinogion.  (The Mabinogion is believed to have been composed around 1080 –1100AD, though some parts of the story likely come from much older oral traditions — possibly pre-Christian Celtic myths that date back to the 7^th – 9^th centuries.)

While at his fort of Dinas Emrys, near Beddgelert, Arthur heard that the enemy, led by Mordred, was encamped in the renowned old city of Tregalan, in Cwm Tregalan, above Cwm Llan.

King Arthur Arthur summoned all his forces, who met on the flat ground of Y Waen Wen, opposite Craflwyn, and from there he formed a regiment of his best men. His last battle was against the army of Mordred (variously recorded as either a treacherous nephew, an illegitimate son or a former lover to Guinevere).

According to legend, King Arthur died at Bwlch y Saethau (‘Pass of the Arrows’) on the Watkin Path.

Folklore states that King Arthur commanded Sir Bedivere, one of his knights, to throw his sword Excalibur into Glaslyn, thereby returning it to the Lady of the Lake.

According to the story, Arthur’s knights laid him down behind a rock, where he died within minutes, so they covered his body with a cairn of stones, called Carnedd Arthur (‘Arthur’s Cairn’). This cairn – at Bwlch y Saethau – was reportedly there until the 1850s.

Some versions record that Arthur himself, after his death, was carried down to the water’s edge at Glaslyn (or Llydaw), whereupon three maidens in white carried him off to a mist-shrouded Afallon.

The Welsh name for Arthur’s sword (Excalibur) is Caledfwlch. Folklore has it that Arthur commanded Sir Bedivere, one of his knights, to throw Excalibur into Glaslyn, below Snowdon’s peak, thereby returning it to the Lady of the Lake.

Amongst other local lakes that tradition claims to contain the magical sword Excalibur are those of Llydaw, Dinas and Ogwen.

Legend tells us that King Arthur’s knights are lying asleep in a cave called Ogof Llanciau Eryri (‘Cave of the Lads of Snowdonia’). This has been described as being “in the precipitous cliff on the left-hand side near the top of Llyn Llydaw”, near Y Lliwedd. These Knights of the Round Table are reputedly lying there still, their weapons at the ready, waiting for Arthur to return to life. According to prophecy, this will happen when Wales is in mortal danger.

Many years later, a shepherd, herding sheep on the slopes of Y Lliwedd, stumbled upon the cave and found the Knights, still in their armour, asleep on the floor of the cave, but resting on their arms and ready for battle and Arthur’s return. At the back of the cave lay the treasure, but in creeping past he accidentally rung a bell hanging from the roof of the cave, and the Knights leapt into action. The shepherd ran off in panic, but he had fallen victim to one of Merlin’s curses, for his health steadily deteriorated, and he died soon afterwards.

The story that King Arthur fought with a dragon on Snowdon is a myth.

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Other myths & legends

Yr Afanc, a legendary water monster responsible for the terrible floods that constantly plagued the Conwy valley, was thrown into the ‘bottomless’ Glaslyn. A beautiful young woman, the daughter of a local farmer, had volunteered to act as bait so that he could be caught.

The Afanc soon ate up any fish life, and it is said that any animal going into the water will immediately be dragged down and never seen again. Edward Llwyd, who visited in the late 17^th century, repeated the stories of both goats and deer being dragged under, and wrote that “Nothing will safely float on its waters. I know not for certain whether it would be safe for a bird to fly over it.”

There are numerous stories of fairies associated with Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, mostly relating to the meadows and lakes lower down on the mountain. The meadows near Rhyd Ddu, Llyn Cwellyn and the Bettws Garmon vale were a common location, this being called the ‘Land of the Fairies’.

Sir John Rhys wrote in 1901 that Cwm Llan (on the south side of Snowdon, and passed through on the Watkin path) was the “principal resort” of the Tylwyth Teg (‘the fairies’); there are two stories associated with this location.

Inhabitants of Cwm Brwynog used to warn their children not to play by the nearby lake of Llyn Dwythwch, lest the fairies snatch them.

Fairies were also associated with Llyn Du’r Arddu and Llyn Coch (in Cwm Clogwyn).

Glaslyn also has a fairy story connected with it. In this, a miner encountered a hungry old woman by the lake, and gave her food. Thereafter, a piece of silver appeared in his shoe every night. He grew rich, but one night, while drunk, he boasted about it, and all his silver turned to worthless paper.

A short distance behind Hafod y Llan, near the foot of the Watkin Path, is a fairly inaccessible cave called ‘Ogof Owain Lawgoch’ (‘The Cave of Owain the Red Hand’) or ‘Ogof y Gŵr Blewog’ (‘The Cave of the Hairy Man’). The local people were constantly having their houses burgled, and often their cows and goats would be secretly milked. One day the thief was caught breaking into a house by a woman who, having heard a noise, armed herself with a hatchet. She cut off his right hand, but he escaped. A trail of blood was followed to where he had hidden in the cave, but he was never seen again.

A witch (or ‘ugly old hag’) named Canthrig Bwt reputedly lived in Nant Peris, a little below Pont y Gromlech. She was accused of snatching and eating local small children, and was eventually killed by an angry mob, who chopped off her head.

In the copper mines on Snowdon you might encounter the ‘Knockers’ or ‘Coblynnod’. The miners had a story that the Coblynnod – “thick-set dwarfs” – would tap with their hammers to lead miners underground to rich veins of ore. They also warned of rockfalls, though, and when annoyed – by miners whistling or swearing – they could deliberately cause them.

Jenkins (1899) writes that Llyn Teyrn was called Llyn y Coblynnod (‘Lake of the Goblins’).

Merlin reputedly hid the golden throne of Britain “among the cliffs north of Crib y Ddysgl” when the Saxons invaded, and because the Saxons never left, it was never retrieved, and is still there.

Merlin has no other connection with Snowdon, though is central to the story of the fighting dragons at Dinas Emrys, a rocky outcrop a little downstream of Llyn Dinas in Nantgwynant, and how the dragon became the symbol of Wales.

Maen Du’r Arddu is a huge boulder some ¼ mile to the north of Llyn Du’r Arddu, below Clogwyn Du’r Arddu. It is said that anyone spending the night there will wake up either a bard or a madman. It has also been called ‘Carreg y Bardd’ (the Poet’s Stone).

Snowdon is not the only mountain in Wales where an old saying states that anyone spending the night at the summit will be a changed person in the morning –  either a poet/bard or a madman.

Various writers in the first half of the 19^th century tell of a woman called ‘Caddy of Cwm Glas’ who lived in the lower part of the Cwm down towards the Pass. She had immense strength, and indeed had a beard. She frequently beat men at wrestling, or any men who teased her.

Marged ferch Ifan (Margaret, daughter of Ifan) or Margaret Evans was an 18^th century harpist and wrestler. She hailed from Beddgelert, but with her husband ran a drinking establishment for copper miners in the parish of Llandwrog. She was reputed to be able to shoe a horse, and could make a boat, her own shoes, a harp and a violin. She was said to row large loads across Llyn Padarn and Llyn Peris, and was sometimes called the ‘Queen of the Lakes’.

There is a gully in Cwm Clogwyn called Ffos Owain Glyndŵr, where the 15^th-century Welsh leader, soldier and military commander allegedly hid.

It is said that a hidden cave on the mountain was used by smugglers in the 18^th century, but this ‘Smugglers’ Hole’ is just a local myth.

Some 1.5 miles south-west of Rhyd Ddu, on the edge of the Snowdon massif, is Llam y Trwsgl (‘the leap of the clumsy’). There is a fable about a giant who lived in this area, and leapt in one bound over Cwm Trwsgl.

Cwm Trwsgl also features in ‘The Tragedy and Ghost of Llam Trwsgwl’; this concerns a maiden who was murdered by her betrothed, who changed his mind about marrying her and pushed her into the swollen river.

On the edge of the Massif, Beddgelert has a great many fables and stories associated with it, the most famous being the killing of Gelert, the dog, by his master, Llywelyn the Great, who mistakenly thought that the dog had killed his young son.

Of the dozen other fables based in Beddgelert, half of them concern ghosts.

Bwlch y Gwyddel (‘The Pass of the Irishman’), between Penygwryd and Pen-y-Pass, is allegedly named after a battle fought there between the Welsh and Irish. Many centuries ago, a host of Irishmen came to Wales, and at this point were “engaged in a bloody fray” with natives. The Irish won, and settled in Nantgwynant, but at a later date the Welsh, on their way back from Dolwyddelan via the slopes of Siabod, found the Irish guards sleeping and killed them. The rest of the Irish were completely “put to rout”, and fled through Bwlch y Rhediad (‘Pass of the Flight’). The Irish were “overtaken by the Welsh and annihilated” by Llynnau Diwaunydd (‘Lakes of the Rejoicing’).

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Popularity

George Borrow, in Wild Wales (1862), wrote: “Snowdon is interesting on various accounts. It is interesting for its picturesque beauty. Perhaps in the whole world there is no region more picturesquely beautiful than Snowdon.”

The spring 2023 issue of Country Walking magazine featured a 16-page article on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, which they called “the perfect mountain”.

The September 2025 issue of Country Walking magazine featured an article called ‘Britain’s Best Hills’. In the 1000m+ category, Snowdon was chosen. They wrote: “If there’s one mountain in the entire world that can claim to be all things to all people, then Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) is the one.”

Although some 600,000 people visit Snowdon annually, it is only Wales’ 3^rd most popular attraction, coming after Cardiff’s Millennium Centre and the Swansea’s L.C. (Leisure Centre). It has about the same number of visitors as St Fagans National Museum of History.

This century alone, Snowdon has been visited by well over 5 million people.

Snowdon has more visitors than the other of the Three Peak mountains.

It is certainly the most popular mountain in Britain, and as far as is known, in the world. (Most mountains don’t have counters so this can’t be proved.)

In total over the years, including those riding on the train, Snowdon has probably received some 30 – 40 million visitors.

Snowdon’s popularity is nothing new:

As long ago as 1854, the North Wales Chronicle reported on “immense numbers of people this summer, who still crowd to his venerable summit”.

As long ago as 1858, it was estimated that at the height of the season some 200 – 300 ascended Snowdon daily.

In 1904 The Gossiping Guide estimated that some 150 reached the summit each day between April and June, with some 700 people ascending Snowdon per day on average in the summer, with up to 2,000 on a good day.

In 2017 the O.S. announced that the 1km grid square with the highest number of tracked walkers going through it was square SH6054, i.e. Snowdon Summit.

The busiest day on the summit is possibly the summer solstice, i.e. the longest day (June 20^th or 21^st).

Statistically, Saturday is the busiest day of the week on Snowdon, followed by Sunday, though Wednesday is a close contender.

Of the weekdays Friday is marginally the quietest.

The busiest months are July and August, and the quietest are December and January.

The summit at usually its busiest from about 12:00 – 15:00.

Although Snowdon is primarily a domestic tourism destination, it is visited by people from many countries. The 2024 survey indicated that some ¾ of visitors come from England, with about 20% from Wales. The other 5% comprises overseas visitors, and on an average day many different languages can be heard on the mountain (which does not necessarily mean that the speakers live outside the UK).

A 2019 survey of visitors to Gwynedd (as opposed to Snowdon) indicated that 4% of visitors were from overseas, with 46% from Wales and 50% from the rest of the UK.

Successive surveys of visitors to Snowdonia indicate that the main reason for their visit is to enjoy the scenery and landscape; on Snowdon itself, however, many come primarily as a consequence of its status.

Snowdon attracts more novice walkers than any other mountain in Britain. A good proportion of walkers on Snowdon have never climbed a mountain before and are not walkers per se.

In June 2019, in an interview as part of Hafod Eryri’s 10^th anniversary celebration, in expressing concern for the numbers of people on Snowdon, a spokesman for Gwynedd Council stated that the county’s tourism and marketing department would no longer specifically mention Snowdon in its publicity, including pictures.

The mountain’s popularity is reflected not just in numbers, but in erosion and path wear, in conservation issues, in transport and parking issues, and in its presence in social media.

More positively, this popularity also contributes greatly to the local economy.

Today, well over a million photos a year are taken on Snowdon.

There are numerous online forums dedicated to Snowdon.

Some reviews on TripAdvisor have rated Snowdon as ‘terrible’, for reasons such as: the summit café was closed (it was out of season); “the standpipe used to refill bottles of water was not working” (standpipe?); there is no proper wheelchair access up the mountain; cars parked illegally get ticketed; it was too crowded at the top; there was no visibility at the summit; it was too windy, which makes your hair a mess; it was too steep …. “

Some of the above are likely simply attention seeking.

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The paths

Six main paths are promoted by the National Park Authority: The Llanberis Path, the Pyg Track, the Miners’ Track, The Watkin Path, The Rhyd Ddu Path and the Snowdon Ranger Path.

The Welsh names for these paths are: Llwybr Llanberis, Llwybr (y) Pyg, Llwybr y Mwynwyr, Llwybr Watkin, Llwybr Rhyd Ddu and Llwybr Cwellyn.

The National Park Authority does not promote Crib Goch as a route to the summit, nor Allt Maenderyn (the South Ridge), despite the latter now being part of both the Cambrian Way and the Snowdonia Way.

Throughout much of the 19^th century there were only four recognised routes up Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, usually referred to as:

• the Ascent from Llyn Cwellyn (i.e. the Snowdon Ranger Path)
• the Ascent from Beddgelert (i.e. largely the Rhyd Ddu Path)
• the Ascent from Dolbadarn or Llanberis
• the Ascent from Capel Curig, later called the Penygwryd or Gorphwysfa Path

The Pyg Track and the Watkin Path were later additions.

The Llanberis Path is the busiest, taking over 40% of all the total walkers (i.e. some 250,000 walkers annually).

The Rhyd Ddu Path is the quietest, with just some 25,000 walkers annually.

The path with the most ascent is the Watkin Path, which starts at just 60m (195 ft) above sea level. The total ascent to the summit is 1,025m / 3,363 ft.

The Llanberis Path, whilst starting at a low point, nevertheless starts 50m / 165 ft higher than the Watkin Path.

The paths with the least ascent are the Pyg Track and the Miners’ Track, which start at a height of 359m (1,178 ft), giving a total ascent to the summit of just 726m / 2,382 ft.

The Snowdon Ranger Path is believed to be the oldest of Snowdon’s paths because of the good turnpike route which ran from Caernarfon to Shrewsbury, via Beddgelert and Maentwrog.

The newest of the main paths is the lower part of the Pyg Track, from Pen y Pass to Bwlch y Moch.

There are infra-red counters on the paths; this is how the Park Authority knows how many people walk on the mountain annually.

A special counter on the Llanberis Path counts bikes.

It is believed that Snowdon is Europe’s busiest mountain, but due to the lack of counters on other mountains abroad, this cannot actually be statistically proven.

The Llwybrau’r Wyddfa app has been downloaded more than 33,000 times.

Some of the paths have minor downhill sections on the way up, such as the Miners’ Track approaching Llyn Teyrn, the Pyg Track after Bwlch y Moch, and the Rhyd Ddu Path after Pen ar Lôn.

The second half of every main path is steeper overall than the first half.

The steepest ¼-mile section on any main path is tied between Allt Goch (on the Llanberis Path) and the section up from Bwlch y Saethau (on the Watkin Path).

The longest of the main paths is the Llanberis Path, at 4½ miles. (It is measured from the roundabout outside the Royal Victoria Hotel as everyone has to walk down Victoria Terrace.)

The longest section of near-straight path on any of the paths is a ½-mile section of the Llanberis Path, on either side of the Halfway café.

The longest section of any path which has no ascent or descent is a ¾-mile section around Llyn Llydaw on the Llanberis Path.

The shortest of the main paths is the Pyg Track (3½ miles / 5½ km).

The Miners’ Track and the Watkin Path are the same length (4¼ miles / 7 km).

The short ⅓-mile section between Bwlch Glas and the summit is the busiest on the mountain. (4 of the 6 main paths use this section, so it is used by about 90% of all walkers, though not those on the Rhyd Ddu Path or Watkin Path).

The path with the highest ‘as the crow flies’ ratio (a direct line compared to the actual distance) is the Llanberis Path, at 82.2%.

The path with the lowest ‘as the crow flies’ ratio (a direct line compared to the actual distance) is the Miners’ Track, at 57.9%.

The only two main paths which strictly go from the bottom to the summit are the Llanberis Path and the Rhyd Path. (The other four paths join these.)

The most prominent gabions on the mountain are at the Zig-zags on the upper Pyg track.

The only stiles on the main paths are on the Pyg Track, above Bwlch y Moch. (Although not on the main paths, there are also stiles on the approach to Crib Goch, on the South Ridge, and on the Horns route.)

The only main path which goes under a bridge (two, in fact) is the Llanberis Path, i.e. at Halfway bridge and Clogwyn bridge.

When the railway was built, there was to be a bridge where the line crosses the Snowdon Ranger Path at Bwlch Glas, but it was never constructed.

Two paths start by crossing a railway line, namely the Rhyd Ddu Path and the Snowdon Ranger Path, both of which cross the Welsh Highland Railway.

Three paths have noticeable zig-zags, namely the Pyg Track (below Bwlch Glas), The Snowdon Ranger (at the bottom and above the lake), and the Rhyd Ddu Path (below Clawdd Coch).

The only paths that don’t necessitate the use of hands at all are the Llanberis Path and the Snowdon Ranger Path.

Three paths have a YHA hostel right at their foot, namely the Pyg Track, the Miners’ Track and the Snowdon Ranger Path. (There are also YHA hostels in Llanberis and in the Nantgwynant valley.)

If you walk up and down the Llanberis Path, you will take the best part of 25,000 steps (depending on your leg length).

The mountain gate at Llanberis and the gates at the start of the Miners’ Track have been designed so that their upper edge mirrors the skyline seen ahead.

There have been ‘penny posts’ (also called ‘coin posts’) on the mountain for decades. One, an old fence post, still stands on the Llanberis Path, a little below the foot of Allt Moses.

There were formerly also two Penny Posts near the top of the Pyg Track; these were believed to originate from erosion control fencing installed in the 1990s. One toppled over in 2014, and the other disappeared in late 2017, though briefly reappeared in 2025.

 There is only a mile between the shortest and longest of the main paths.

Listed by length, from shortest to longest:

• Pyg Track                           3½ miles / 5½ km
• Rhyd Ddu Path                  3¾ miles / 6 km
• Snowdon Ranger Path    4 miles / 6¼ km
• Miners’ Track                    4¼ miles / 7 km
• Watkin Path                      4¼ miles / 7 km
• Llanberis Path                   4½ miles / 7¼ km

In terms of height ascended, there is a difference of 299m / 981 ft.

Listed by total height ascended, from least to most:

• Pyg Track                           726m / 2,381 ft
• Miners’ Track                    726m / 2,381 ft
• Rhyd Ddu Path                  895m / 2,936 ft
• Snowdon Ranger Path    936m / 3,071 ft
• Llanberis Path                   975m / 3,198 ft
• Watkin Path                      1025m / 3,362 ft

Listed by overall gradient, from gentlest to steepest:

• Miners’ Track                    1:9.4
• Pyg Track                           1:7.8
• Llanberis Path                   1:7.4
• Snowdon Ranger Path    1:7
• Rhyd Ddu Path                  1:6.74
• Watkin Path                      1:6.67

Ranking the six main paths from easiest to hardest isn’t that straightforward and is somewhat subjective; moreover, some paths have a mix of easier and harder sections (e.g. some might swap the Miners’ Track and the Rhyd Ddu Path on account of this).

Listed from easiest to hardest:

• Llanberis Path
• Snowdon Ranger Path
• Miners’ Track                    (easy start but steep from Glaslyn upwards)
• Rhyd Ddu Path                  (hands needed on Bwlch Main)
• Pyg Track                           (short but rugged)
• Watkin Path                      (the most ascent, long, plus scree section)

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The Llanberis Path

The Llanberis Path (Llwybr Llanberis) is 4½ miles / 7¼ km               in length. It starts at a height of 110m / 361 ft. The total height ascended to the summit is 975m / 3,198 ft. Its average gradient is 1:7.4

In 2018 the Llanberis Path came second in ITV’s ‘Britain’s Favourite Top 100 Walks’.

Many locals call Llanberis Llanbêr.

The Llanberis Path is the longest of the main paths. (We consider it as starting at the roundabout by the Royal Victoria Hotel, as everyone has to walk down Victoria Terrace.) The distance from the mountain gate to the summit is ¾ mile less, i.e. 3¾ miles.

The steepest ⅓ mile on the Llanberis Path is on Allt Goch, above Clogwyn, which is marginally steeper than Allt Moses, below Clogwyn.

The cliff below Allt Goch is named Clogwyn Coch.

The Llanberis Path is never far from the railway. The path is marginally steeper (1:1.74) than the route of the railway line (1:1.786).

It is the most popular of Snowdon’s paths, taking over 40% of all the traffic. Marginally more than ¼ million people walk on the Llanberis Path annually.

The Llanberis Path is considered as running from Llanberis to the summit; the Pyg Track (with the Miners’ Track) and the Snowdon Ranger Path join it at Bwlch Glas, some ⅓ mile from the summit.

An early documented ascent from Llanberis was by Thomas Pennant in 1773, with guide Hugh Shone. They did not follow the current path, but followed a seemingly more direct line on the west side of Cwm Brwynog to Bwlch Maesgwm, to then follow the Snowdon Ranger Path to the summit, a route he had previously followed.

Until 1828 Llanberis was not reachable by coach road, which ended at Cwm y Glo, to the north-west. Those wishing to go up Snowdon had either to follow an awful pony track onwards, or take a boat along Llyn Padarn. The route up Snowdon was usually described as starting by Dolbadarn Castle, and was thus originally known as the Dolbadarn Ascent.

Many publications from the 1820s and 1830s confirm that the most usual and best ascent was this Dolbadarn path, which “commences between the New Inn (i.e. Dolbadarn Inn) and Dolbadarn Castle, near the Bridge”. Its route initially passed through the woods of Coed Victoria (there is still a Right of Way through the woods up to Steffan’s cafe), turning then to the left to follow “the Copper Sledge path-way” (this being the Clogwyn Coch copper mine by Llyn Du’r Arddu).

A later change at the bottom of the path saw it known as the ’Ascent from Llanberis’, and even well into the 20^th century it was variously called the ’Bridle Path/Track’ or the ‘Pony Path/Track’.  It later became commonly known as the ‘Tourist Path’.

Apart from a section near Hebron, and the final section, for most of the path the summit of Snowdon cannot actually be seen.

The Llanberis Path starts outside the boundary of the National Park. The steep tarmac hill at the start of the path is called Allt y Parc, which by then is just within the National Park boundary.

A vibrant community once lived in Cwm Brwynog, the valley up which the path passes. Hebron Chapel had 78 members (50 adults and 28 children) in 1887.

There were once 25 dwellings in Gwaun Cwm Brwynog, and religious services were initially held on local farms prior to the building of the chapel.

Hebron chapel saw its last service in 1955, with a deconsecration service held in 1958, though this had to be held outside after the key was mislaid. Since then the building has deteriorated to the ruin it is today.

When passing near to Hebron station you can see the various parallel walls of an old World War 2 rifle range. There was an older one dating from the Boer War just out of sight in Cwm Dwythwch.

The square ‘keep’-type building, located between Llyn Dwythwch and Ceunant Mawr (adjacent to the Afon Hwch) and seen from the lower Llanberis Path, was built as a cooling tower for electrical cables. Today it sports a number of telecom masts.

The remains of one of the houses – Ty’n yr Ardd – is passed just before Hebron stile, with stone steps leading up from the path.

Bryn Coch was another property, located ¼ mile up from Hebron stile and just 100 yards from the Llanberis Path.

The path passes Cwm Brwynog to the north, with behind it the hills of Moel Eilio, Foel Gron, Foel Goch and Moel Cynghorion, which can be used for a longer, more challenging ascent called the North-west ridge or Moel Eilio ridge.

The Llanberis Path crosses the railway twice –  at Halfway Bridge and Clogwyn Bridge.

The names Halfway Bridge and Hebron Bridge should not be confused. The latter is the railway bridge (seen from the Llanberis Path) where the railway crosses the tarmac road to Hebron.

The Llanberis Path is the only path with a café on it today (two, if we count Steffan’s café at Pen Ceunant Isaf). However, at one time the Rhyd Ddu path had a refreshment hut, as did the Miners’ Track at Glaslyn.

In 2025 a sign was erected on the railings at the Halfway café indicating that it is halfway, and asking too if people are fit enough to continue. A further sign is at Clogwyn Bridge, indicating the distance and the difficulty of the path from there onwards.

The café on the present site has had several incarnations; the first wooden one blew down in the wind.

Stock is taken to the Halfway café by quad bike.

In 2020, Covid restrictions forced the café to operate a hatch-only service, and this has since continued.

A writer in 1913 told of how, on reaching the Halfway House in thick mist, he encountered many who thought they had reached the summit café!

After the Halfway House café, Allt Moses climbs up to Clogwyn, passing Clogwyn Coch and the climbing cliffs of Clogwyn Du’r Arddu. Beyond Clogwyn comes the steep Allt Goch, leading to Bwlch Glas (where other paths join) and the summit.

Allt Moses is named after Moses Williams, who worked as a mountain guide for 50 years, and for 26 of these kept the café by the path.

This café, erected by the Good Templars, a temperance movement, opened on Whit Monday 1873. It was not on the site of the present café, but about ½ mile further on, at the foot of Allt Moses. The foundations of the building can still clearly be seen.

Moses Williams ran the refreshment hut until about 1899. (He died in that year at the age of 86 years.) For this he paid 10s a year in rent to the Faenol estate.

Following Moses Williams’ death, the hut was demolished and replaced by another hut (which was to have several incarnations) at the site of the current Halfway House.

Clogwyn bridge often marks a difference in weather conditions from this point onwards, it being much more exposed.

Just before Bwlch Glas, the remains of the old stables – for both mine ponies and guides’ ponies – are passed. Guides would often leave their ponies here before walking to the summit. The stables, which were never roofed, were sited here because the stream here flows all year round.

When an early proposal for the mountain railway was made in 1874, the Bill stated that it would terminate not at the summit, but near this spring – called “the spring of Ffynnon Dŵr Oer” (‘cold water spring’).

Some called this spring ‘Snowdon well’.

Guides would normally fill up their flasks at this spring, and encourage their customers to do so too.

The spring had a reputation for never drying up. It sometimes froze in winter, though.

In late Victorian times an iron pipe was connected to the spring, as a means of supplying the water. This was reported as still visible in the 1980s, though today there is no sign of it.

At Bwlch Glas, some ⅓ mile from the summit, the Llanberis Path is joined by the Snowdon Ranger Path and the Pyg Track (itself joined by the Miners’ Track some ½ mile lower down).

In foggy conditions it is not uncommon to find people thinking that Bwlch Glas is the summit. (This impression is aided by the word ‘copa / summit’ on the fingerpost and the generally busy nature of the location, though the nearby railway line clearly carries on uphill.)

On the Llanberis Path the railway is for the most part on your right. (It’s only on your left for 1½  miles, between Halfway bridge and Clogwyn Bridge.)

The Llanberis Path from Llanberis to the summit is marginally shorter than the length of the railway.

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Locations on the Llanberis Path

This is the order of locations up to the summit:

• Victoria Terrace
• The cattle grid
• Allt y Parc
• Pen y Ceunant / Caffi Steffan
• John’s shed
• The mountain gate
• Hebron stile
• Hebron gate
• Halfway bridge
• Halfway café
• Allt Moses / ‘the stairs’
• Clogwyn Bridge
• Allt Goch
• The old stables
• Bwlch Glas
• The summit

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The Pyg Track

The Pyg Track (Llwybr (y) Pyg) (either ‘Pyg’ or ‘y Pyg’ depending on what you believe regarding the origin of the word ‘pyg’) is 3½ miles / 5½ km in length. It starts at Pen y Pass at a height of 359m / 1,178 ft.

The total height ascended to the summit is 726m / 2,381 ft. Its average gradient is 1:7.8

The steepest ½-mile section on the Pyg Track is from the Intersection up to Bwlch Glas.

The Pyg Track is the most rugged of the main routes up Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa. Nevertheless, it is very popular because of its relative directness (it takes nearly ¼ of all the traffic on Snowdon).

Although there is much debate over the origin of this name, there is actually no shortage of evidence that the spelling ‘Pig’ was that used when the name first appeared towards the end of the 19^th century. Old documents show that it was called the ‘Pig Track’ long before someone spotted that if it were spelt ‘PYG’ it could be an abbreviation for Penygwryd.

Bwlch y Moch (Pass of the pigs) may also have played a part in the name. It is suggested that pigs were kept at the hafod some 160m east of the lower end of Llyn Llydaw, 50m above lake level (the remains are clearly visible today) and that the remains of an old wall near Bwlch y Moch may have been built to prevent pigs kept at the hafod from straying over the pass. Others have suggested that pigs were driven over this pass to market.

The name ‘Pyg’ was actually slow to catch on; even up to 1920 the name ‘Pig’ was common, and the O.S. map from the 1920s also showed the name ‘Pig Track’. However, by the end of World War I the name of ‘Pyg’ had been firmly adopted by many.

The first mile – the route up to Bwlch y Moch – is relatively new, dating from the 1880s. Before this, a route over the Horns was used (marked on the map today by the right of way), and was called the ‘Upper Track’ or ‘Upper Pony Track’ to distinguish it from the Miners’ Track (originally called the ‘Pony Track’). This original route from the Horns took a slightly more southerly and lower route to join the current Pyg Track some 330 yards beyond Bwlch y Moch.

At Bwlch y Moch are two stiles. One side is much higher than the other, but they were once level.

The paths to Crib Goch and the Horns branch off the Pyg Track at Bwlch y Moch. The large wall here is designed to stop people from accidentally going up Crib Goch, and was considerably extended in 2024 after earlier attempts at fences and a shorter wall largely failed.

The slab bridge of ‘Pont Daily Post’ is so named because they happened to be there to photograph it when it was being built. It is on the lower Pyg Track, just after the Boulders.

Pont Soldiwrs is the sleeper bridge above Bwlch y Moch. It acquired this name as it was originally erected by the army.

If there is a strong wind from the south, Stretcher Corner is very vulnerable to it.

The Pyg Track is joined by the Miners’ Track at the Intersection, above Glaslyn. From the Intersection it is a mile to the summit, so at this point you are a little over ⅔ of the way to the summit.

The feature called Paul’s Wall (between the Intersection and the Zig-zags) is to keep people off the old eroded path.

At the top of the Pyg Track, from the Zig-zags to Bwlch Glas, the section of path was formerly called the Mule Track because mine ponies used it.

The 1899 O.S. map shows the Mule Track, marked as ‘Llwybr y Mûl’.

In the 1970s there was discussion regarding placing a safety handrail at the top of the Pyg Track, just below Bwlch Glas. It never happened.

There is often a stream running by the Pyg Track, on the top leg of the Zig-zags. This is the highest water source to the summit, though not as reliable as the spring by the old stables on the Llanberis Path.

The Pyg Track itself joins the Llanberis Path at Bwlch Glas.

Some walkers, on arriving at Bwlch Glas in poor visibility, think they have reached the summit, especially if there is a small crowd there, as often is the case.

The O.S. map indicates that there are ‘fords’ in two places on the Pyg Track: at the Halfway slabs and at the slab bridges after crossing the Boulders.

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Locations on the Pyg Track

This is the order of locations up to the summit:

• Pen y Pass
• The Boulders
• The slab bridges
• The ‘granny-stopper’ steps
• Bwlch y Moch
• Pont Soldiwrs
• The halfway slabs  (a.k.a. the glacial slabs)
• Stretcher Corner
• The Hundred Steps
• The Intersection
• The ‘new’ steps
• The Step
• Paul’s Wall
• The Zig-zags
• Bwlch Glas
• The summit

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Pen y Pass

The location was first known as Gorphwysfa (‘Place of rest’), being at the top of the pass.

The location was first mentioned in Llywelyn Fawr’s charter of 1198, and in Medieval times it was known as Gorffwysfa Peris (‘the resting place of St Peris’) after the 6^th century Celtic Saint Peris, who founded the churches at Llanberis and Nant Peris. Peris, it is said, laboured up the pass, resting on a cairn of stones at the top.

Edward Lhuyd, who visited in the late 17^th century, wrote of two cairns on the site, and that his guide, on reaching them, walked round one of them nine times, rapidly chanting the Lord’s Prayer, and adding stones.

The 1901 O.S. map indicated a ‘carnedd’, and that a ‘cistfaen’ (a stone chest for the dead) was found here. The stone from the cairns was used in the construction of the inn and two small cottages. The chest found under one of them was found to contain nothing but an old clay pipe and a flintstone.

The first inn was built at Pen y Pass in 1843, the road having opened in 1831. It comprised a small ale house called Gorphwysfa, meaning ‘resting place’.

The original two names of the YHA building at Pen y Pass (when it was a hotel and an inn) were the Gorphwysfa Hotel and (from about 1900) the Pen y Pass Inn.

The name ‘Pen-y-pass’ was adopted from the middle of the 19^th century, though it was only slowly taken up.

In 1967 the Pen-y-Pass Hotel came up for sale and was bought by the YHA, who wanted a hostel on this side of the mountain. It was considerably extended in 1970.

The warden complex at Pen y Pass was built in the mid-1970s.

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The Miners’ Track

The Miners’ Track (Llwybr y Mwynwyr) is 4¼ miles / 7 km in length. It starts at Pen y Pass at a height of 359m / 1,178 ft.

The total height ascended to the summit is 726m / 2,381 ft. Its average gradient is 1:9.4

Of the main paths, this has the least steep overall gradient from bottom to top, with an overall gradient of 1 : 9.4

Of the main paths, this path has the most level sections.

It is Snowdon’s 3^rd most popular path, taking about 20% of the traffic (after the Llanberis Path and Pyg Track).

The Miners, after whom the path is named, worked at the copper mine at Glaslyn.

The Miners’ Track was first built as a pony track to link the copper mine at Glaslyn with Pen y Pass, even though there was no proper road in the pass until 1832.

Once built, it was easier to get the copper ore out along this new path, than carrying it up to Bwlch Glas, for from Glaslyn, the path ascended beside the mine, joining the Pyg Track, as it does today.

The Miners’ Track, like the Pyg Track, starts at Pen y Pass and the two join at the Intersection, exactly a mile from the summit. At this point (on the Miners’ Track) you are just over ¾ of the way to the summit.

Before the lower part of the Pyg Track was made, the Miners’ Track was usually used in the ‘Capel Curig Ascent’ or ‘Ascent from Capel Curig’, walking in from Capel Curig, though from Penygwryd approaching Llyn Llydaw from Cwm Dyli. From the Royal Hotel (now Plas y Brenin) to Penygwryd was an extra four miles.

Around 1801, after the construction of a poor pony track (for the mine) from Pen y Pass to Llyn Llydaw, that became the route taken. The old name lasted for many years after this, though later became the ‘Ascent from Gorphwysfa’ (i.e. Pen y Pass), also called the Penygwryd or Gorphwysfa Path.

The path was also once called the ‘Lower Pony Track’, to distinguish it from the nearby ‘Upper Pony Track’, namely the Horns route, the predecessor of the Pyg Track.

The steepest section on the Miners’ Track before it joins the Pyg Track is from Glaslyn up to the Intersection.

The path passes three lakes: Llyn Teyrn, Llyn Llydaw and Glaslyn.

Pont Dal Arni (‘Hold on!’) is on the Miners’ Track near Glaslyn.

On the lower part of the Miners’ Track, up to Llyn Llydaw, there are numbered slate posts by the path. This relates to a numbered guidebook which used to be available, pointing out things of interest.

Today we tend to think of the Miners’ Track as ending at the Intersection with the Pyg Track, above Glaslyn; historically, though, the next section of path, up the Zig-zags to Bwlch Glas, was part of the Miners’ Track, and formerly called Llwybr y Mul (‘the Mule Track’), copper ore being carried this way to the top.

Improvement of the track was such that by 1878 a carriage could be taken along the first two miles of the ascent (to the far end of Llyn Llydaw), nearly halfway to the summit.

The big black pipeline passed on the lower Miners’ Track carries water from Llyn Llydaw to produce hydro-electricity at Cwm Dyli power station.

The green metal shed on the shore of Llyn Llydaw is the valve house, controlling the flow of water in the pipeline.

The Causeway was built in 1853 by the then copper mine company, following the lowering of the lake level by some twelve feet. Construction reportedly used 6,000 cubic yards of waste rock from mining operations.

Prior to the building of the Causeway there used to be a path round the southern side of the lake, which still partly exists. At one point, large slabs were laid to make a good path above the water level but below the large crag there.

The wide track on the lake’s northern shore was made at the same time as the Causeway and replaced the former path.

Prior to the construction of the Causeway, horses and wagons full of copper from the mine were carried across Llyn Llydaw on rafts. After some losses (one documented incident relates to an overloaded raft overturning, leading to the horse drowning and a cartload of ore sinking to the bottom of the lake), it was the Cwm Dyle Company who built the causeway across Llyn Llydaw, in preference to upgrading the track round it, an idea also being mooted at the time.

During construction of the Causeway, a 10-ft Bronze Age canoe was found, proof that man has been on Snowdon for thousands of years. The canoe is now displayed at the National Museum in Cardiff.

The Causeway was rebuilt higher in the 1970s.

The Causeway is 110m long.

The Causeway is named on the O.S. map.

Very occasionally the Causeway will be totally underwater. Aside from rainfall, the water level in Llyn Llydaw is largely dictated by how much is being extracted for hydro-electric power.

The Causeway is strangely susceptible to strong wings.

In 1911 a postman delivering to the mine was drowned when he was blown off the Causeway, and in July 1963 John Gower, a member of the 12/13 Parachute Regiment (T.A.) drowned in Llyn Llydaw when the Army truck he was driving fell off the Causeway, which was partially under water.

The mine manager, whose house was next to the crushing mill, used to drive that far, and today Mountain Rescue teams can still get a vehicle to ‘Crusher Corner’.  Arthur Lockwood, owner of the Pen-y-Gwryd, at one time drove his car up as far as Glaslyn when the mine was working, but this is no longer possible.

The old ruined building on the shore of Llyn Llydaw is a former copper-crushing mill which operated from 1900 to 1916. (See the later section on copper mining.)

As you skirt round Glaslyn, the upper lake, you are walking along the route of a former railway; a tramway ran from the mine to the former crusher at the Glaslyn outflow, the ruins of which are still extant. This former crushing mill was built in the 1850s to replace the first mill at the foot of the mine site, then rebuilt in 1874 (as detailed later).

In the early 20^th century there used to be a refreshment building on the shore of Glaslyn, near where the path heads up towards the Intersection. This was formerly the old Smithy for the copper mine.

The standing stone at the foot of the steps up to the Intersection no longer exists (it kept getting pushed over and lies nearby), and was replaced in 2024 by a cairn.

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Locations on the Miners’ Track

This is the order of locations up to the summit:

• Pen y Pass
• Llyn Teyrn
• Llyn Llydaw
• The Causeway
• The Old Crusher
• Crusher corner
• Pont Dal Arni
• The outflow crusher ruins
• Glaslyn
• The Intersection
• Paul’s Wall
• The Zig-zags
• Bwlch Glas
• The summit

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The Watkin Path

The Watkin Path (Llwybr Watkin, sometimes spelt Watcyn) is 4¼ miles / 7 km in length. It starts at Pont Bethania in Nantgwynant at a height of 60m / 196 ft.

The total height ascended to the summit is 1025m / 3,362 ft.

Of the main paths, this has the steepest overall gradient from bottom to top, with an overall gradient of 1 : 6.67

The path was named after Sir Edward Watkin, who had it built on his land, and was initially called ‘Sir Edward Watkin’s Path’.

In view of its length (just ¼ mile shorter than the Llanberis Path) and total ascent, this path is regarded as the hardest of the main 6 paths.

The steepest ⅓ mile on the Watkin Path is from Bwlch y Saethau up to the ridge where it joins the Rhyd Ddu Path.

Starting so low (the lowest of all the paths), it offers a greater variety of natural scenery than the other paths, initially presenting woods, waterfalls and pasture before leading to the open mountain.

The woods at the start of the path are called Parc Hafod y Llan.

The Watkin Path is one of the quieter paths on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, taking about 6% of all the walkers on Snowdon.

However, the pools and waterfalls on the path get considerably more visitors. It is estimated that 50% of those on the path only go as far as the pools.

Following the Covid pandemic, the numbers on the Watkin Path increased by 44%.

These days the Watkin Path is arguably known better for its waterfalls and pools than for its route to the summit.

The National Trust owns all of the land through which the Watkin Path passes, having bought it when it was put up for sale in 1998.  (See the section on landowners.)

At the top of the falls the path passes a weir; this is the 100 kw Hafod y Porth hydro plant, commissioned in 2014 by the National Trust to provide power for the farm.

The quarry manager’s house, passed on the Watkin Path, is covered in bullet pock marks. Commandos practised here during World War II (allegedly in readiness for the D-Day landings).

On reaching the old slate quarry (Hafod y Llan quarry), which is virtually halfway, you have reached the height of Pen y Pass, i.e. the start of the Pyg and Miners’ Tracks. (See the section on slate quarries for more about this quarry.)

Although Snowdon was occasionally ascended from the Nantgwynant valley in the 19^th century, initially following the route up to the Hafod y Llan slate quarry, it was not formally made into a decent path until 1892 by Sir Edward Watkin (see the next sections).

As early as 1797, Warner had written about using this route to the summit.

The path was named after Sir Edward Watkin and was initially called ‘Sir Edward Watkin’s Path’.

In September 1892, Prime Minister William Gladstone (aged 83) visited to officially open Sir Edward Watkin’s new path and gave a speech to 2,000 gathered people; his visit is commemorated on the Gladstone Rock.

Much of Gladstone’s speech related to the ‘Land Question in Wales’, and surprisingly, the new path was not mentioned at all.

The plaque on the Gladstone Rock, erected the following year, is Aberdeen speckled granite, measuring 5 ft by 4 ft, and weighing 17 cwts.

This path was reputedly the first designated footpath in Britain, and thus the first step towards opening the countryside to walkers.

The lower part of the path is dominated by the remains of Hafod y Llan quarry (also known as South Snowdon Slate Quarry). The lower Watkin Path cuts three times across the line of the old slate inclines.

The path below the quarry follows part of the former tramway before the new tramway and impressive inclines were built on the south side of the river.

⅓ mile below Bwlch Ciliau, at the start of the ridge section at the foot of Y Lliwedd, the path goes in a direction opposite to that of the summit, hence the name ‘Contra Corner’.

By Bwlch y Saethau, Y Gribin ridge walk/scramble joins the path, coming up from Glaslyn.

The top third section of the scree, up from Bwlch y Saethau, was stepped using money raised by the BMC’s ‘Mend our Mountains’ crowdfunding scheme, started in 2016. In time, this whole section will be stepped.

Some 300m from the summit, the Watkin Path joins the Rhyd Ddu Path.

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Locations on the Watkin Path

This is the order of locations up to the summit:

• Pont Bethania
• The woods
• The incline loop
• The falls gate / the Khyber gate
• The falls and pools
• Afon Cwm Llan bridge
• Plas Cwm Llan
• The Gladstone Rock
• Hafod y Llan slate quarry
• Contra corner
• Bwlch Ciliau
• The ridge
• Bwlch y Saethau
• The scree
• The Rhyd Ddu Intersection
• The summit

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Sir Edward Watkin

Sir Edward Watkin, after whom the Watkin Path was named, was a Liberal Member of Parliament who bought the Cwm Llan part of Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa when it came up for sale in 1889. Initially bought anonymously, it was reported that the land had sold for £5,750 to an unnamed “gentleman from Lombard Street”.

Sir Edward Watkin loved technology; he presided over large-scale railway engineering projects to fulfil his business aspirations, eventually rising to become chairman of nine different British railway companies. Among his many projects was a failed attempt to dig a tunnel under the English Channel to connect his railway empire to the French rail network.

Although he is credited with creating the Watkin Path, in reality the lower half, up to the quarry, already existed as a quarry track. He did, however, build the upper portion from there to the summit.

Four years after his land purchase, in September 1893, Sir Edward additionally purchased some 500 acres “extending nearly to the top of Snowdon” on the Rhyd Ddu side, meaning that he now owned nearly all the Beddgelert side of the mountain. There was speculation that, as ‘the Railway King’ (as he was known), and with Rhyd Ddu station on his property, he might construct a railway up to the summit; there was no Snowdon Mountain Railway at this time.

Following this second purchase, some elements of the media wrongly reported that he had purchased the whole of Snowdon.

In July 1890 Sir Edward Watkin offered to the Royal Astronomical Society a site for an observatory on the summit of Snowdon. The society declined the offer due to lack of funds.

In 1891 he built ‘The Chalet’ near the bottom of the Watkin Path (less than ½ mile from Pont Bethania and now in the woods, though nothing remains), from which his guests could reach the summit. The chalet, a single-storey property, was clad in painted corrugated iron for speedy erection and had electric light in every room; a reservoir above the property produced the electricity by means of a small generator in a shed. The property, if not attractive, was reportedly very comfortable, and all the rooms were panelled with wood.

In 1891 he had a 42-foot flagstaff, weighing ¼ ton, taken to the summit, with the aim of flying the “English flag”.  His team of ten men got it most of the way up, then gave up at the steepest part after Bwlch y Saethau. A second team of six farmhands finished the job. The base is still extant today. The flagpost reportedly flew a Union Jack “of extraordinary size”, which on fine days could be seen from Llanberis, Beddgelert and Nantgwynant, and even by vessels in the Irish Channel.

Watkin set up a mechanical telegraph system on the summit. This was of the old style, namely arms on a post, like an old-style railway signal, and it could be used to send messages in semaphore. It was, however, destroyed in a storm in 1894.

Sir Edward also had a plan to set up a powerful electric light on the summit, but many said that such a light might mislead ships at sea and the plan was abandoned.

In 1893 Sir Edward laid “a telephonic wire between the summit of Snowdon and the post office at the Vale of Gwynant” (i.e. Nantgwynant). The service was opened the following week in celebration of the Royal wedding of the Duke of York (later King George V) and Princess Mary (later Queen Mary).

In 1902, following the death of Sir Edward, a large part of Snowdon was put up for sale; the Welsh Coast Pioneer used the creative headline “Knocking down Snowdon”.

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The Rhyd Ddu Path

The Rhyd Ddu Path (Llwybr Rhyd Ddu) is 3¾ miles / 6 km in length. It starts by Rhyd Ddu station at a height of 190m / 623 ft. The total height ascended to the summit is 895m / 2,936 ft. Its average gradient is 1: 6.74

The path takes its name from the village of Rhyd Ddu (‘Black Ford’).

The steepest ½ mile on the Rhyd Ddu Path is from Bwlch Main to the summit.

As with the Snowdon Ranger Path, this path goes up the west side of the mountain.

It is the path with the most gates, by far. The first mile, up to Pen ar Lôn, has four, then the other four which come after Pen ar Lôn are numbered.

The Rhyd Ddu Path is an old route, partly because of the good toll road which connected Caernarfon and Beddgelert.

It started out as the ‘Beddgelert Path’ with walkers from Beddgelert following the road to Pitt’s Head (an extra 2½ miles), then heading north-east up the lower slopes to join the current Rhyd Ddu Path at the crossroads of paths at Pen ar Lôn.

The path was consequently also sometimes known as the ‘Pitt’s Head Path’. (The other of the paths at Pen ar Lôn crossroads led to Bwlch Cwm Llan slate quarry, now on the South Ridge route.)

As late as the 1920s the O.S. map showed the Rhyd Ddu Path as the ‘Route from Beddgelert’.

The path’s popularity further increased when the railway from Caernarfon reached Rhyd Ddu in 1881. (The presence of Glanrafon slate quarry, between Snowdon Ranger and Rhyd Ddu, had been an early incentive to extend the line to Rhyd Ddu, but tourist traffic soon became its main priority.

The station was later renamed ‘Snowdon Station’. It was the popularity of this western side of the mountain (to Llanberis’ detriment) which ultimately led to the construction of the Snowdon Mountain Railway.

Today it is the quietest of the main routes up Snowdon, taking only some 5% of the traffic.

Before reaching Pen ar Lôn, guides and others would often stop at Ffridd Uchaf farmhouse (today holiday cottages) to buy milk.

About halfway up the Rhyd Ddu Path there used to be a “Half-Way House,” made of stone and corrugated iron, which supplied refreshments, and this was the last place where a drink of water could be obtained before the summit. The remains of this and other buildings can be seen at the halfway point.

Near halfway there is a flat, grassy area, thought to be the site of an ancient temple called Mur y Muriau or Mur Murianau (‘The Enclosure of Enclosures’ i.e. ‘The Chief Sanctuary’). A row of stones encircled the site, and four large boulders were arranged in such a way that resembled an altar in a temple. Some supposed that “Druidical ceremonies were performed here in all their pomp.”

Llechog is the broad ridge running from halfway up to Clawdd Coch and Bwlch Main. (Not to be confused with the other Llechog by Rocky Valley Halt on the Snowdon Railway.)

This path, as with others, has zig-zags (above gate 4 on Llechog, as you approach Clawdd Coch).

Clawdd Coch is the round hill skirted by the Rhyd Ddu Path just over ½ mile from the summit, where the South Ridge bears off.

The narrow section of Bwlch Main (‘Narrow Pass’), also known to early tourists by the name of ‘The Saddle’ – and occasionally ‘The Hog’s Back’ – was feared by many walkers in Victorian times. (The name ‘the Saddle’ was also given to the rail embankment in the area of Clogwyn station & bridge.)

A writer in the North Wales Chronicle, who recounted an ascent in August 1864, referred to Clawdd Coch as “the terror of all tourists who ascend Snowdon by the Beddgelert route”. He also stated that the narrowest part was being widened by Mr Prichard, of the Goat Hotel, Beddgelert “so that in future the most timid will not have any fears on that score.”

In 1868 there was even talk of erecting a safety handrail here at Bwlch Main, but that too never happened.

Bwlch Main is a classic glacial arete, with Cwm Clogwyn on one side and Cwm Tregalan on the other.

It is said that if two stones were rolled either way off Bwlch Main, they would end up half a mile apart, in Cwm Clogwyn and Cwm Tregalan respectively.

Despite its reputation, no fatalities are known to have happened at Bwlch Moch, although a pony did lose its footing and fall to its death; the guide pulled the lady off the pony just in time.

From Bwlch Main you can see five lakes in Cwm Clogwyn below: Llyn Nadroedd, Llyn Coch, Llyn Glas and Llyn Ffynnon y Gwas, although Llyn Treweunydd with the dam is fast silting up.

Being a bridleway, horses were sometimes ridden up to Bwlch Main, and there are a few reports of horses actually reaching the summit on this path.

The Rhyd Ddu Path runs to the summit; it is joined by the Watkin Path some 300m from the summit.

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Locations on the Rhyd Ddu Path

This is the order of locations up to the summit:

• Rhyd Ddu station crossing
• The barrier gate
• The three farm gates
• Pen ar Lôn / The crossroads
• Gate 1
• Gate 2
• Halfway / Mur Murianau
• Llechog ridge
• Mountain Gate 3
• Llechog ridge
• Mountain Gate 4
• The zig-zags
• Clawdd Coch
• Bwlch Main
• The Watkin Path Intersection
• The summit

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The Snowdon Ranger Path

The Snowdon Ranger Path (Llwybr Cwellyn) is 4 miles / 6¼ km in length. It starts by Llyn Cwellyn (hence the Welsh name) at a height of 149m / 489 ft.

The total height ascended to the summit is 936m / 3,071 ft. Its average gradient is 1:7

The Snowdon Ranger Path was probably the earliest regular route up Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, given its proximity to Caernarfon (some 7½ miles) along a good toll road to Beddgelert (and ultimately on to Shrewsbury).

The steepest ½ mile on the Snowdon Ranger Path is from the lake (Llyn Ffynnon y Gwas) up to the plateau above Clogwyn Du’r Arddu.

Today it is the 2^nd quietest path, after the Rhyd Ddu Path.

Because of this, it is sometimes considered the best route for first-time climbers who want a quieter experience but still a clear, well-defined path.

Although there are no copper mines on this side of the mountain, the path was formerly called the ‘Quellyn Copper Ore Path’, as ore from the Glaslyn copper mine was brought down this way on horse-drawn sledges, and later it was commonly called the ‘Ascent from Cwellyn’.

The name ‘Snowdon Ranger’ comes from the name of the one-time inn, itself named after the person. In the early 19^th century, John Morton, a guide, built an inn called the Saracen’s Head. He was succeeded by Robert Owen, also a guide, who took over the title of ‘the Snowdon Ranger’ from Morton, and rebuilt the inn and changed its name to be the same.

At the end of his first term as Prime Minister, William Gladstone stayed at the inn in the summer of 1874 (his wife’s ancestors were “Carnarvonshire people”); this was some 18 years before his more publicised visit to open the Watkin Path.

In 1932 the inn was purchased by the Y.H.A., and it remains a Youth Hostel today.

The path crosses two different railways: the Welsh Highland Railway (at the bottom) and the Snowdon Mountain Railway (at Bwlch Glas, near the summit).

Snowdon Ranger station was built by the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways in May 1878 (originally as an extension to the Moel Tryfan slate line), before being extended to Rhyd Ddu three years later.

The adjacent Youth Hostel was a pub in the early days, which resulted in a derailment in 1883 when the train driver, fireman and guard all stopped there for too many drinks while on duty.

The line closed in 1936 but was rebuilt by the modern Welsh Highland Railway / Rheilffordd Eryri, and the new (unstaffed) halt reopened in 2003. The station building passed out of railway possession during the closure years and is now a private holiday cottage.

This is the only path up Snowdon which starts up zig-zags. The path actually has two sets of zig-zags: one right at the bottom, the other soon after Llyn Ffynnon y Glas, the halfway point.

A mile up the path, and soon after reaching the top of the first zig-zag section, a marked path up to Bwlch Maesgwm is reached. This bridleway down Maesgwm makes the Snowdon Ranger Path popular with cyclists who then wish to head back to Llanberis.

Some people still refer to Maesgwm by its old name of Telegraph Valley, and it was marked as ‘Telegraph Col’ on some old maps. For some time after the removal of the wires, the poles still stood; they were removed by army helicopter after Esmé Kirby of the Snowdonia Society reportedly called in a few favours.)

The cut down bases of some poles can still be seen today.

From the Maesgwm turning, the summit is visible virtually all the way.

The large disused slate quarry lying between the Snowdon Ranger and Rhyd Ddu paths is Glanrafon quarry, the largest slate quarry on the massif.

A waymarked off-road Right of Way links the Snowdon Ranger Path with the Rhyd Ddu Path; it passes through the former Glanrafon slate quarry, though can be boggy in places. This connecting route is 2¼ miles long.

On the slope to the right of the path, towards the dammed Llyn Treweunydd,  is Maen Bras, a large boulder known locally as Maen Camp (‘boulder of feat’, though a pun on ‘Mein Kampf’) because climbing it is said to be quite a challenge.

There is a slab seat at the halfway point, by Llyn Ffynnon y Gwas.

When you are on Clogwyn Top, on the Clogwyn Du’r Arddu ridge, it’s possible to see directly through Clogwyn bridge on the Llanberis path, which is about ¾ mile away.

The path merges with the Llanberis Path at Bwlch Glas, just ⅓ mile from the summit.

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Locations on the Snowdon Ranger Path

This is the order of locations up to the summit:

• Snowdon Ranger car park
• Snowdon Ranger station
• Llwyn Onn farm
• The bottom zig-zags
• Bwlch Maesgwm junction & gate
• Llyn Ffynnon y Gwas
• Bwlch Cwm Brwynog
• The upper zig-zags
• Clogwyn top
• Clogwyn plateau
• Snowdon Railway crossing
• Bwlch Glas
• The summit

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Crib Goch

‘Crib Goch’ translates as ‘Red Ridge’ in English. In some light its redness is very apparent.

For much of the 20^th century, O.S. maps showed it as ‘Grib Goch’, because the name derives from ‘Y Grib Goch” (which it grammatically still should be).

It is a 3000er, being 923m / 3,028 ft in height.

The most popular route for Crib Goch turns off from the Pyg Track at Bwlch y Moch.

Crib Coch is usually traversed east-to-west; descending the initial scramble is considered more dangerous than ascending it, and having to pass a lot of people going the other way is not easy on the ridge section.

If you traverse Crib Goch in the usual east-to-west direction, you will also scale another 3000er before Snowdon’s summit, namely Carnedd Ugain.

Near the top of the initial scramble is what is called the ‘bad step’, a near-vertical climb of about 15 feet. Here it’s easier to climb up than down, so once you’ve climbed that you’re fairly committed to doing the whole thing.

From the start of the ridge to Bwlch Coch, the grassy pass, is just over ¼ mile.

Between the ridge of Crib Goch and Bwlch Coch lie the Pinnacles, which also have to be traversed.

It’s rated as a Grade 1 scramble. However, high winds, rain, wet rock, snow, ice or poor visibility can all turn it into a treacherous walk.

It is often climbed as the first part of the Snowdon Horseshoe.

Crib Goch can be ascended along its North Ridge, rather than from the Pyg Track, starting from the Llanberis Pass at Blaen y Nant, i.e. via lower Cwm Glas Mawr.

Over 25,000 walkers use Crib Goch annually.

The first documented crossing of Crib Goch was in 1847, by C. A. O. Baumgartner, an Alpine climber. It increased in popularity from about 1865.

The Fox’s Path is a little known and little used path. It is accessed from the normal Bwlch y Moch approach, then runs round from the slopes of Crib Goch round to Llyn Glas in Cwm Glas. It can be used as one access route to Crib Goch’s North Ridge. It is not marked on the map and is only vaguely marked on the ground.

A rain gauge located just below Crib Goch, at 713m, holds the UK record for the highest-ever monthly total. During the month of December in 2015 it registered 1396.4 mm (54.98 inches) of rain.

Many people have to be rescued from Crib Goch annually, often due to walkers becoming stranded or getting into difficulty.

Once you begin the scramble, there are very few, if any, easy escape routes off the ridge.

The Goat Path is a poor track which runs from Bwlch Coch (on Crib Goch) to the top bend of the Zig-zags on the upper Pyg Track (and it’s best left to the goats). It is best viewed from between Bwlch Glas and the summit and is not marked on the map.

This path is sometimes seen as a safe option down, but it isn’t, and in recent years has seen several rescues and even deaths. Attempts are currently being made to block off the path at Bwlch Glas.

Most years see at least one death on Crib Goch.

The answer to the question “How often do people fall off Crib Goch?” is “Only once.”

In January 2014 a Sheffield man walked naked and barefoot “a few hundred yards” on Crib Goch in wintry conditions. (He had got there using crampons and ice-axe, before undressing.) He posted pictures on the internet, and needless to say, it attracted criticism from mountain rescue teams, who called it “a really stupid stunt”.

From Pen y Pass, Crib Goch’s distinctive profile is often mistaken for the summit of Snowdon itself.

People who are familiar with Striding Edge in the Lake District often ask how the two compare. Both are long, narrow ridges with steep drops on either side, both are grade 1 scrambles, and both are of a similar technical difficulty. However, Crib Goch is more exposed so requires more care and should be undertaken slowly. It also offers few escape routes, unlike Striding Edge. All in all, Crib Goch could be considered a bigger version of Striding Edge.

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The South Ridge

The Welsh name for the South Ridge is Allt Maenderyn (‘Hill of the bird stone’).

Older O.S. maps called it Allt Maderin. The current O.S. map has it named as Allt Maenderyn; it does not name it as the South Ridge.

The South Ridge lies between the Watkin Path and the Rhyd Ddu Path, and is often used in conjunction with these.

If using the South Ridge to make the Watkin Path into a round, it is only marginally longer.

The name ‘Cwm Tregalan Loop’ or ‘Tregalan Round’ is sometimes used for the loop of the Watkin Path which uses the South Ridge. (Cwm Tregalan is the Cwm which is encircled by the route.)

The South Ridge is just over a mile long (1.15 miles) and drops 400m.

At its upper end, it joins the Rhyd Ddu Path at the round hill of Clawdd Coch.

The quarry at its lower end is Bwlch Cwm Llan quarry (also known as West Snowdon quarry).

Despite being a good path and engineered for much of its length, it is not one of the main six paths promoted by the National Park Authority.

The steep cliffs on the eastern side of the upper South Ridge are called Clogwyn Du. (They are not really seen from the path, and are best viewed from the Watkin Path.)

Despite being called a ridge, it is not dangerous or exposed, such as the ridges of Crib Goch or the Gribin. The path keeps well away from the cliffs of Clogwyn Du.

A stile marks the halfway point down the ridge. (Stiles are fairly rare on Snowdon.)

If descending the South Ridge, the peak in front of you is Yr Aran.

Most people choose to walk down the South Ridge, rather than up it.

The South Ridge has grown considerably in popularity in recent years. This is partly because it is now marked on the O.S. map as the route of the Cambrian Way and the Snowdonia Way.

The long-distance route of the Cambrian Way (Taith Cambria) traverses Snowdon using the Watkin Path, Allt Maenderyn (South Ridge) and the Pyg Track.

The mountain option of the long-distance Snowdonia Way traverses Snowdon by the same route, i.e. the Watkin Path, Allt Maenderyn (South Ridge) and the Pyg Track.

The South Ridge is a marked Right of Way only from Bwlch Cwm Llan quarry to the stile half way up it; the upper section up to where it joins the Rhyd Ddu Path at Bwlch Main is only marked as a path.

The paths east and west from Bwlch Cwm Llan quarry are marked Rights of Way.

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Other peaks

There are three 3000ers on the Snowdon massif, namely Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa (3,560 ft), Carnedd Ugain (3,494 ft) and Crib Goch (3,028 ft).

The second highest peak on the Snowdon massif is Carnedd Ugain 1,065 m / 3,494 ft.

Snowdon’s main peaks are:

• Snowdon/ Yr Wyddfa – 1,085m (3,560 ft)
• Carnedd Ugain 1,065m (3,494 ft)
• Crib Goch – 923m (3,028 ft)
• Y Lliwedd – 898m (2,946 ft)
• Yr Aran – 747m (2,451 ft)
• Moel Eilio – 726m (2,382 ft)
• Moel Cynghorion – 674m (2,211 ft)
• Foel Gron – 629m (2,064 ft)

All of the above, being over 2,000 ft (609.6m) in height, qualify as ‘Hewitts’.

Of the above listed peaks, Snowdon, Y Lliwedd, Yr Aran and Moel Cynghorion are additionally classed as ‘Marilyns’ – i.e. peaks with a prominence above 150m (490 ft).

Of the above listed peaks, all are also classed as ‘Nuttalls’ – over 2,000 ft (610m) with a prominence above 15m (49 ft) – together with two minor tops on Y Lliwedd (Y Lliwedd East Top and Lliwedd Bach), plus Llechog, north of Clogwyn station (720 m, 2,360 ft) and Gallt y Wenallt (619 m, 2,031 ft), east of Y Lliwedd.

The peak of Foel Goch on the North-west ridge, between Foel Gron and Moel Cynghorion, rather loses out because at 1,985 ft (605m) it is less than 2,000 ft in height.

There is another, higher Foel Goch on the Glyderau between Y Garn and Mynydd Perfedd.

Carnedd Ugain is the highest point of Crib y Ddysgl and is marked by a trig point at 3,494 ft / 1,065m, making it the second highest of all the peaks in Snowdonia (though often discounted as a separate peak due to its minimum prominence).

Crib y Ddysgl is the section of ridge some ¾ mile in length between Bwlch Glas and Bwlch Coch (and stretching north-west down to include Allt Goch). Carnedd Ugain is merely a high point on this ridge.

The name Crib y Ddysgl appears to be very much older than that of Carnedd Ugain. Camden (1722) called it ‘Kriby Diskil’, and many 19^th century writers used the named ‘Crib y Distyll’. References in print to ‘Carnedd Ugain’ seem non-existent in the 19^th century, and it appears on O.S. maps only from the late 19^th century, this changing to ‘Garnedd Ugain’ from the 1946 6” map onwards.

There have been numerous attempts to explain the name of Carnedd Ugain, usually translated as ‘Cairn of the Twenty’, i.e. ‘Carnedd [yr] Ugain’:

It has been suggested that ‘Ugain’ (‘twenty’) might derive from the Roman XX^th   Legion which was based in Chester, and was for a while stationed at Segontium, near Caernarfon. This, however, seems fairly tenuous.

Others suggest that ‘ugain’ might derive from the Welsh word ‘igyn’ meaning ‘the very least quantity, the tiniest amount’, for from a number of aspects this peak appears to be very close to the same height as Snowdon. Yet others suggest that ‘Iggin’ was a name; thus, it was ‘Iggyn’s Cairn’.

The Welsh Mountaineering Club has further suggested that the name might be a corruption of ‘Carnedd Wgon’, and so named after Prince Wgon, sung of by Dafydd ap Gwilym; equally Wgon might refer to the 13^th century poet Gwgon Brydydd.  Again, this sounds tenuous.

Despite being named as Garnedd Ugain on the O.S. map, most people called it ‘Carnedd Ugain’. (Without knowing the exact meaning of ‘Ugain’, it is not possible to say which is grammatically correct.)

The highest peak on the Snowdon massif which is not a 3000er is Y Lliwedd, at 898m (2,946 ft).

Y Lliwedd has twin peaks; the West Peak is 5m taller than the East Peak.

There is a peak on the Snowdon massif named Tryfan; it’s the small peak just ¼ mile N.E. of Halfway bridge on the Llanberis Path, between the peaks of Derlwyn and Llechog.

There are two hills called Llechog on the massif; one is behind Rocky Valley halt on the railway, the other is the broad shoulder on the Rhyd Ddu Path between Gate 3 and Clawdd Coch.

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Other paths and routes

The six main routes are marked Rights of Way on the O.S. map.

Four of these are marked as bridleways, namely: the Llanberis Path, the Snowdon Ranger Path, the Rhyd Ddu Path, and the Miners’ track (only as far as the old crushing mill by Llyn Llydaw).

Much of the Snowdon Horseshoe is not marked on the O.S. map as a Right of Way, namely the sections over Crib Goch and Carnedd Ugain, and the section over Y Lliwedd, but these are on Access Land.

The Maesgwm path from the Snowdon Ranger to Llanberis is marked as a bridleway.

The Gribin Ridge is only marked as a ‘path’.

The Snowdon Horseshoe is regarded by many as one of the finest ridge walks in Europe. As a round from Pen y Pass, it is 7½ miles in length.

The traditional route of the Snowdon Horseshoe, starting on the Pyg Track (and going anti-clockwise) is Crib Goch, Carnedd Ugain, the summit, Y Lliwedd, then down to the Miners’ Track.

The first documented traverse of the Snowdon Horseshoe was in 1847.

The Southern Horseshoe, starting on the Watkin Path, takes in Lliwedd Bach, Y Lliwedd, Yr Wyddfa summit, Allt Maenderyn, (and may include Yr Aran). This route is long and challenging: the total distance (excluding Yr Aran) is some 8 miles, and there is over 4,000 ft of ascent.

The Horns route, which runs from Bwlch y Moch (on the Pyg Track) over the grassy tops to the Miners’ Track, just 275m from Pen y Pass, largely follows the old boundary fence.

The Horns route from Bwlch y Moch back to Pen y Pass is about ¼ mile longer than the Pyg Track. It’s also far more hilly.

The Horns route is partly shown on the O.S. map. At the Pen y Pass end it follows the marked Right of Way for nearly ½ mile. For the other, longer section it follows the marked fence-line, not the marked Right of Way, which is a historical route and no longer a path on the ground.

There is no Welsh name for the Horns route, despite its long history. It could arguably be called ‘Llwybr Carreg Gwalch’; the peak of Carreg Gwalch does not appear as named on maps until the 20^th century.

The Tregalan Round circles Cwm Tregalan, and is done using the Watkin Path and Allt Maenderyn (the South Ridge).

The North-west ridge path (i.e. Moel Eilio, Foel Gron, Foel Goch and Moel Cynghorion) is very undulating and is sometimes called ‘The Rollercoaster’ or ‘The Big Dipper’, names which annoys many. A more correct name is Crib Moel Eilio or Moel Eilio ridge.

The tallest of the hills in the North-west ridge is Moel Eilio, at 726m / 2382 ft.

The first 3 of these hills are often combined with a return to Llanberis via Bwlch Maesgwm and Maesgwm.

The Snowdon Circular Route, when completed, will be a safe, low-level recreational route around the base of the Snowdon Massif. It will link car parks, campsites and villages, and increase flexibility between routes on the mountain.

Some parts of the route are complete, and already use good, existing rights of way; others still have much work to be done on them, and will include the creation of new courtesy paths, such as from Pen y Pass down to Nant Peris.

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Halfway

The halfway point on the Pyg Track is marked by the glacial slabs, better known as the Halfway Slabs. This is marked on the O.S. map as ‘ford’ (water often runs down these slabs, making them dangerous when icy).

The halfway point on the Llanberis Path is marked by the Halfway café. This is marked on the O.S. map as ‘Halfway House’. (If we’re being exact, by distance it’s nearly 300m beyond halfway. In terms of height, it’s about 50m below halfway, though it’s exactly halfway between sea-level and the summit.)

The halfway point on the Snowdon Ranger Path is at Llyn Ffynnon y Gwas. There is a slab seat there.

The halfway point on the Watkin Path is marked by the steep steps out of the slate quarry.

The halfway point on the Rhyd Ddu Path is the flat area of Mur Murianau and the old ruins (one of which used to be a refreshment hut).

The halfway point on the Miners’ Track (if talking about the full distance to the summit) is about 150m past the old crusher by Llyn Llydaw, near the bottom of the path down from Glaslyn.

If you are only going up the Pyg Track and down the Miners’ Track, when you reach the Intersection you will be less than halfway because the Miners’ Track to that point is longer.

If you are doing the Horseshoe anticlockwise from Pen y Pass, when you reach the summit you are less than halfway in terms of distance.

If you go up the Rhyd Ddu Path and down the Snowdon Ranger, when you reach the summit you will be slightly less than halfway because the Rhyd Ddu Path is ¼ mile shorter than the Ranger.

If you are going to the summit from Llanberis, via Maesgwm and Bwlch Maesgwm to join the Snowdon Ranger and then ascend that, halfway is between Bwlch Maesgwm and the junction with the Snowdon Ranger Path.

To be pedantic, in most cases halfway is the summit! You’ve now got to come the same distance down. Remember the wise words of Ed Viesturs, the American mountaineer, and often echoed by Mountain Rescue: “Getting to the summit is optional, getting down is mandatory.”

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Waymarkers & signs

Cairns were the earliest form of signage on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, specifically to “mark cols at crossing points between valleys and where paths diverge.”

Cairns are often added to by passers-by, either from habit, or as a ritual which many regard as bringing good luck, where the higher the cairn, the greater the perceived luck.

Today cairns are regarded as largely unnecessary, and many have been removed in areas where their presence is excessive or unwarranted. It is now held that cairns, being man-made, create scars on the landscapes, and additionally damage ecologically fragile habitats; leaving the stones on the ground helps prevent the ground from erosion in heavy rain.

There are no mile markers or distance markers on any of the paths, though at the bottom of the main paths display boards show distances to the summit (there is also a sign at Bwlch Maesgwm gate on the Snowdon Ranger Path).

In 2025 a new sign was erected at the Halfway café on the Llanberis Path which states that it is halfway, and there is also a sign on Clogwyn Bridge, stating the distance and conditions ahead. It is hoped that these will encourage people to consider if they are able to carry on – a common problem on the upper part of the path.

The largest standing stone on the mountain is at Bwlch Glas, just ⅓ mile from the summit. This 9-ft stone was erected in 1974 by John Ellis Roberts, the then head warden, replacing a former cairn, though he was criticised in some quarters by those who thought that such ‘signing’ was inappropriate.

On the mountain are 13 small, engraved way-marker stones, with bilingual path names and arrows on them. These were erected in 2013 at strategic points on the paths, and aimed at reducing accidents.

Five of these finger posts are at the bottom of the 6 main paths (not Rhyd Ddu). The other 8 are located: on the Pyg Track at Bwlch y Moch; on the Llanberis Path at Bwlch Glas; on the Snowdon Ranger Path below Bwlch Glas; on the Rhyd Ddu Path at Pen ar Lôn and also near the summit where the Watkin Path turns off; on the Watkin Path at the summit, and also at Bwlch y Saethau; and at the foot of Crib Goch.

The marker at Bwlch y Moch was put there to try to reduce the number of people accidentally going up Crib Goch. On one side it says ‘Yr Wyddfa’ and ‘Snowdon’ with an arrow. On the other side it says ‘Pen y Pass’ with an arrow.

The above stone has proved insufficient, so in 2024 a wall was built at Bwlch y Moch to make the Crib Goch Path less obvious.

The above-named small finger-stones were preceded by many years by just three rougher, unmarked stones. These are still there, and are located at the Pyg/Miners Intersection, Bwlch Glas, and the Watkin/Rhyd Ddu Intersection.

Consequently, there are two stones at Bwlch Glas: the large unmarked one, and the newer one which, on one side says ‘Copa’ and ‘Summit’, with an arrow (^). On the reverse it has an arrow pointing ahead with the word ‘Llanberis’, and a left arrow with the words ‘Cwellyn’ and ‘Snowdon Ranger’.

Consequently too, there are two stones at the Watkin/Rhyd Ddu intersection, one unmarked, the other marked.

The only paths signed from the actual summit is the Watkin Path (at the top of the main entrance steps at Hafod Eryri). This is for safety reasons, i.e. to stop people trying to cut directly down onto the Watkin Path or taking the old route.

All stiles on the mountain have round blue marker plaques with a 6-figure grid ref. for that location (though some have since been removed or damaged).

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Path maintenance

Erosion is one of the biggest enemies of the mountain, and is caused primarily by weather – particularly heavy rain – and secondly by footfall.

Every year new damage appears somewhere on the paths following winter storms. Sections of path where stones have not been laid – such as Allt Goch and below Allt Moses on the Llanberis Path – are very prone to damage like this.

The path maintenance programme began in the 1970s after it was seen that serious erosion was happening. The Illustrated London News reported in March 1976 that Snowdon was “wearing away”.

The Snowdon Management Plan was first launched in the 1970s, with an emphasis on a plan for scheduled and routine path maintenance, which hitherto had not really existed.

The Snowdon Management Scheme, a 5-year plan launched jointly in 1977 by the National Park and the Countryside Council for Wales, commenced in April 1979 with a budget of £600,000.

In May 1978, it was reported that 30 tons of gravel had been bought to patch up holes on a mile-long stretch of path, and that walkers would be asked to take bags up with them.

Today bags of rocks are flown up to the site in heli-bags. The rocks are flown in from outside the National Park; it is not permitted to take rocks from elsewhere on the mountain or in the Park.

Due to the above ruling, abnormal or ‘non-native’-looking rocks can sometimes be seen on the footpath, appearing very different in character to the native rock. A good example of this is on the Miners’ Track between Llyn Llydaw and Glaslyn.

To hire a helicopter and pilot for a day of bag-moving costs more than £10,000.

Path maintenance is an ongoing process; there’s always either something going on, or scheduled to happen.

The programme of path maintenance is constantly being rescheduled as new, more urgent cases come to light, often the result of winter storms.

If it’s a long job, a hut will be flown up for the workers’ use, or for storing bags of cement and tools, etc.

Tools left on the mountain by footpath workers or workparties, despite being fairly well hidden, are sometimes moved to a different location by troublemakers.

The maintenance on paths is done variously by a National Park team, an employed contractor, a National Trust team or volunteers (though the National Trust will usually only work on their own part of the mountain).

The steep, high steps on the lower Pyg Track below Bwlch y Moch are called the ‘granny stoppers’. Steps would not be built this high today.

Similarly, the laying of paths by using vertical stones, such as are encountered on part of Miners’ Track between Glaslyn and Llyn Llydaw and halfway between Bwlch Glas and the summit, makes for difficult walking and would not be done today.

Path-laying is usually all done by hand; much use is made of a wrecking-bar and pulleys. Even when moving heavy stones/slabs, machinery is not usually used.

Maintenance work extends to digging drainage ditches/gullies and building walls.

The workers mostly have to walk to the work site, but if it’s possible to drive part of the way (such as to Crusher Corner on the Miners’ Track), they will. (Work near the very summit may occasionally see workers using the train.)

Workers won’t usually go up if the weather is appalling, but will likely put in longer hours on good days.

Finding contractors to work high on the mountain is difficult – sometimes more difficult than finding the money – which adds to the backlog of work.

On the Pyg Track below Bwlch y Moch explosives were used in the 1980s by the military to remove a bluff and improve it. This would not be permitted today.

In late 2019 and 2020, path maintenance at the top of the Zig-zags on the Pyg Track saw a temporary wooden handrail erected as a safety feature, given that heli-bags were restricting the width of the path and causing walkers to walk nearer the edge. Most visitors simply thought that it was a handrail for their benefit.

Where there is a good, engineered path, people will keep to it. Where the path is bad or less engineered, it will often get ever wider as people try and avoid boggy parts or simply choose a parallel route, etc., a process called braiding. Good examples of this (though not because it’s boggy) are the plateau section of the Snowdon Ranger Path below Bwlch Glas, on Llechog on the Rhyd Ddu Path, and the path at the foot of Allt Moses on the Llanberis Path. In all these instances the braided path is now over 15m wide.

Where walkers cut a new path near or alongside the proper one, because it’s considered easier or better, it’s called a ‘desire’ path.

Despite the fact that some organisations make a lot of money from running events on Snowdon, there is no obligation on them to contribute financially to the mountain’s upkeep.

In races, particularly, whilst runners are supposed to keep to the paths, a desire to cut corners can see erosion caused.

General path repair is estimated to cost £100 a foot (in 2016). The financial shortfall for essential path maintenance on Snowdon is estimated to be in the region of £150,000 per year.

The Park’s budget for path maintenance is inadequate, as there is always work to be done. In 2018 money donated by ‘Snowdonia Giving’ – some £10,500, match-funded by the S.N.P.A. – enabled maintenance work to be done at the bottom of the Snowdon Ranger Path.

Similarly, part of the money raised by the BMC’s ‘Mend our Mountains’ crowdfunding scheme, started in 2016, paid for initial work improving the badly eroded upper section of the Watkin Path just below the summit.

In 2014 the British Mountaineering Council published an article entitled ‘Snowdon isn’t Working’. The Snowdon Partnership was set up by the SNPA and launched in 2018, then updated in 2025. It is a multi‑stakeholder initiative established to collaboratively manage and safeguard the mountain massif. Its aim is to address issues stemming from high visitor numbers — like erosion, congestion, litter and community impact — by forging a shared management plan that balances conservation, community benefit, and sustainable tourism for future generations.

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Early visitors

Following the withdrawal of the Romans, the general absence of visitors to Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa can be put down partly to inaccessibility, to the fact that there was really no reason to do so, and partly to the dangers of warring tribes, who dominated after the withdrawal of the Romans. It should be remembered too that historically a degree of hostility existed between the English and the foreigners beyond Offa’s dyke.

Perrin (2012) summed up this early situation rather well: “To walk the length of Afghanistan alone in the early twenty-first century would be about as safe and sensible an undertaking as for an Englishman to travel thus through Eryri in the thirteenth century.”

Tourists first began to come to Wales in any numbers from the start of the 18^th century, numbers rising significantly from about 1770 as roads – and therefore access – were improved by the first turnpike Trusts.

In the 18^th and early 19^th centuries it was the done thing, if you were well enough heeled, to undertake a tour in Britain; at this time this was done not principally for pleasure, but to see and write about the landscape and the people, often with a stated agenda primarily based on history/antiquities, sociology, geology/geography, cartography or botany.

From about 1770 these academics and professional travellers slowly came to be replaced more by the ordinary traveller and tourist, who needed no specific reason for touring. Whatever the motive, one result was the publication of literally scores of books and journals, whose written works were the closest many readers would ever get to Snowdon.

Thomas Pennant, with his influential Tour of Wales (1778), caused many people to come to Wales, including the Snowdon area.

It has been calculated that in the century from 1770 to 1870 there were some 1,500 recorded tours of Wales, either in published form (the minority) or as unpublished manuscripts, now held in numerous archives. The years 1770 – 1839 were the most productive, with an average of just over one tour each month. More specifically, over the three summers of 1796 – 1798 some eight tours were made.

Most of these tours included a visit to at least the foot of Snowdon; only some of the writers actually ventured up the mountain.

The earliest centre for exploring Snowdon was Caernarfon, being on a good coaching road from Chester.

Following improved road access, it was at this time that many of the larger hotels around Snowdon were built; e.g. The Capel Curig Inn opened in 1802 (later becoming the Royal Hotel after a visit by Queen Victoria; in 1955 it became Plas y Brenin). The Goat Hotel in Beddgelert opened in early 1802. The Vaenol Arms at Nant Peris opened around 1800. The first inn in Llanberis was the Dolbadarn Inn, built around 1815.

By the mid-19^th century, the arrival of the train in Britain largely spelt an end to the touring genre, and thus writing about tours also fell out of fashion. It had been common practice to write at length about the journey itself, and now the train had eliminated this element.

The main line railway arrived in Llanberis in 1869, the branch line running from Caernarfon (though the full connection to Caernarfon station wasn’t made until the following year.)

This connection meant that Llanberis, and hence Snowdon, was readily accessible from anywhere in Britain by train.

However, the main line railway was not built as a tourist line, but primarily as a passenger and freight line (for industrial, agricultural, commerce and local use); historically Llanberis and Caernarfon were linked as trading partners.

Whilst some tourists arrived at Llanberis, with Snowdon as one of their goals, this traffic was very minimal.

Over the coming decades, the increase in leisure time saw Snowdon more available to tourists, but it was centres like Caernarfon and Beddgelert that caught much of the tourist trade for Snowdon.

The opening of the Snowdon Mountain Railway proved a huge draw to tourism.

In time, both the main line railway company (the LNWR) and the Snowdon Mountain Railway realised that co-operation could result in financially beneficial excursions, with passengers arriving at Llanberis by main line, to then enjoy a trip on the mountain railway before returning to their home station by main line train.

Even after the main line closed to regular traffic in the 1930’s, special summer excursion trains (notably from places like Rhyl, Prestatyn and Llandudno) saw tourists for Snowdon arriving in their hundreds.

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Early guides and ponies

The first recorded use of guides on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa dates back to the first documented ascent in 1639 when Thomas Johnson took “a boy for our guide”.

As ascents became more popular through the 18^th and 19^th centuries, so a tourist industry developed.

These first guides were usually men who knew the mountain by virtue of their work, such as farmers, shepherds and – later – miners. But as the demand for guides grew, others tried their hand.

Many guides were monoglot Welsh speakers, so early English-speaking travellers often had problems communicating with them, which led to a poor experience. English-speaking guides were thus much sought after.

There are no records of female guides for the main mountain ascent; however, it was not unusual for young women to act as guides to local waterfalls and less-frequented attractions, often due to their local presence and ability to speak English to tourists.

This is still very much a Welsh-speaking area; in the 2021 census, 69.5% of people said they can speak Welsh (a decrease from 74.7% in the 2011 census). However, 79.6% of the population of Llanberis reported that they could speak, read, write, or understand Welsh.

It would be true to say that the majority of mountain leaders today are not Welsh speakers.

Guides would often go up and down twice a day – sometimes three – in an effort to make good money during the season.

Some Victorian guides claimed a huge number of ascents, estimated at 2,000 (John Roberts), 3,000 (Robert Hughes) and even 4,000 (Tom Ward).

The 18^th and 19^th century guides were always keen to point out how dangerous it was to ascend the mountain without a guide, often recounting stories of people getting lost, and of accidents and fatalities.

Up until the mid-19^th century all travel writers described a guide as “absolutely necessary.”  Soon after this, the paths started to get sufficiently plainly marked that “in clear weather any person of moderate experience in mountains could easily find his way up without a guide”.

Guides worked from Beddgelert, Capel Curig, Cwellyn and Llanberis, and the names of nearly 50 are known to us today.

Guides initially worked independently, but in the 19^th century, as the new hotels played a growing part in the tourism trade, so they became increasingly linked to them by a formal arrangement.

‘Wil Boots’ (a former boot-boy at a Llanberis hotel) was a famous 19^th-century guide. He also worked at the summit huts for a while, dressed “in a suit of goat-skin, consisting of cap, coat, and trousers, which made him appear like a savage from the land of perpetual snow.” At one point the hut had a sign stating, “Come and see the wild man of the mountain”, and he certainly drew visitors.

He was also known as ‘the Botanical Guide’ because of his knowledge of plants. He died on Clogwyn y Garnedd in 1861 when his rope broke while picking some rare plants.

It is known that three 19^th century guides met their deaths on Snowdon, mostly as a consequence of bad weather.

Guides often recommended that a quantity of spirits be carried up; in reality, it was not so much with a view to comforting the traveller, as to themselves indulging in it.

In 1892, carrying alcohol was so prevalent, it would seem, that the Evening Express carried an article on a “teetotal ascent of Snowdon”.

In the mid-19^th century, the cost of a guide to the summit was 5s (25p). If returning to the same place, the return trip was 7s (35p), but to descend from the summit via another path cost double the price.

If a walker wanted a guide to take him down another side of the mountain, he would often swap guides, by arrangement, at the summit.

Guide Elias Roberts is credited with taking the first pony to the summit, this in 1829.

Ponies were used in the construction of the first wooden huts at the summit, although the first documented instance of a horse-drawn cart being taken to the summit does not appear until 1869, when a barrel of pitch was transported to the top – again by Elias Roberts – as fuel for a bonfire which was to be lit to celebrate the coming of age of the heir to the Vaynol estate.

Following the arrival of the main line, guides often waited at the station to tout for business.

Guides and ponies could be hired at all the main inns (to whom many of the best guides were attached), for most of the ascents. (These were ‘Welsh ponies’, a hardy and sturdy breed, and were always called ‘ponies’, irrespective of their age or size.)

Hiring a pony as well as a guide largely doubled the price.

A single guide might lead up to four or six ponies.

At one time there were 50 ponies working on the mountain.

Guides themselves never rode. It tended to be ladies who rode, or a group might take turns to ride a single pony.

The names of ponies largely went unrecorded, though we know of ‘Swift’, ‘Jane Lord’, ‘Nutmeg’, ‘Isabella’, ‘Lumber’, ‘Jeanie’ and ‘Tommy’ being used by 19^th-century guides.

The ponies knew the routes so well that a novice guide could be led by them.

That said, a couple of over-loaded ponies are known to have gone too near the edge and fallen to their deaths.

On both the Llanberis Path and the Snowdon Ranger, the dismount point was usually “at the bottom of the final ascent” (i.e. at the stables or at Bwlch Glas), though ponies were occasionally taken to the summit.

As predicted, the opening of the Snowdon Mountain Railway in 1896 rendered ponies obsolete on the Llanberis Path; the train, at 5/- for a return ticket, was cheaper than hiring a guide both ways, even more so if a pony was also to be hired.

Today things have gone full circle – dozens of guides work on the mountain, leading groups to the summit.

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Some ascents

Although Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) came to Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa in 1188, accompanied the Archbishop of Canterbury, as part of a documented tour of Wales, he did not ascend the mountain. He reported that Wales was a dangerous place, inhabited by fierce tribes; given the dearth of decent roads, it is remarkable that he undertook the journey at all.

The first reliably documented ascent of Snowdon was in 1639 by Thomas Johnson, a London apothecary and botanist, who is often called “the father of British field botany”. Based on the vague description written at the time, and the fact that he was staying with a friend near Llandwrog, to the west of Snowdon, he likely took either the Beddgelert Path (Rhyd Ddu Path) or the Snowdon Ranger path, probably the former.

In 1658, botanist John Ray ascended Snowdon from Beddgelert. Four years later, in 1662, on what was his fourth British tour, he returned with botanists Francis Willughby and Phillip Skippon. They again ascended Snowdon, once more from Beddgelert, and added some new plants to Johnson’s list.

In 1726 botanist Samuel Brewer ascended Snowdon in August 1726 with Johann Dillenius, a German botanist. He subsequently stayed on in Bangor for a year, in which he ascended Snowdon 13 times, often with other well-known botanists. His diaries listed his botanical finds, often rare, with locations in great detail.

William Morris, a noted botanist from Anglesey, ascended Snowdon in June 1741 with friends, when he was Deputy Controller of the Customs at Holyhead. He listed 17 plants found there before conditions forced them down.

The earliest recorded ascent by a woman is believed to date from 1775. The anonymous author wrote that the party comprised “Miss P Myddleton, my sister, Mr P. Yorke and myself.” Without doubt she was not the first.

The first named woman to ascend Snowdon was Elizabeth Smith in 1798.

One of the first documented ascents to see the sunrise was published in 1778 by Thomas Pennant.

In 1844 the Bishop of Norwich ascended Snowdon on a Saturday, and remained at the summit all day Sunday, preaching to about two hundred people who had assembled to hear him.

The earliest report of ascending on Christmas Day appeared in 1861, when two gentlemen reported that they had enjoyed “a day of almost unparalleled fineness and mountain scenery of magnificent Alpine character”.

In 1879, ‘Ode to the Sun’ was written expressly for the Eryri Choral Union to perform at the summit “upon the appearance of the Sun on Friday, August 22, 1879”.

In January 1880 it was proposed to hold a torchlight procession up Snowdon as a finale to William Gladstone’s election campaign. However, it was decided that the summit of Snowdon in mid-winter was not a good location for a public speech (or, as officially put, it was “feared that the season will interfere” with the event).

An elderly man once seen at the summit in carpet slippers wasn’t in fancy dress; he wore them to walk up because they were “comfortable”.

It’s not just an apocryphal story, occasionally people are seen walking up in flip-flops.

Occasionally people are also seen walking up bare-footed.

Most of the people who do this claim to dress like this wherever they go.

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The earliest summit buildings

The first man-made structure on the summit was a cairn, followed by a low boundary wall.

The earliest such reference probably dates from 1686, when botanist John Lloyd mentioned it in a letter to Edward Lhuyd: “There is a wall rais’d on ye top of ye Hill, made like a sheep fold, where we shelter’d for a while …”

The first building of any sort at the summit appeared early in the 19^th century. John Duncan ascended Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa in 1804 and wrote of “… a sort of rude stone-vaulted hovel, in which we could not stand upright.” He called it “Lloyd’s hut … Lloyd a good civil useful guide”.

Around 1815 a larger, albeit very basic building was constructed on the same spot by a Beddgelert guide named William Lloyd, using stones from the original wall, without mortar. This became known as ‘Snowdon Cottage’, a low dry-stone igloo or beehive-shaped shelter, built in 1815. It was “not more than six feet high, and about seven in diameter”.

In 1825, John Freeman described the hut as “a vile wretched house, which I saw a little distance on the eastern declivity!”. He considered that it must have been built from rocks at the summit.

The idea of providing refreshments at the summit reputedly came from Morris Williams, who worked in Clogwyn Coch copper mine in the early 19^th century. Seeing tourists walking past, it struck him that there was a business to be made, and he initially sold hot drinks (tea and coffee) and food (butter, bread and cheese) in the open air.

A stated intention to build a proper hut at the summit dates from the early 1830s; landowner Thomas Assheton Smith had the Victoria Hotel built, and in that year it was reported that he was planning to construct a hut on or near the summit (though nothing happened at that point).

The Sappers who worked at the summit in 1841 to prepare for the Ordnance Survey Officers in 1842 erected some temporary wooden huts for their shelter; the survey lasted some four months from July to November.

The first commercial wooden hut was built on the summit in 1844 (on the actual summit, at the foot of the summit cairn) and the second soon followed. (It was commonplace to submit articles to the newspaper having ascended Snowdon, and there were consequently many descriptions of the summit before this, none of them mentioning wooden huts.)

It is said that Snowdon has the world’s oldest commercially operated summit hostelry.

There has been a building at the summit of Snowdon for over 180 years.

It was written that the first hut was built “a little below the summit cairn”, and that “its outer walls were of stone, and its inner lining of neatly planed boards.”

The building had some stone outer cladding around its wooden interior – some of which is seen in the earliest photographs – but essentially this could not be called a stone building.

A writer in 1844, with the King of Saxony’s party, was the first to use the name “mountain hotel” (though having earlier referred to it as “a small wooden shed”).

John Roberts initially ran the more northerly of the two huts, with Morris Williams (later sold to brother Philip Williams, then Robert Owens) running the other on the southern side.

Names given to the first wooden huts at the summit included ‘The Saxony’, ‘Old Original’ (Roberts’ hut) and ‘The Cold Club’ (Owens’).

Both huts had a fire “for warmth and cooking” (often burning locally dug peat as well as coal), and offered hot food and drinks.

The beds were originally intended just for the owners, but cash offers soon persuaded them to rent them out to others who wished to overnight, then get up early to see the sunrise on Snowdon. Extra beds were added to increase income, but the demand was such that invariably people also slept on the floor.

After initial years of competition, by 1848 the two owners were working in co-operation with each other and producing joint advertisements.

There is no documentary evidence of how the summit huts were stocked, but it is most likely that the proprietors paid guides to carry stock up. The guides would have used ponies to do the carrying.

The huts were only open for five months of the year. Any soft furnishings would have had to be taken down at the end of the season. (There is a reference in 1846 to couches and sofas.)

The huts had wallpaper on the inside. This would not have faired well, and probably had to be replaced every season. When it was cold, ice formed on the inside of the walls.

Water could be obtained from the spring by the stables, but there are no references to ‘sanitary arrangements’ until the 1890s.

In the 1850s the huts were extended, some writers describing them as three or four huts, though there were only ever two institutions.

By the 1860s the extensions meant that there were 3 or 4 bedrooms in each hut.

The earliest known photograph of one of the original summit buildings dates from the mid-1850s. Taken by William Russell Sedgfield, this stereograph is held in the Fox Talbot Museum.

Two early photographs were also taken at the summit by the Pumphrey Brothers in May 1864, though only one survives. They wrote in the Summit Hotel book, “A nice quiet day and the result some good pictures.”

Both summit huts kept Visitors Books (as did many inns and hotels) from the mid-19^th century. Only a few of the books survive today, but they make for a fascinating record, providing a first-hand account of the experiences of those visiting or staying there. These also attracted witty verse and drawings.

Examples of wit include: “Viewed the mist, but missed the view”, “So here we sit with nothing to do, but look at each other most awfully blue” and “Does it always rain on Snowdon? No sir, sometimes it snows.”

Of the Visitors’ Books, five rebound volumes (with pages from both huts) survive for the period 1845-1850 (containing some 8,000 entries), and three more survive for 1863-1866, 1883-1885 and 1886-1889.

An 1857 guidebook stated that there was a charge of 6d for using the facilities in the huts, though it is likely that this was levied only on those who wanted to avail themselves of the warmth and the shelter but did not want to spend money on refreshments.

Both summit huts sold alcohol (though Roberts’ hut was initially teetotal), and periodically had to renew their licences.

From the 1860s, souvenirs sold at the summit included guidebooks, stationery, minerals, plants, woollen stockings (socks), cheap jewellery, slate souvenirs, copper ore and plants, etc. Moses Williams, in the 1881 census, was described as being a “Hawker of Fancy Goods, Top of Snowdon”.

When landowner George Assheton Smith discovered that his land boundaries went through the huts, he charged additional rent.

The wooden buildings were later widely called ‘hotels’, especially after they were rebuilt.

In around 1894 Owens rebuilt his ‘hotel’. He added three feet to the premises by building a new retaining wall on ‘land that was not in existence before’ (i.e. over what had been a small precipice) which cost him £25. This retaining wall still exists today.

Owen totally pulled down the old hut and a new hut was built on Sir Edward Watkin’s land. It was narrower at one end to avoid building on Assheton Smith’s land. The new hut was two or three times larger than the old one. It was clad in corrugated iron and included four bedrooms, a coffee-room which would accommodate about 120 people and bar-parlour large enough for 12.

The new building, built by a Liverpool company, also included a toilet (some of the pipework is still visible today). Completed in 1895, it was named the Snowdon Summit Hotel.

In April 1896 the Snowdon Summit Hotel Company was established. They extended the new building, and in June Robert Isaac of the Union Foundry, Portmadoc, undertook to build a large balcony along the south-facing side of the hotel.

Following the rebuild, Owen’s building was officially renamed as the Snowdon Summit Hotel.

Once Owen’s building was complete, Roberts’ hut was also rebuilt. It, too, was clad in corrugated iron and had a lean-to on the side nearest the cairn, near the end of which a massive brick chimney was soon added.

In February 1898 the railways company decided to take over the two existing buildings on a 14 years’ lease and acquire the rights and the licences to them.

A further new extension was built on the Snowdon Summit Hotel in about 1903; this has subsequently proved useful in dating photographs, particularly those used on early postcards.

The original summit huts were listed on the early censuses, though when the censuses took place (in early April) they were always shown as ‘U’ (uninhabited).

Having opened to the summit in 1896, the railway company always had plans to build a stone hotel on the western side, a little below the summit. This was to be a two-storey building with 17 rooms for overnighting. However, they could not get an alcohol licence so abandoned the plan.

When these former wooden huts were removed in the 1930s, they were simply pushed over the edge! The last one was pushed over the edge in 1837. When Clough Williams-Ellis visited the summit that year to see the new building, he noted that they had all gone.

Traces of these early buildings remain: there are several iron rings which held cables over the roofs, the platform foundation still overlooks the Watkin Path, and there are sewer pipes in this same area.

Plans in 1922, when the railway came under new management, were for a new flat-roofed two-storey stone building on the station site – and therefore with an integrated station – which would provide covered railway accommodation, seating for 250, a lounge, kitchen, “sanitary conveniences”, and bedrooms for 50 guests.

This building would be partly built into the mountain with the public buildings “snuggling into the rocks of Snowdon” and would have the bedrooms built below the level of the railway line. It was never built due to the company’s financial problems at the time.

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The 1930s summit building

The former 1930s summit building was designed by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, more famous for designing Portmeirion, the Italianate village near Porthmadog, which he had started a decade earlier. (Williams-Ellis claimed direct descendance from Owain ap Gwynnedd, grandfather of Llywelyn the Great.)

Unlike the wooden huts on the very summit, this would be built lower down at the end of the railway line (largely on the site of the present building).

Because the building was built over the end of the track, the line was shortened from what it had previously been.

Construction started in 1934 and the building partially opened to the public the following year. Not until 1937 was it fully open, with sleeping accommodation in its seven bedrooms put into use in 1938.

The building had been scheduled to cost £4,000 (£239,000 today); the cost on initial opening in 1935 was £3,791, and the final expenditure by 1937 reached £6,158 (about £360,000 today).

As built, there were large windows and glass doors. However, within six months of opening, some of the large windows at the front and sides were blown in during storms; this became a common occurrence so they were made much smaller in size and some were bricked up.

Water was brought up by train from the stone-clad water tank at Clogwyn (filled from a stream coming down off Allt Goch). As recently as November 1973 this water was tested and confirmed as fit for drinking.

Every train brought “churns of the precious liquid from below”, and in this way the huge storage tanks, one of which was on the roof of the hotel, were kept filled.

The building was two-storey, the partial second floor housing the bedrooms.

There were 7 bedrooms for visitors and staff, and a lounge. These rooms were heated and lit by gas. There were different types of bedrooms available, some small rooms had a double bed (and little else); the largest room had a double and a single bed, a handbasin, mirror and armchairs.

Staff also slept at the summit.

The public rooms comprised a station hall, cloakrooms, conveniences, a large restaurant and a kitchen.

There was initially an open fire. Central heating and lighting were initially provided by bottled gas.

In the 1960s, stone buildings were built on the platform for a diesel generator, and to store water and diesel.

The building used to be deliberately left open in winter, to provide shelter, until 1951, when repeated vandalism forced its closure.

(Today, the argument for closing the summit building over the winter is equally along the lines of not wanting to encourage people to press on to the summit in poor conditions in the knowledge that there is shelter there, when they really should be turning round and descending to better, safer conditions.)

In the second half of the war (from 1942) the summit building was taken over and used by various of the armed forces.

A slate plaque in the building carried the following couplet: Grwydryn, aros ennyd; ystyra ryfeddol waith Duw a’th daith fer ar y ddaear hon. – (‘Wanderer, wait a moment; consider God’s wondrous work and your short journey on this earth.’) The message was written in four languages: Welsh, English, French and Latin. No one knows what happened to this plaque when the building was demolished.

Despite various remedial renovations and improvements in the 1950s and the 1980s (a block cladding was added to the building’s exterior, made from a reconstituted slate material), the building was time-expired by the end of the century.

The renovation work in the 1980s was prohibitively expensive for the railway, so the National Park Authority purchased the summit building from the railway and then leased it back to them.

The building was later called “the worst of vernacular British brick bunker-style architecture” and – by Prince Charles – “the highest slum in Wales”.

in fairness to Williams-Ellis, who reportedly later disowned it, there were considerable constraints upon him, both aesthetic, practical and political.

Demolition of the old building started on 12 September 2006, the railway’s summit season ending a little earlier that year for that purpose. Carwyn Jones, Wales’ then First Minister, travelled up by train and signalled the official start of the demolition of the old building by wielding a club hammer. Also present was Ray Hole, the architect of the future building.

It could be said that much of the former 1930s building is still at the summit, as some 400 tons of concrete rubble was used in the foundations of its successor, Hafod Eryri.

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The 1970s proposed building

In 1972 the Countryside Commission commissioned a report to review all aspects of the mountain, including the movement of walkers, parking and erosion.

The team spent a lot of time on the summit in August 1973, especially noting the movement of people,

Produced by consultants Leonard Manasseh & Partners, it was published in 1974, titled ‘Snowdon Summit’ (and informally known as the Manasseh Report).

Regarding facilities on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, three options were considered, namely: the removal of all facilities on the mountain, with the restoration of the mountain to its natural state; removal of the railway, leaving minimal facilities; and having the main services at the summit, with minimum services in the Clogwyn area for when the train terminated there.

Being architects, a new building was proposed for the summit; this would be located a little downhill of the railway terminus, with a concourse beyond the railhead.

It was also proposed that a small building should be also constructed at Rocky Valley, with minimum facilities (i.e. just toilets and refreshments) for use when the railway terminated short of the summit.

The report also suggested that the construction of a 700 – 800 metre ski run might be investigated on the slopes below Clogwyn.

The only effective outcomes of the report were the issues of erosion and path maintenance, which were also pursued in a later Countryside Commission report in 1977.

The report also used the word ‘honeypot’ to describe Snowdon, and commented positively that as such it concentrated all the needs in one location.

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Hafod Eryri – construction

In 2001 an appeal was launched by the National Park Authority to raise funds for a totally new summit building, and permission to build it was granted in 2004.

In mid-2001 the Authority asked five design/architect practices to submit their ideas, but only three accepted the challenge – Furneaux Stewart (later to be known as Ray Hole Associates), the Percy Thomas Partnership and Dallman Johnstone Architects; Furneaux Stewart was selected.

The initial proposal was to think in terms of adapting the former building, rather than replacing it, because of the “logistical challenge” of transporting building materials up to and down from the summit.

However, it soon became clear to the architects that the idea of adapting the old building was a non-starter, and work started on designing a brand-new building.

Demolition of the old building had started in September 2006, and work on the foundations of the new building began in November, before work was stopped on site for the winter on 18 December.

During construction, permission was given for a “holding area for materials associated with re-building Snowdon summit visitor facility” at Clogwyn, adjacent to the station. This offered more flexibility in the transport and delivery of materials to the summit, given the restrictions on storing materials at the summit.

The steelwork for the main building was prefabricated and dry-erected in a construction warehouse at Shotton on Deeside, reducing any risk of error during construction at the summit.

Subsequently, the entire primary frame was transported to the summit and assembled in little over a week, and the roof was built in just four days.

Some 120 tonnes of steel comprise the frame of the building. This and some 2,500 bolts were transported to the summit.

Mixing concrete at the summit was not an option, so skips at Llanberis were filled with ready-mix prior to being loaded onto the train up.

A super plasticiser was added to the concrete, reducing the amount of water needed whilst still keeping the mix workable, together with a retarder to hold back the set.

During the construction of Hafod Eryri, the railway’s ‘new’ car park at Llanberis station was taken over as a works compound, and a bridge was built over the Afon Hwch to connect the compound with the station yard and the running line. This also gave vehicular access to the railway for loading. The former railcar sidings were also extended so that the regular passenger service was not interrupted by the loading of summit works trains.

The railway company lost much revenue during the construction of Hafod Eryri (e.g. it was not taking money in retail sales at the summit, train fares were lower because journeys were now terminating at Clogwyn, and the railway’s car park was also not taking money). The railway did not seek compensation for this as it would benefit in the long term.

During the time that there was no building on the summit, the railway applied to have a refreshment outlet at Clogwyn – the temporary upper terminus – but it was not permitted.

The building is steel framed, clad first in an aluminium shell with standing seams and then enveloped in granite.

Granite for the external walls came from Cwt y Bugail quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog.

The external granite facing – smooth and rounded on the roof, but rough-cut on the walls – was pre-cut before being transported to the summit and was then completed in situ.

The external granite totalled some 400 tons.

Granite was chosen as the outer material, not just because of its ability to withstand the harsh weather, but also to help it blend in with the texture and colour of the mountain.

The granite cladding on the external walls has a rough finish. This comprises  granite with three depths of stone, arranged in varying height bands around the entire perimeter: a “225mm course”, a “150mm course” and a “75mm course”. This was intended to reflect the sedimentary nature of much of the mountain, as if the building was formed from the rock.

During construction, all the components had to go up by train; helicopters were deemed unsafe. Hunslet therefore built a special 40-ft flat wagon for the railway for this purpose. (This wagon remains in use today.)

The flat-wagon was initially used for bringing skips of debris down. In use for construction, it was fitted with a camera at the front as no guard could be at the front of the train.

The size of the flat-wagon limited the maximum size of parts carried up to the summit. All of the steelwork, for instance, was bundled into 10-ton, 11m-long packages so that it would fit onto the wagon.

During construction, the flat-bed wagon made up to four trips up to the summit daily.

The two JCBs used in the demolition of the old building and the construction of Hafod Eryri had to be driven up from Llanberis, being too wide to be carried on the flat-bed wagon. These were driven back down for the winter closure, returning as construction re-commenced in the spring.

Two cherry-pickers were used for the steel erection; these were just small enough to squeeze onto the train’s flat-wagon. An 8-ton capacity mini mobile crane was also used, the largest size available which could be transported up on the wagon.

A 20-ton crane was needed to erect the roof decking and its 90 tons of granite slabs; the 8-ton Crawler Crane at the summit didn’t have the necessary reach. Such a crane would have to be taken up to the summit in pieces, and in preparation for that – and its subsequent reassembly – a dry run of its disassembly and assembly was undertaken in Caernarfon. It was essentially split in half, then further dismantled it so that it fitted on the flat-bed wagon.

Whilst the main part of Hafod Eryri largely sat on the footprint of the former building, the service block involved excavating a certain amount of additional rock.

Few give any thought to the service block, but it is almost identical in length to the main building, i.e. 30m.

The service block slopes downwards; the internal corridor slopes downwards at a gentle 1:13 gradient, then there are steps down to the generator room, the floor of which is nearly 2m lower than the main floor of Hafod Eryri.

The construction team were restricted by the small print in the contract imposed by the National Park Authority, given that the work was being undertaken in such an ecologically sensitive area. Of particular interest are the clauses that “As far as reasonably practicable, materials shall be built in as soon as they arrive” and that “No waste materials shall remain on site for more than 24 hours”.

The granite slabs for the roof famously came from Portugal. (The granite could be sourced more quickly from Portugal, and European law prohibited insistence that all materials for the new building come from local sources. It also happened to be cheaper.)

The granite roof, which comprises nearly 4,000 pieces of stone, was laid at a rate of about 75 blocks a day (on a good day).

The main part of the building (excluding the service block) has only one vertical steel column in it; all the others are angled.

The roof is angled down to the west, designed to impede the view in as minimal a way as possible.

The large windows and the four adjacent stainless steel structural columns are all angled at 13˚, as are the three exposed columns and the facia on the opposite side.

The granite floor, which was sourced locally from Cwt y Bugail quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog, has some 15 facts about Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, in both Welsh and English, engraved into it – not that these are visible at busy times, and unless Hafod Eryri is particularly empty, these statements go largely unnoticed.

One of the engraved floor slabs (located in front of the serving area) records the fact that a ‘time capsule’ has been buried there. Buried in a special cavity  is a 25kg steel container with items put in it by schoolchildren from Ysgol Dolbadarn in Llanberis and Ysgol Beddgelert. Its contents reflect contemporary life in the villages of Llanberis and Beddgelert and include the likes of chocolate bar prices, a school uniform and records of house prices.  It will be dug up and opened in 2058.

The external walls of the building have curves and many angles which are not 90˚. Consequently, in June 2007 there was a dry run of stone-laying on test panels at Llanberis. The building has curves in the wall, and many angles which are not 90˚.

The whole roof comprises several layers, though all the public see from inside is the suspended canopy, the “tensile fabric mesh ceiling”.

Below the granite cladding is a thick ‘aluminium sandwich’-clad layer comprising stressed plywood skin panels with insulation.

The suspended fabric canopy reflects light and is intended to lend a more intimate feel.

The capping stones on the parapet wall above the service block and above the entrance steps were laid at a 30˚ angle to prevent climbing onto parts of the building.

The internal walls are of fire-proofed oak, with birch battens underneath. (In the event of a fire, it is presumed that being inside Hafod Eryri should be safer than having to be out on the mountain.)

These oak slats or strips are of various sizes to create an irregular pattern which mirrors the stonework on the outside of Hafod Eryri, and the differing depths are also intended to create an interesting shadow effect.

The large western windows are angled to reduce solar heat gain and to minimise light reflection in the valley below.

Hafod Eryri was officially opened on 12 June 2009 by Rhodri Morgan, Wales’ First Minister at the time.

Hafod Eryri opened about a year late because there were worse than normal weather conditions over the winter, and two bad summers. (Instead of losing an anticipated 60 days to bad weather, 130 days had to be written off, twice as many days as had been allowed for.)

A plaque commemorating the opening is on a rock on the east (summit) side of the building, just beyond the flat roof section. Few people notice it.

Hafod Eryri won several design awards, including a RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) award for architectural excellence. This plaque is on the northern interior wall.

Something over 60% of the material and labour was sourced from Wales.

The total cost of Hafod Eryri was £8.35m. Much of this came from grant funding. The two biggest sources by far were the Welsh European Funding Office (£4m) and the Welsh Assembly Government (£3m).

By comparison, construction of the railway cost about £6.3m in 2009 values, making Hafod Eryri more expensive to build than the railway.

Hafod Eryri’s green credentials are not so good: the site is too windy for a wind turbine, and solar panels would be vulnerable to vandalism; power is provided by diesel generators, and drinking water is brought up by train.

Nevertheless, in 2008, Hafod Eryri’s design achieved a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ sustainability rating. (‘Very Good’ equates to ‘advanced good practice’, putting it in the top 25% of UK new non-domestic buildings. However, above this category lie those of ‘excellent’ and ‘outstanding’.)

Should Hafod Eryri one day need to be demolished, almost all of it is recyclable.

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Hafod Eryri – changes in design

The original plans for Hafod Eryri were submitted to the National Park Authority and approved in 2004.

In 2007, minor amendments – mostly internal – were submitted and also approved. With preparations for the exterior construction now confirmed and foundation work under way at the summit, these new plans could clearly not affect the initial frame and steelwork, which had already being prefabricated.

In the men’s toilets, the urinals were swapped to opposite walls and the number of hand-basins was reduced from six to five. The ladies’ toilets were slightly enlarged, and an extra hand-basin fitted.

In the front lobby the disabled toilet was moved to where racking for rucksacks had been planned. There would be space for two vending machines (now no longer there) and rather less space for rucksack racking.

The shop showcase windows and small door were to be replaced by an open front. The adjacent ‘warden’s cupboard’ was removed.

In the rear (platform) lobby, the station master’s room (which was to have ribbon windows, allowing a view of the platforms and tracks) was totally removed to make way for the disabled lift; the rear entrance now had steps.

A storeroom by the rear entrance, originally to be accessed from the main café area, was to become the water tank store, now accessed from the foot of the rear entrance stairs.

The service block, including the two proposed staff bedrooms, the compactor room and the plant room, remained largely unchanged.

On the platform, the single central platform, with proposed oil tank and two water tanks underneath, was changed to two platforms, one on each side of the rails.

All the plans for Hafod Eryri are still available for viewing in detail in the planning application section of the National Park’s website.

As built, the western balcony outside the main windows had no railing. It had not been intended for use by the public; indeed, it was called a ‘concealed maintenance walkway’.

In 2019, plans were submitted to properly re-design this front terrace along its entire length, including the strengthening of foundations, to partially increase the width – to allow safe and suitable access for maintenance plant and equipment – and to install a proper safety barrier along the front of terrace to meet current safety requirements.

A scaffolding railing was initially built to aid maintenance work on the paving and on the roller shutter housings, then in October 2020 this was replaced with the current stainless steel balustrade.

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Hafod Eryri – operation

Hafod Eryri is owned by the National Park Authority but it is run and managed by the railway company, who lease it, paying an annual rent.

It was originally envisaged that some staff would remain overnight, to open at 8 a.m. each morning, even if no trains could make the summit. The two bedrooms (located behind the narrow slit windows on the platform) now serve as an office and a staffroom.

The building supervisor and two staff initially slept at the summit. The supervisor was also involved in managing the team of up to 12 staff who arrived daily by train, weather permitting. If the train couldn’t run, he and the two others on the overnight team did their best to serve drinks and snacks (stock allowing) to walkers arriving in all weathers.

In February 2010, the year after the opening of Hafod Eryri, the railway formally advertised for a manager for the building. It was generally known that in that first season the café had been plagued by complaints of long queues and mediocre food.

Hafod Eryri gets its electricity supply from two on-site diesel generators.

In the 2014 season, i.e., after five years of use, it was found that the CHP generators (combined heat & power) were beginning to struggle with the demand, so were upgraded from a 4-cylinder to a 6-cylinder engine, providing up to 50% additional power. They also had an upgraded alternator for a higher output.

Hafod Eryri thus has two diesel-powered generators which provide electricity, located at the far end of the service block. They had to be replaced at the start of the 2023 season following the long Covid closure.

The generator room, which is unavoidably noisy, has acoustic panels on the walls absorb noise.

The diesel for these generators is carried to the summit in tanks under the SSV (summit service vehicle).

Hafod Eryri has heating in the form of underfloor heating and vents.

The ‘trench’ heating grills in front of the windows additionally prevent condensation on the glass.

During the season, the SSV takes staff to and from the summit, as well as carrying stock, taking down litter, and carrying diesel oil. A former working carriage, 16 seats were retained for staff use.

Some litter, especially cardboard packaging, is compacted in the ‘compactor room’ in Hafod Eryri’s service block.

During the season, drinking water is taken up to Hafod Eryri by train on the flat-wagon – up to 9,000 litres daily. (Given that each 1,000-litre tank weighs a tonne, no more is taken up than is likely to be needed, and the water train may skip a day following a quieter period of less demand.) The 1,000-litre tanks are linked by pipes on the wagon, and a petrol-powered pump is also carried for transfer of the water.

The drinking water is pumped from the water train into two large plastic tanks just inside the platform entrance at Hafod Eryri, which together can hold 13,000 litres.

Hafod Eryri gets its toilet flushing water and tap water supply from rainwater from the roof (collected via a concealed gutter) and stored in tanks under the platform. These tanks can hold 9 – 10,000 litres.

If necessary, drinking water can be diverted into the rainwater tanks for use in the toilet areas, but not the other way round.

The toilets have hot water as well as cold.

There is a sewage plant on the western slope below the building, dating from the early 2000s. Solids are removed in a tank by train some three times annually.

The summit communicates with Llanberis via the railway’s intranet service (a type of powerful Wi-Fi) ‘bounced’ up the mountain, node to node, from Llanberis (via Waterfall and Clogwyn stations). (See the square ‘dish’ on the north side of the building.)

Card readers at the tills in Hafod Eryri also use the railway’s own Wi-Fi/intranet service, meaning that customers can pay with contactless card payments.

Although Hafod Eryri has its own internal Wi-Fi system, there is no Wi-Fi available to the public.

Numerous aspects of Hafod Eryri are also monitored remotely from Llanberis, such as generator activity, heating and CCTV.

The building has internal security sensors, and there is CCTV both inside and on the platforms.

In terms of security, all the windows have roller shutters which are employed at the end of the season whilst the building is unattended for long periods of time. The shutters on the doors are pulled down at the end of every day.

The shutters on the large windows are electronically operated. They are normally left up throughout the season unless a severe storm is expected.

The shutters on the small windows overlooking the peak are these days left down.

The whole building has smoke sensors and numerous fire extinguishers, notably in the foyers, in the kitchen area and in the service block.

The building does not benefit from renewable energies at all (e.g. wind turbines or solar) as these are not practical.

Plans to run mains services to the summit are periodically considered.

The building has to be ‘commissioned’ before the new season, then ‘decommissioned’ at the end (e.g. draining all liquids from pipes, etc.). Compressed air is used to ensure that every last drop of water is removed from the system pipework, radiators, pumps and valves.

In 2012 a squirrel was found in Hafod Eryri, and in 2025 one was seen outside. On another occasion one got in the building and chewed cables in the generator room. No one knows how they got there.

During the season, up to two dozen staff will work at the summit, though never that many at one time. On a Saturday, up to 15 will work, with about 10 on a weekday.

Most of the staff in Hafod Eryri are local and speak Welsh. Most are on a temporary minimum-wage seasonal contract.

Although there is a sign saying that dogs are not allowed in, staff turn a blind eye to well-behaved dogs.

Although there is a sign saying that people should not eat their own food in Hafod Eryri, staff turn a blind eye to this too, and anyway, most people spend money while they are there.

Customers can write postcards and post them from the summit.

Alcohol can be bought at the summit.

Hot drinks at the summit cannot be called expensive. In 2025 the price of tea is £3.20 and hot chocolate is £3.70, unchanged from the previous year.

The ‘cave’ is an underground cold storage area running between the rear wall of the service block and the rockface. It extends the length of the service block and to the end of the catering area. It is accessed from the generator room.

There are no USB charging points in Hafod Eryri for mobile phones. However, a new addition in 2025 was the option to borrow a power bank to charge your phone (on payment of a deposit).

In 2019, 120,000 hot drinks (53,547 coffees, 36,454 hot chocolates and 30,075 cups of tea) were sold in Hafod Eryri.

In 2019, Hafod Eryri additionally sold 28,501 bottles of water, 20,019 sausage rolls, over 5,000 Oggies, 1,025 bara brith and 5,508 Snowdonia Ales.

In 2025 Hafod Eryri started selling pizzas; it is not unusual for 200 to be sold on a busy Saturday.

At the last review, Hafod Eryri had a hygiene rating of 5 (the highest score).

The lobby formerly housed a couple of drinks vending machines, but in an effort to make Snowdon a more plastic-free mountain, these were removed during the closure years and have not been replaced.

The ticket office is the only part of the service block which the public were originally designed to have access to (from the platform), though it is no longer used as such.

Closure over the winter means total closure; there are no facilities available to the public at all.

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Hafod Eryri – general

The name Hafod Eryri was chosen for the summit building following a public competition, publicised by the BBC and Radio Cymru. A total of 442 suggestions were received from the public, then shortlisted to 12 entries.

The name Hafod Eryri was put forward by Phil Mostert, a former education consultant and school inspector from Harlech. His name can be found at the bottom of the ‘With Thanks’ board by the main entrance.

‘Hafod Eryri’ roughly translates in English as ‘Snowdonia’s upland summer residence’.

Once selected, the name Hafod Eryri was then registered as a trademark.

Other suggestions for a name – many of them along much the same lines – included Copa Cabana, Caffi Copa, Caffi Cymylog, Caban y Copa, Crib Eryri, Caffi Edward Llwyd, Carnedd, Plas Eryri, Caban y Copa, Copa Cymru and Copa’r Wyddfa.

Hafod Eryri is open about 5½ to 6 months a year, usually from about early/mid-May to late October.

Snowdonia National Park Authority own Hafod Eryri and it is leased to the railway company, who wholly operate it.

 Hafod Eryri is not the highest building in the UK. The Ptarmigan restaurant on Cairn Gorm in Scotland is nearly 100 ft (28m) higher, at about 3,600 ft (1,097m). It is served by the Cairngorm Mountain Railway, the UK’s highest railway.

One of Hafod Eryri’s roles is as an interpretation centre. The display boards on the southern wall are part of this, as are the facts engraved on the floor.

The original oval-shaped tables (with adjoining curved benches) had, under a perspex top, facts about the history of the mountain. These were replaced when the building reopened in 2023.

In both the men’s and ladies’ toilets there are bilingual information boards in almost every available space, much relating to sustainable practices.

Hafod Eryri  was closed for 3 seasons (2020, 2021 and 2022) as a consequence of the Covid-19 epidemic and the knock-on effect on track maintenance.

Up until 2024, the large windows featured a bilingual poem etched on the glass and written by Gwyn Thomas, the then-National Poet of Wales.

Engraved on the outside wall, by the walkers’ entrance, are the words: “Copa’r Wyddfa: Yr ydych chi, yma, Yn nes at y nefoedd”  /  “The summit of Snowdon: Here, you are nearer to heaven”

This was part of Thomas’ much longer poem. Indeed, the third verse of his poem was not used at all.

For the 2024 season, the poem was replaced by lots of descriptive words for the mountain, with images of birds.

Today, in response to the question ‘What is Yr Wyddfa?’,  these ten large windows sport 37 descriptive words – presented bilingually – along the top of the panes, together with images of choughs flying. (Choughs are identifiable by their red-legs and red-beaks).

In late 2023, following earlier unsuccessful attempts to stop leaks, a programme was started to replace the membrane on the flat roof of the shop, canteen area and service block. This work saw Heras fencing round the east side of Hafod Eryri, whilst, amongst other improvements in drainage, the single-layer membrane was replaced with a four-layer membrane. The work was completed at the end of 2024, having been suspended over the winter of 2023/24 when trains were not running.

A weather station is located on the roof of Hafod Eryri. This was put there in 2019. There is also a safety cable for maintenance purposes (the roof gets a periodic clean).

For its ten-year anniversary, in addition to a plaque being unveiled, a cake was made of the summit featuring Hafod Eryri.

Outdoor re-grouting has to be done fairly frequently. Due to the prevailing wind direction, the worst affected area is the SW corner, at one time nick-named ‘Jenga corner’ because of the loose granite wall blocks.

Up until 2024, the rear wall used to have video screens which featured the mountain generally, but also included video footage of the construction.

When built, it was envisaged that the main café area could hold 300 people. This has now been revised down to 120, though 100 is often exceeded. (The tables can seat a maximum of 72, and the ‘standing’ tables 32 (totalling 104).

The number of people in Hafod Eryri at any time is affected considerably by the weather, and also by the coming and going of trains.

Souvenirs have always been sold at the summit since the earliest days of the wooden huts. Today the shop at Hafod Eryri sells a huge range of souvenirs, mostly tasteful. It also sells useful things such as walking poles, hats, gloves and first aid items.

The railway also sells souvenirs in its main shop at Llanberis station and at The Trading Post by the railway car park.

In 2025, background music was played in Hafod Eryri. This is ‘public domain music’ which is free from copyright so does not need a PRS licence.

The equipment in the kitchen and catering area was installed by C&C Catering Equipment Ltd. They used tough 304-grade stainless steel, which will cope better with the damp conditions. The kitchen is due to be revamped for the 2026 season.

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The summit cairn

According to legend, Carnedd Rhita was erected on the summit of Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa by Rhita Gawr’s soldiers after King Arthur defeated the giant. There is certainly documentary evidence that a summit cairn existed at one time.

However, although there have been a number of archaeological surveys of Snowdon, no prehistoric remains have ever been identified at or near the summit.

These cairn stones were later used to make a boundary wall, and even a small round shelter, before being reused in subsequent cairns.

The first proper cairn was built by Royal Engineers in 1826/7, for surveying purposes. Prior to this it was just a small pile of stones.

A couple of sketches of the summit cairn in the 1820s exist. John Orlando Parry drew a sketch of the summit cairn in 1828.

In 1841 a party of sappers enlarged the cairn and topped it with a new pole. This was for the new Ordnance Survey, which ran from 16^th July to 21^st November, 1842, and the Royal Engineers involved took trigonometrical readings to 28 other locations in England, Wales and Ireland.

Following the construction of the first summit huts in the 1840s, more drawings of the cairn followed.

The earliest known photo of the summit cairn dates from the 1850s. Taken by William Russell Sedgfield, who also took the earliest photo of one of the summit buildings, it has not survived.

The cairn was at its tallest in the 1870s and 1880s.

Another official survey by the Ordnance Survey took place in 1886, undertaken for the O.S. First Edition of the 6 inches-to-the-mile map. The cairn was somewhat lowered for this.

In the late 19^th century the cairn sported a flag.

In the early 20^th century the cairn was somewhat reduced in size, before being reduced further in the 1950s and 1960s; it had no proper steps, like today.

By the 1990s it was felt that the summit cairn needed rebuilding for the new millennium because the access was poor, with no proper steps. Walkers might have decent footwear to scramble up to the pillar, but many train passengers didn’t have, Accidents were commonplace in summer, sustaining arm, leg or head injuries, even with far less people there than the summit sees now, and injured people often had to be carried down on the train.

Local rock was used to build safer stone steps to the pillar, and a wider viewing platform was constructed using the same local rock to enable safer movement on the summit.

Today, 20 steps go up on the south side of the summit pillar, and there are 19 on the north side. It is traditional to go up the south steps and down the north ones, though very occasionally the queue will go the other way.

On the side of the summit cairn is a plaque to Princess Gwenllian, placed there in 2008. She was the daughter of Llywelyn the Last (13^th century), the last native Prince of Wales before its conquest by Edward I, and she was exiled to a priory in Lincolnshire as an infant by Edward. However, she has no direct connection with Snowdon whatsoever.

The plaque was stolen in 2018 and found damaged by the Old Stables; soon afterwards the Gwenllian Society replaced it with an almost identical plaque.

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The summit pillar

The first triangulation survey on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa took place in 1777, but the first pillar was not erected until 1961. This was a roundish stone-built pillar, a little like today’s, not like a traditional squarish trig point.

(The use of triangles to estimate location and distance dates back to Greece in the 6^th century BC. Almost all national mapping agencies subsequently used ‘triangulation stations’ or ‘trig points’ in the production of maps.)

Snowdon was downgraded to a ‘Third Order’ trig point in 1937 when it was suspected that the then-new building would interfere with readings. The only official ‘First Order’ trig point on the Snowdon massif today is the traditional concrete one on Carnedd Ugain, built to replace the Snowdon one in August 1937. This was part of the ‘Resurvey of Britain’, the surveyors spending 12 days there.

By the 1990’s both the summit pillar and its concrete base were crumbling. Daylight could be seen under the concrete base where the foundations had eroded and, with enough people on the concrete platform, it could be felt to move a little.

The current pillar was built in 2001. (It actually carries the date 2000, and was a Millennium project, started in the millennium year.)

The new pillar on Yr Wyddfa was not built in typical flat-sided concrete, but circular and in local stone as the previous one had been.

Because of all the people at the summit, the stonemason building the pillar camped up there and worked from sunrise to noon, then from 4pm till dusk, i.e. avoiding the busiest part of the day.

On the top of the pillar is a brass toposcope, i.e. a panorama plate. Its diameter measures 60.5cm (a little under 2 feet).

The toposcope was designed by Jeremy Williams and was converted into a CAD design and cut into the brass plate by the Forestry Commission sign-making workshop in Coed-y-Brenin. (Williams was a lecturer in the Environment School at Bangor University and initiated the rebuilding of the cairn and pillar with help from Ordnance Survey, SNPA, CCW (now part of NRW) and the University.)

A hundred locations are marked on the brass toposcope, four of them being over 100 miles away. Mount Leinster (in the Blackstairs Mountains in Ireland) is the furthest, at 188 miles away.

Although the tip of Tryfan is visible (above the Crib y Ddysgl / Bwlch Coch area), it’s not mentioned on the toposcope.

There is a spelling mistake on the summit toposcope – “Snowdownia”. (This wording on the ‘spider’ was added by the SNPA, not the designer.)

The toposcope gets a routine clean by a warden. In reality, it gets a fairly frequent polishing from all those gloved hands touching it.

The pillar is not solid stone throughout; it has a hollow stainless-steel internal frame which is stone-clad.

The pillar’s frame has a ‘skirt’ which lies beneath the stone platform, anchoring the entire structure.

A little door on the side of the pillar gives access to the inside of the steel frame, and was designed to hold scientific or weather equipment, if desired. These have included measuring natural electrical field strength, which generally reaches a maximum on mountain peaks and is one reason why they are prone to lightning strikes. Also of interest are cosmic ray measurements which are more accurate above the generally polluted air below 1,000 metres. Visitors to the summit on still days may note a layer of air with a brown tinge below with clearer air above; this is known as the ‘boundary layer’ and often lies around 1,000 metres in the UK.

The actual pillar is 1m 10cm (43½ inches) tall. Its sides taper in towards the top; its circumference measures 282cm (111”) at the bottom and 229cm (90”) at the top. The top of the pillar is 72cm wide, i.e. a little wider than the toposcope.

The base plinth of the pillar is 80cm (2’ 7”) higher than the bedrock, meaning that anyone standing there reaches not 1085m, but something nearer to 1086m.

Standard theodolite equipment can be used only if the central ‘boss’ is removed (accessed from inside) because the 3 ‘spider’ grooves don’t have hooks on them.

The pillar has lightning protection: the brass plate and steel frame are ‘earthed’ to the ground to dissipate the electrical blast from frequent strikes. The brass plate actually has small pit-marks from strikes.

The flush bracket (on the side of the new pillar) comes from the old pillar, with the detail ‘OS BM 10684’ on it. (OSBM stands for Ordnance Survey BenchMark.)

The central brass boss with theodolite mount was also re-used from the old pillar.

Although Snowdon is Trig Point Station Number T066, and only a ‘third order’ trig point, its flush bracket number identifies it as Snowdon. In the Ordnance Survey database it is also recorded as Trig Point TP6043.

Long queues for the summit pillar are a relatively modern phenomenon and a result of the growth of social media and the need to take numerous selfies.

Train passengers to the summit only have 30 minutes at the summit (and in reality less than that). During busy periods they will not have time to queue to go up to the summit pillar.

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The summit

In 1686 botanist John Lloyd (an assistant to Edward Lhuyd) ascended Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa. At the summit they “carved [their] names in stones as several others had done before”.

Some saw the spring by the old stables as an opportunity to make money; a writer in 1850 told how an old man appeared at the summit, offering bottles of water for sale. He went up nearly every day through the season, filling half a dozen bottles at the spring, which he then took up to the summit to sell as “pure water, clear as crystal”; he did a good trade.

A few yards to the south-east of the summit cairn is a 34” tall wooden post, the remains of Sir Edward’s tall flagstaff, erected in 1892.

In 1897 a large telescope was placed on the summit for visitors by the landlord of the Gorphwysfa (Pen y Pass) Hotel. The concrete base is still extant, a few metres S.E. of the summit pillar. It reportedly allowed the Irish coast to be “very distinct”.

The retaining wall built up from the ledge below, forming the foundation of part of the Snowdon Summit Hotel, is still extant today on the south side of the summit, despite the recommendation that it be removed after the wooden building was demolished.

On the south side of the summit the old sewer pipe from the Snowdon Summit Hotel, demolished in the 1930s, can still be seen disappearing off the edge of the mountain, with sections of clay pipe above it.

A number of iron rings, which were used for cables to secure the roofs of the wooden huts, can still be seen.

A baby has been born at the summit. In August 1907 the wife of the landlord of the Summit Hotel gave birth to a son at the summit. The christening of ‘Roger Evans’ took place at the summit the following month, performed by the Rector of Llanberis.

In September 1886 a baby aged 3½ days was carried to the summit – this was a decade before there was an option of taking the train.

It’s often hard to get a decent photo of the summit station because it faces north, so it requires late afternoon or evening sun to light it.

In Victorian times, ponies were sometimes taken right to the actual summit, as shown in photos, but more usually they were left a little lower down.

In the late 19^th century James Leach worked at the summit as a photographer, paying a guinea a year for a licence from the Vaynol Estate to take visitors’ pictures. He had a camera mounted on a stand in front of the cairn. Those wanting pictures would pay him there and then, and having taken their details, Leach would subsequently send their photos to them.

Leach was reportedly a nuisance to the summit hut owners and others with his demands for clear views of the summit cairn.

Whilst the summit is often crowded during the day time, at times it can be deserted, especially in winter.

The summit is clear of cloud roughly 30% of the time.

Tourists have not been able to buy food at the summit every summer since the first huts were erected in the 1840s – there was no building there in 2007 and 2008 while Hafod Eryri was being built, and it was closed due to Covid-related reasons for three seasons from 2020.

At the summit area, excluding the steps up the cairn to the pillar, there are over 100 (about 110) granite-edged steps. These stepped paths up to the summit area were improved and re-aligned in 2007 while Hafod Eryri was also being built.

In 2023/24 the ‘BananaCam’ was located at the summit (bolted to the sewage plant to the west of the building). The aim was to see how long it took a banana skin to totally decompose at altitude. (The banana skin never saw out its full period; a winter storm blew the remains through the bars in the cage.)

According to a national poll held by Samsung in 2017, the view from the top of Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa is the best in Britain.

The Snowdon map (OL17) is the Ordnance Survey’s best-selling paper map year on year.

In ideal conditions, five countries can be seen from the summit:  Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland; but six if we count the Isle of Man (not a country in the traditional sense, but It’s a self-governing British Crown Dependency, and not part of the UK).

Some would add a sixth kingdom visible from the summit: the Kingdom of Heaven.

Chris Jesty’s work on summit panoramas in the 1970s reveal that it’s theoretically possible to see a total of 24 counties, 29 lakes and 17 islands from the summit.

It is theoretically possible to see the Merrick, the highest peak in Scotland’s Southern Uplands, this being the longest theoretical line of sight in the British Isles at 144 miles / 232 km. However, no reliable records exist of it having been seen or photographed from the summit; it’s a theoretical line of sight calculated from geography and geometry. It would probably be easier the other way round, i.e. to see Snowdon from Merrick, because of the partial blocking effect of Lamachan Hill, just south of the Merrick.

Distant views are generally better when the wind blows from the north, as Arctic air is much clearer and drier than air from the south.

The nearest large island you can see from the summit is Anglesey (Ynys Môn) from the summit; this can be seen in a general north-west direction, separated by the Menai Strait.

In good visibility three large islands can be seen from the summit, namely Anglesey, Ireland and the Isle of Man. (We’re not counting Bardsey as a large island.)

You cannot see Caernarfon Castle from the summit; Moel Eilio blocks out most of the town.

Sunrise walks are very popular, though nothing new.

To see the sunrise you’ll need to be looking east.

If doing a sunrise walk, it’s better to take one of the eastern paths (such as the Pyg) in case you don’t make the summit in time, so you’ll still see it.

Sunrise walks involve walking up in the dark; a clear moonlit night is the best scenario.

To see the sunset you’ll need to be looking west.

If doing a sunset walk, a path which faces west will be best in case you don’t make the summit in time.

Sunset walks are nowhere near as popular as sunrise walks, and involve walking down in the increasing darkness.

If you look north from the summit you’ll see the Llanberis Path (and part of the upper Pyg Track).

If you look north-east from the summit you’ll see the Pyg Track and the Miners’ Track.

If you look south-east from the summit you’ll see the Watkin Path.

If you look north-west from the summit you’ll see the Snowdon Ranger Path.

If you look south-west from the summit you’ll see the Rhyd Ddu Path.

From the summit you cannot see the upper part of the Watkin Path above Bwlch y Saethau.

The summit is quite often the location of marriage proposals.

Of all the people who reach the summit, about 80% walk up, the other 20% arriving by train.

In 1897 a postbox was installed at the summit. In those pre-phone days, letters and postcards were used as the most speedy form of communication, and many towns had several collections and deliveries a day. The summit still sports a postbox today.

In August 1908 it was reported that any postcards posted at the summit would carry a ‘summit’ postmark. (They still do today, and indeed seeing people writing postcards at the summit is a far from uncommon sight. Hafod Eryri still has a postbox.)

Around 1907 a bookstall was set up on the summit by a company from Oswestry and Wrexham who “acquired the advertising and newspaper and periodical sale rights on the Snowdon Mountain Tramway and the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway.”

Additionally, the same company started the publication of The Snowdon Topical Times, described as “the latest novelty in the newspaper world”, and being, as its writers claimed, “the highest but not the driest paper published in England and Wales.” It was dated daily, and featured a variety of Snowdon-based articles, with photographs, and visitors purchasing a copy could post it from the summit to friends.

In 1966 Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation applied to erect a 20-foot radio mast on the summit, ensuring radio communication in all areas of the National Park, but it was rejected on the grounds that it would spoil the natural beauty of the mountain.

In August 1909 the summit cairn was climbed by “a number of women suffragists [who] advocated their claims to their fellow-climbers, who numbered about thirty.” At the close the women were greeted with rounds of cheers.

In October 2009 a ‘350’ climate change protest saw protesters aiming to form a human ring around Snowdon, 60 feet beneath the summit at the 3,500-foot contour line, the circumference at this height being 350 metres. Despite their preparations, which involved abseiling on Clogwyn y Garnedd, weather conditions were so appalling that they had to settle with making a ring round the summit cairn.

In 2019 a climate change protest group unfurled their banner at the summit, but support for their cause was damaged by some of the group daubing their logo on rocks near the summit.

In 2025 a charity group came under fire on Facebook for daubing graffiti on the summit steps, inviting people to follow them on Facebook. They were embarrassed into offering to send money to have the graffiti cleared.

The nearest water source to the summit is at the top of the Pyg Track. It crosses the path between Bwlch Glas and the top bend of the Zig-zags. However, the spring by the old stables on the Llanberis Path is more reliable.

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The Snowdon Mountain Railway – planning and construction

In September 1864 work started on the main line Llanberis branch line to Caernarfon. During the after-dinner toasts, the promoters praised the ability of the Chairman of the railway company, saying that should they ever decide to make a railway to the top of Snowdon, they would like to have him as a director!

Railways up Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa had been proposed and surveyed as early as 1865; however, George Assheton Smith, the landowner, opposed all attempts.

Assheton Smith apparently often boasted that he could walk the fifteen miles from his home (Vaynol, now Faenol) to the peak of Snowdon without once having to step off his property.

The Llanberis main line branch opened in July 1869, when the chairman, Sir Richard Moon, again made a reference to the possibility of a line to the top of Snowdon. (This is often cited as being the first reference to such a scheme, but the first reference, in 1864 and mentioned above, was actually 7 years earlier.)

On the other side of the mountain, following the extension of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways line to Rhyd Ddu station and its renaming as South Snowdon and then Snowdon, Llanberis suffered badly financially, forcing Assheton Smith to reverse his decision and actively support a railway scheme.

The first bill for a mountain railway on Snowdon was put before Parliament in November 1871, just one of 78 railway bills that Parliamentary season. The proposed line was to terminate near Bwlch Glas, about ⅓ mile from the summit.

Even before construction started, it was announced that this would be an electric railway. To this end, the company had acquired the rights to water from Afon Hwch to drive generators, and there was a plan to build a dam in Cwm Brwynog. (This, of course, never happened.)

The railway was modelled on the mountain railways of Switzerland.

Plans to build a railway were attacked by Canon Hardwick D. Rawnsley (the Secretary of the newly formed National Trust for the Preservation of Places of Historic Interest and Natural Beauty), whose correspondence with Assheton Smith’s agent was published in The Times.

It was predicted that when the railway opened, most mountain guides would be put out of work. That proved to be the case as the costs were comparable, though their business was already on the decline because the path was getting so well defined by then.

No Act of Parliament was needed for the railway’s construction because landowner Assheton Smith voluntarily sold them the land.

From the cutting of the first sod on 15 December 1894 (undertaken by landowner George Assherton Smith’s daughter, Enid, as his wife was ill) to completing track-laying to the summit took just under 13 months.

The two viaducts near the bottom of the line prevented track-laying on the mountain until they were complete, so work pressed on meanwhile with the permanent way up to the summit. This was all done by hand.

The lower, longer viaduct is 166 yards long, with 14 arches. The upper viaduct is 63 yards long, with 4 arches.

Once the viaducts were complete, as was preparation of the permanent way, track-laying took just 72 working days.

An average of 120 yards of track was laid daily.

In a record week of construction, some 350 yards of track was laid in 1895.

By April 1895 over 200 men were employed in the construction. They lived and slept in wooden barracks on the mountain provided by the contractors (which were moved as progress dictated).

There were reportedly ten gangs, each of 10 – 25 men.

Labourers were actually paid well, namely 5d an hour (with 1½d ‘height money’), and masons earned slightly more, namely 8½d an hour, with 2d extra for altitude.

The winter of 1895 was so hard that Llyn Padarn totally froze over, and it was reported that “the snow on Snowdon is in many parts in drifts from twenty to sixty yards wide.” Construction work suffered as a result.

Just upwards of Halfway bridge (some ¼ mile below Halfway station) is a deep cutting. The route was taken this way as the material from the cutting could be used in the embankment below the bridge.

The cutting above Clogwyn, at the foot of Clogwyn Coch, similarly provided material for Clogwyn embankment. However, in wintertime this cutting caused deep snowdrifts to accumulate in it, and it was removed over a period of several years in the latter 20^th century.

Llanberis station, at the time when it was built, was some distance out of the village itself, but the location was close to the Royal Victoria Hotel, also owned by the railway company.

The total cost of the line amounted to £63,800. In today’s money this is about £11m.

The original specification called for walls on either side of the track, but financial restraints led to these never extending much beyond the first mile. Beyond this some sections were fenced, by agreement, but much remains open.

Where the fencing ends below Halfway bridge (initially on the ‘northern’ side), there is a deep cattle grid across the track to prevent sheep from accessing that lowest section of track.

The 1894 contract for the construction of the Snowdon Mountain Railway also made provision for the installation of a two-wire telephone system with “speaking and receiving instruments” at both ends of the line, and at all stations.

Prior to opening, an official inspection was not legally required because no compulsory land purchase orders had been necessary; the land had been freely sold by Assherton Smith.

However, shortly before opening in 1896, an unofficial inspection was carried out by Major Marindin of the Board of Trade. This train was loaded with 100 bags of cement and some scrap iron, to replicate the weight of two fully-loaded carriages. On the way down from the summit, the locomotive was allowed to run freely, and the automatic brake stopped it when it exceeded 5 mph.

During construction, walkers up Snowdon took to walking up the newly constructed permanent way rather than following the old path. This was soon stopped.

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The Snowdon Mountain Railway opening day

The railway opened on 6^th April 1896.

The railway’s official name for the first 32 years of its existence was the Snowdon Mountain Tramroad & Hotels Co. Ltd. This name was painted on roof-level barge boards on the early carriages. (The company initially owned the Royal Victoria Hotel and also planned to build a hotel at the summit.)

On opening, the return fare was 5/- (25p), a single up was 3/6 (18½p), and a single down was 2/6 (12½p). (In 2025 a diesel return fare was £45, a single fare down was £35.)

On the opening day, the first two trains to the summit were propelled (i.e. pushed) by locomotives No. 1 (L.A.D.A.S.) and No. 2 (Enid). The upper part of the mountain had seen freezing temperatures the previous night, and visibility was poor.

On descent, there was a derailment above Clogwyn and L.A.D.A.S. plummeted 300 feet down into Cwm Hetiau (at the time called Cwm Glas). The crew leapt clear just in time.

On ‘landing’ in the cwm, L.A.D.A.S.’ chassis and boiler separated, lying some 200 yards apart; the frame and wheels lay hundreds of yards further down the cwm.

Remarkably, L.A.D.A.S.’ boiler barely had a mark on it – just a tiny dent “hardly discernible to the naked eye” – and was later hauled up and returned to Llanberis; the rest of the locomotive was abandoned.

The carriages were brought to a stand but one person died when he leapt clear, fearing the worst, and having seen the footplate crew jump clear.

Enid then descended from the summit, unaware of the incident, and in the poor visibility it collided with the carriages on the track, and both were sent rolling down to Clogwyn, where they derailed in the loop and fell over.

Once all the passengers had been taken down safely, many of them queued up for a refund.

This sole fatality was the owner of the Padarn Villa Hotel, Mr Ellis Roberts, so the railway company bought this as a gesture of goodwill, and ran it alongside their other hotel, the Royal Victoria.

An inquiry was held into the accident, and the reason for the locomotive coming off the track was ultimately held to be the freezing and subsequent thawing of the ground, which had caused some subsidence, together with the fact that it was a new line which had not yet had time to bed in properly.

The line re-opened a year later with further safety measures in place, notably the centre ‘gripper’ rails, which cost over £9,000 to purchase and fit.

However, due to much snow on the mountain, when the railway reopened on 19 April 1897, trains initially terminated at Clogwyn. The track work was completed in the following month and trains returned to the summit on 19 May 1897.

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Railway statistics

The method of track/traction used so that the train can grip on the steep gradients is Rack & Pinion.

The Snowdon Railway was not Britain’s first cog railway. The first cog railway was the Middleton Railway in Leeds, where the first commercially successful steam locomotive ran in 1812. This used a rack and pinion system designed and patented in 1811 by John Blenkinsop.

However, the Snowdon Mountain Railway is now the only operational public rack and pinion railway in mainland Britain. (The Snaefell Railway on the Isle of Man is also rack & pinion, though has a wider gauge, at 3 ft 6 in / 1,067 mm).

The Snowdon Mountain Railway, had it been completed in the summer of 1895, as originally envisaged, would have been the first mountain railway in Britain. However, delays pushed this back to April 1896, meaning that the Snaefell Mountain Railway on the Isle of Man claimed the record; this opened some months earlier, on 21 August 1895.

The gauge of the Snowdon Mountain Railway is 800mm (2 ft 7½ in), a standard Swiss gauge.

This gauge is now unique in Britain. The only other railway in Britain which had the same gauge as the Snowdon railway was the Trafalgar Colliery tramway in the Forest of Dean, a 1.5-mile, narrow-gauge line built around 1862. However, its track was removed by 1916 after the colliery closed around 1906.

The Snowdon Mountain Railway is not the highest railway in Britain. The (recently re-opened) Cairngorm Mountain Railway in Scotland has its top Ptarmigan Station at 1,097m (3,599 ft).

The line, as built, measured just short of 4¾ miles in length (4 miles 55 ch. / 7.5 km) with the summit station building built alongside the line. (There are 80 chains to a mile.)

When the 1930s building/terminus was constructed on the line, the line was slightly shortened to make way for it. This remains the case today, so the total length is 4.68 miles / 4 miles 54 chains / 7.53 km.

The overall average gradient on the line is roughly 1 in 8  (it’s actually 1 in 7.86).

The steepest gradient on the line is 1 in 5.5

There are no level sections of line anywhere.

The original specification stated that there should be gradient posts and mileposts “of approved pattern”. Many of the gradient posts were pulled up by vandals in the early 1900s and have not been replaced.

Certainly, mileposts are shown on the early 6” O.S. maps, though there is no documentary evidence of their installation at the time. In 1997 mileposts were installed at ¼ mile intervals, but most are now tatty and barely legible.

The only place where one of the main paths crosses the Snowdon Railway line is just below Bwlch Glas, where the Snowdon Ranger crosses it. (The original plans for the railway showed a “a light steel girder bridge” here, but it was never built.)

Less than 50% (42%) of the railway is on a curve.

Some 140,000 people travel on the railway annually.

Since it opened, an estimated 12 million people have travelled on the Snowdon Mountain Railway.

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The railway – track and permanent way

Snowdon Railway is a Rack & Pinion Railway. Normal trains can only ascend gradients of up to 10%. Because the track on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa is too steep for a train to use normal gravity (friction) adhesion, between the outer rails lie the two rack rails, which have a twin toothed rack rail down the centre. The locomotives have toothed pinions (cog wheels) under them, and these engage the rack, such that the locomotive largely ‘crawls’ up the mountain.

Having two rack rails, rather than just one, gives a smoother operation and continuous control.

Because the locomotives can only move using the rack & pinion (the main wheels are not connected to the driving axle), rack rail is also laid in all the sidings, engine sheds and carriage sheds, etc., though on sidings and around the yard at Llanberis it comprises only a single rack bar, not the usual double.

The railway is single line, apart from the passing places.

The idea of a double-track line was once mooted. Before the railway had been completed, Mr Assheton Smith, the landowner, agreed to sell the railway company additional land, if and when they wanted a wider formation to lay a double track throughout.

As with traditional track, the sleepers are bedded in ballast, comprising granite chippings which, because they are angular, can be tamped tight.

There are an estimated 10,000 sleepers on the Snowdon Mountain Railway.

The sleepers (which are hollow underneath) are made of steel, and have always been made of metal; wood would not survive in the mountain climate.

Upright bars (‘anchors’) are driven in at intervals, attached by ‘slip bars’ to adjacent sleepers to stop ‘sleeper creep’, which will happen on steep gradients if not addressed.

The outer running rails, which are standard 9m lengths, are connected by fishplates, with expansion joints. The plates have holes for bolts, as do the rail ends.

In order to identify specific sections of track (should maintenance or repair be needed) every 50^th section of rack is numbered with a stamped metal tag. This is screwed to the gripper rail, or to the rack rail where there is no gripper rail.

New ‘Y’-shaped sleepers – called ‘ypsilon’ sleepers – were recently trialled on part of the line below Halfway bridge; their shape allegedly prevents the ‘rail creep’ which happens on gradients, though their use has not been pursued.

The track is maintained by the permanent way (P-Way) gang.

The whole length of the railway has been re-railed several times – initially in 1948, then in 1967. Large sections on the upper part of the mountain have also been re-railed in recent years.

Additional guard/check rails are fitted at all sets of points.

The buffer stops at the summit comprise thick rubber pads on steel supports.

Following the opening day accident, the line was fitted with a central safety gripper rail along its whole length. Today, when line is re-laid, it is not always re-fitted.

The safety gripper rail is dispensed with at points.

Despite the optical illusion of what sometimes looks like a downhill section, there are no downhill sections anywhere on the line.

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The railway today – operation

The Snowdon Mountain Railway is not a locally owned company. It is owned by Heritage GB PLC, a holding company for Heritage Attractions Ltd, who also own other visitor attractions at Land’s End, John O’Groats and the Isle of White. Heritage GB PLC is owned by a Jersey company, Cherberry Ltd, which is owned by Dukla Ltd of Gibraltar.

The railway is increasingly calling itself by the bilingual name Snowdon Mountain Railway / Rheilffordd yr Wyddfa.

The railway doesn’t run entirely in the National Park; for the first ½ mile, up to Waterfall Halt, it runs just on the edge of the park boundary before then entering the Park.

The railway runs for about 7 months a year, usually from about late March to late October.

On opening in the spring, trains initially only run as far as Clogwyn, running to the summit around early May. (In the last couple of years the mid-May date has crept earlier.)

The only trains that run over the winter are works trains.

The journey to the summit takes about an hour, as does the journey down.

Passengers have 30 minutes at the summit, making a round trip a total of 2½ hours.

The average speed of the trains is 5 mph (8 kph). If a locomotive exceeds 5.5mph, the brakes are automatically applied.

When trains are running to the summit, the staff train normally leaves Llanberis at 8:00 a.m.

The first passenger train usually leaves Llanberis at 9:00 a.m. and arrives at the summit at 10:00.

In high season the latest departure is the 17:30 from Llanberis, leaving the summit at 19:00.

In high season the last passenger train leaves the summit at 7 p.m. As the season progresses, the last departure from Llanberis works progressively earlier by 30-minute intervals to 16:00 or earlier. Similarly, the last departure from the summit becomes earlier, back to 17:30 at the latest.

For the first forty years, trains didn’t run on a Sunday. Running a service on a Sunday started in 1935, following the death of the then managing director, and was well patronised, despite opposition in some quarters.

Timetables from between 1896 and 1901 show up to seven departures a day in high summer. Time allowed at the summit varied between 8 minutes and 25 minutes.

Today, 18 trains is the maximum number of trains that might run daily in high season.

If it’s too windy for trains to reach the summit, trains will terminate at Clogwyn station (or sometimes Rocky Valley Halt if it’s too windy for Clogwyn).

The wind speed is monitored automatically by anemometer every 15 minutes at Clogwyn. Averages are constantly plotted, showing trends, and if gusts exceed 50 mph (45 knots) three times consecutively, then trains are not allowed to pass Clogwyn, and might terminate at Rocky Valley.

The wind strength at Clogwyn is monitored not just at Clogwyn, but also at Llanberis and at Hafod Eryri.

The anemometer at Clogwyn is very susceptible to winds from the south-west, but can considerably under-read when the wind is from the north as it is in the lee of the Glyderau.

In earlier days, the rule book stated 40 mph winds was the cut-off point. Where the semi-open carriages had canvas curtains, these were always opened if it was windy so that the wind could blow through the carriage.

No carriage has ever been blown over by wind.

If wind speeds exceed 70 mph, trains cannot run on the line at all.

In August 2024 there were 16 days when, at some part of the day, trains could not reach the summit due to the wind.

Passengers can book a single ticket to the summit.

Would-be passengers can buy a one-way ticket down on the train from the upper terminus (Clogwyn or the summit), space allowing. If from the summit, they should register first at the railway desk at the platform end of Hafod Eryri.

On the railway, as a general rule, trains observe left-hand running at passing places. i.e. they go up on the ‘straight’ line and down on the ‘loop’ line.

Trains approaching the summit have green lights to indicate which road is set. On departure, trackside lights indicate if the points are set correctly.

Aside from the opening accident, no one has ever died as a result of train operations on the railway (although at least one death has resulted from “sky-larking” about on the line, such as in 1910, and deaths have also resulted as a result of walkers following the track on Allt Goch in icy conditions.)

To reduce the likelihood of lineside fires in times of drought, steam locomotives are withdrawn and only diesel is used. However, there are still occasional small fires.

A sign by Halfway bridge (now no longer readable) warns of hot embers being discharged from steam locomotives.

The first two trains to the summit are normally the staff train and the water train.

The staff train might stay at the summit during the day, rather than returning to Llanberis, as is normal, if an early or quick evacuation is considered likely because of the wind increasing. However, this is not desirable as the diesel is needed to work with later trains.

Much of the line is not fenced (as was originally specified), so sheep are able to walk on the line.

A diesel service is manned by two staff (driver & guard), and a steam service is manned by three (driver, fireman & guard).

Although the railway employs many seasonal staff, in the closed season the permanent staff still have a lot of work to do, such as maintenance of locomotives, stock, track and the permanent way. Managers and some other clerical staff also work all year round.

Although the railway is single line, these days the engine does not have to carry a ‘staff’ or ’token’.

In the 1920s, following the purchase of more locomotives, the ‘token’ was done away with and replaced by a flexible Telephone Order and Ticket System whereby the guard was given a ticket.

Control of trains today is by the ‘permissive ticket’ system, i.e. by verbal permission of traffic control.

Normally, only one train will run in a section, between passing places. However, since the late 1950s ‘doublers’ have been allowed due to the low operational speeds.

The early staff train and water train sometimes run as ‘doublers’.

Today all the communication between trains and control is by two-way radio.

Unlike most of the preserved railways in North Wales, the railway does not have a supporters‘ society.

The only dogs allowed on trains are assistance dogs.

Groups have to be of 25 or more in size to qualify for a discounted rate.

Trackside signs (such as at Clogwyn, Bwlch Glas and Halfway bridge) indicate that trespassing on the line can carry a fine of up to £1,000.

There is an official Snowdon Mountain Railway app available for both Android and iOS devices that enhances the visitor experience with audio narration, 360° photos, and facts about the railway and mountain.

The railway is a member of ‘The Great Little Trains of Wales’ organisation. Membership gives a discount on travel.

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The railway – locomotives

The railway bought five steam locomotives for the opening of the railway in 1896.

These locomotives were built in Switzerland and shipped to Llanberis main line station, via Antwerp and Liverpool.

These first locomotives cost £1,525 each.

These first locomotives were No. 1, L.A.D.A.S.; No. 2, Enid; No. 3, Wyddfa; No. 4, Snowdon; and No. 5, Moel Siabod.

Locomotive No. 3 is named Wyddfa. This really should be Yr Wyddfa, Snowdon’s Welsh name. Without the ‘Yr’, it should in any case be Gwyddfa.

L.A.D.A.S. was named after Laura Alice Duff Assheton Smith, wife of George Assheton Smith, the major landowner. Enid was named after his daughter.

L.A.D.A.S. no longer exists as it was involved in the opening day accident.

It has been estimated that Locomotive No.2, Enid, has covered a distance equal to four journeys to the moon and back, i.e. over 3 million km. She is currently out of service.

The early steam locomotives did not have speedometers, the drivers having to guess at speeds. After initial use, the manager had them retro-fitted.

More steam locomotives were bought in the early 1920s. These locomotives (Nos. 6 – 8) were visibly different in a number of ways from the original 1890s locomotives (Nos. 1 – 5). (Compare the previous picture with the one below.)

These new 1922/23 locomotives were named: No. 6, Sir Harmood; No. 7, Aylwyn; and No. 8, Eryri. (Sir Harmood was renamed Padarn in the 1920s. Aylwyn was renamed Ralph Sadler in 1978, then abbreviated in 1987 to just Ralph.)

Three of these original steam engines are currently operational (nos. 3, 5 and 6). The others are either withdrawn, out of service or awaiting overhaul.

Two steam locomotives are used in normal service, but a third is kept on standby.

The steam engines burn coal, some 6 cwt (300 kg) of coal on a return journey. The actual amount of coal burned depends on the weight of the train and the quality of the coal.

On several occasions since the 1970s, when oil has been much cheaper than coal, locomotives have been converted to burn oil for trials, but oil has never been adopted as a regular fuel, and all have long since reverted to coal.

Ffos-y-Fran mine in South Wales used to provide high quality steam coal until its closure in 2023. Coal now has to come from overseas (currently from Poland), with domestic smokeless coal burned at Llanberis.

A return trip for a steam locomotive uses close on 400 gallons of water.

Steam locomotives leave Llanberis with full water tanks, but can top up, if necessary, at Halfway station.

The steam locomotives always run chimney first on the line. Their boilers are set at an angle of 9° to ensure that the ends of the boiler tubes and firebox crown are always submerged in water when the locomotive is ascending the steep gradients of the mountain. This gave rise to the name ‘kneeling cow’ design.

The steam locomotives have 6 wheels. The rear truck wheels are smaller than the front two axles. Because the track wheels are not coupled, and turn freely and independently on their axles, the locomotives cannot strictly be classified as 0-4-2T locos (‘T’ indicates side tanks).

Steam locomotives only run from Monday to Friday; being more susceptible to breakdowns than the diesels, they are not used at the weekends when peak numbers wish to travel.

Steam locomotives are only used during the high season; at both ends of the season only diesel-hauled services operate.

During high season the entire fleet may be out on the mountain at the same time.

Steam locomotives have more than one brake: the rack and pinion system acts as a brake (like a car engine in gear); there are also two hand-operated axle brakes, a compression brake, and an automatic steam brake, which applies when an excessive speed is reached (trains travel at an average speed of 5mph / 8kph). The latter – newly fitted – came into use in 1922 when a connecting rod on the engine broke, and again two years later.

The first two diesel locomotives were introduced on the railway in 1986, after 90 years of steam-only use.

These new diesels were British-built by the Hunslet Engine Co. in Leeds, and cost about £250,000 each.

These diesel locomotives proved so efficient and reliable that two more were acquired in the early 1990s.

The four diesels are: No. 9, Ninian (built 1986); No. 10, Yeti (built 1986); No. 11, Peris (built 1991); and No. 12, George (built 1992).

Once in service, passenger numbers consequently grew dramatically in the latter 1980s and 90s.

All four diesel locomotives were re-engined and rebuilt in 2011–13 in readiness for the launch of the new “traditional diesel” service.

The name Yeti  for No. 10 was the name chosen in a BBC TV children’s competition. The winner, Rhonda Golding from Bristol, also won a life pass for free travel on the railway.

The staff tend to use locomotive numbers rather than names.

These 0-4-0 diesel locomotives are powered by 320hp six-cylinder turbo-charged Rolls Royce diesel engines of 12 litres capacity.

The b.h.p. is used for immense pulling force (torque) rather than outright speed. The engine is rated at 238 kW (319 hp) and drives through a hydraulic transmission that has only one drive ratio. The result is a locomotive that accelerates quickly up to speed.

Steam locomotives need two people on the footplate (a driver and a fireman), whereas a diesel needs only a driver.

On the diesels, for added safety with only one man in the cab, a dead-man device is included, a pedal that when released triggers the braking system to bring the train safely to a halt.

It is reckoned that, in terms of fuel costs, a steam locomotive can be over 10-times more expensive to run than a diesel.

(In 1988 it was calculated that a steam locomotive used £51 worth of fuel on a round trip; a diesel used just £3.20.)

Over the years, the steam locomotives have appeared in various colours: a dark ‘Swindon’ green, ‘Brunswick’ green, a dark blue, a dark mahogany red (almost chocolate brown), maroon, all black, and predominantly apple green with black frames and bright red buffer beams.

The practice of painting the locomotives in different liveries ended in about 2005.

Today the steam locomotives are predominantly green and black. The diesels are mainly black.

The introduction of the four new coaches in 2013 saw the diesel locomotive livery change from green to black to compliment the black on the coaches.

In 1995 the railway bought three diesel-electric railcars. On the railway these were numbered 21 – 23 (they were not named). They could be run singly or coupled together in twos or threes.

Each railcar could seat 41 passengers (108 in total), so as a three-some it could carry twice the usual numbers, and needed only a single driver and guard. Unlike any other train on the railway, the driver sat at the front when ascending the mountain. Each unit had a cab at each end.

Whilst the railcars helped carry record numbers of passengers, they did not last even a decade, and between 2001 and 2003 they were all taken out of service following problems with the electronic systems, notably that they would shut down for no reason. After a period residing in the car park, they were ultimately taken away for scrap in July 2010.

In July 2020 the railway acquired two battery-diesel hybrid locomotives, bought at a cost of £1.1m. These were the world’s first hybrid rack & pinion locomotives. The aim was that on the downhill run the diesel generator could be switched off and the battery would be charged by braking power, thus delivering maintenance and fuel savings, quieter operation and lower emissions.

On arrival at Llanberis the hybrids were numbered 14 (named Glaslyn) and 15 (named Moel Eilio). It was envisaged that they would take the place of the two older diesels.

The closure due to Covid delayed the entry of the hybrids into service, but in 2022 both were quietly returned to Clayton Equipment (the manufacturer), having been deemed unsuitable by not generating sufficient energy when descending.

In 1901 the railway was also celebrated on a Wills’s cigarette card. The image shows locomotive No. 4, Snowdon.

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The railway – carriages & wagons

Before the railway opened, an inspection recommended that the leading carriage carry a ‘cow-catcher’ device to push sheep off the line. This wasn’t pursued.

In the early days, a train comprised a locomotive and two carriages.

The norm became just one carriage in the 1920s when more locomotives were available.

On a normal railway, locomotives ‘haul’ a train. However, on the Snowdon Mountain Railway the carriages are ‘propelled’ (pushed) up, rather than hauled; the locomotive and carriage are not connected. By propelling, the locomotive acts as a safety buffer and the carriage cannot run away down the gradient.

Because the locomotive is always at the back of the train on the way up, a guard is always positioned at the front of the leading carriage.

The seats in the carriages are slightly inclined from the horizontal so that they feel level on the continuous gradient.

When the railway opened, it had six roofed carriages.

The early carriages were mostly ‘semi-open’, the upper half being open, though canvas curtains were fitted which were tied back when the weather was good.

The railway originally also had two fully open (unroofed) carriages for passengers.

The early coaches had rudimentary lighting, namely oil lamps in the panels at each end of the coach, with a small chimney protruding through the roof. Today they have electric lights.

A programme to fully enclose and glaze all the carriages was started in 1951 and finished that same decade.

At the end of the 2012 season all the existing and dated passenger coaches were withdrawn from service to make way for new stock.

Two of the original carriages (rebuilt on the original chassis-and-bogie set) are today used as heritage carriages, used with steam locomotives. These are ‘The Snowdon Lily’ (Lili’r Wyddfa), painted in cream, and ‘The Snowdon Mountain Goat’ (Gafr Fynydd Yr Wyddfa), painted in red. (The heritage coach named Snowdon Mountain Goat carries the Welsh name of Yr Afr Mynydd Wyddfa. This should correctly be Gafr Fynydd Yr Wyddfa.)

These two heritage carriages originally held 56 passengers, but were rebuilt to seat just 34 passengers in rather more comfort, with more leg-room and a central aisle.

The steam locomotives with their heritage carriages are not used at weekends.

In 2012 a £1.5m three-year programme was started to replace the older railway carriages. These were the first new carriages on the railway since the 1920s.

In a mix of old and new, these heritage carriages were launched at the same time as the brand-new Garmendale coaches (2013, and named after their manufacturer, Garmendale Engineering of Derbyshire), meaning that the railway could operates two services, depending on the motive power: a steam service with the heritage carriages and a diesel service with the new carriages.

These four new carriages – the ‘Garmendales’ – were painted in cherry, white and black and designed to be used with the diesels, forming the backbone of the service.

These four carriages, each with a diesel (painted black from their former green to match the new carriages), now make four largely identical trains.

The earliest carriages were chocolate brown. Over the years since then, many colour schemes have been used.

The new Garmendale carriages were made of revolutionary lighter cellular material which combines high thermal qualities with structural integrity, so they only weigh about 7 tons, rather than about 10 tons.

The newer carriages carry the names of four Welsh celebrities, namely: Sir David Brailsford CBE (2013), Bryn Terfel CBE (2014) – who has since been knighted (in 2017), Katherine Jenkins OBE (2015) and Dame Shirley Bassey DBE (the last to be named, in 2018).

Each passenger carriage also has its own set of pinions, and the added precaution of automatic brakes in the event of exceeding 7½ mph.

All carriages have a windscreen wiper at the front.

The ‘caboose’ is the name given to the works wagon which comprises staff accommodation (a mess coach) and a generator, usually with a small wagon coupled on. It is often used by the Permanent Way team over the winter.

The ‘SSV’ is the Summit Service Vehicle (originally called the Summit Support Vehicle) which is the carriage which carries staff up to Hafod Eryri. It also has space for stock, bins, etc., and carries diesel in tanks underneath.

The ‘Camel’ is the nickname given to the morning water train, which daily carries up to 9,000 litres of drinking water to Hafod Eryri at the summit.

In 2006 Hunslet built the railway their 40-ft flat-bed wagon for the construction of Hafod Eryri. Today it is used on a regular basis for the water train, but also for specials like the sewage train.

The Lancaster Carriage and Wagon Co., who supplied the first carriages to the railway, also supplied four 4-wheeled, small, drop-side wagons in 1895. These wagons, numbered 1 – 4, were used during the railway’s construction, and for a certain amount of freight conveyance afterwards.

However, by the 1930s only two were useable, these being used in the mid-1930’s construction of the summit building; only one is now extant.

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The railway – stations and passing loops

Over the years there have been three or four station buildings at the summit. (See the next section.)

There are three passing loops on the railway – at Hebron, Halfway and Clogwyn. These produce four largely equal single-line sections of about 15 minutes each.

At one time all passing loops had a blockman who operated the points and signals from a ground frame and who was responsible for ensuring that trains on the single line carried the train staff or (later) ticket.

The lower two passing loops (Hebron and Halfway) are now unmanned; they were converted to semi-automatic operation in the early 1990s.

Clogwyn is the only passing point on the line which still uses a blockman today (who goes up on the first train and returns on the last). However, it is planned that Clogwyn will be relaid at the close of the 2025 season, ready for semi-automation at the start of the 2026 season.

Hebron once had a 7-lever ground frame, the largest ground frame on the whole railway. This is because, in addition to a loop, Hebron once had a siding to serve the local community; this was lifted in c.1920.

Originally all the passing points had a ground frame to operate the points and signals.

At a later time, a bar on the approaching engine activated a treadle, which activated the electric circuit to ensure that the points were set correctly. Today, at the unmanned passing places, the guard (on up trains) or the driver (on down trains) uses a ‘zapper’ (a device like a small TV remote control) to operate the points, which are powered by electric hydraulic motors. Coloured light signals indicate that the point blades have been fully set and that it is safe to proceed.

As initially built, all passing places and termini had semaphore signs (i.e. the traditional type with an arm). These were dispensed with in the early 1920s and removed in c.1930.

The points and lights at Hebron and Halfway are powered by solar panels and wind turbines.

In total, there are seven stations/halts and passing places on the line (including the termini): Llanberis, Waterfall, Hebron, Halfway, Rocky Valley, Clogwyn and the Summit.

Waterfall station was built to allow visitors to use the train to travel to see the waterfall of Ceunant Mawr. There was never a passing loop here, but there was an ‘up’ siding, lifted pre-1905. The station was closed by 1970, but the station building remains and is today used as a Permanent Way depot. Passenger trains do not stop at Waterfall.

Waterfall Halt now sports a bilingual name (Gorsaf Ceunant Mawr).

There is no platform at Halfway station as passengers are not allowed to alight at this point.

Llanberis has two platforms: one for arrivals and the other for departures. Arriving trains empty their passengers, then shunt to the other platform.

The summit has two platforms: arriving trains generally alternate between the two platforms during a busy service, otherwise the ‘straight’ platform is more often used.

The intermediate stations/halts have just one platform; Clogwyn is the only station where passengers may board or alight, though improvements to Rocky Valley platform in 2025 (extending it and adding safety railings) mean that when it is being used as a terminus, passengers can alight here, though must stay within the confines of the platform.

Rocky Valley was not an original halt when the line opened, but was opened in about 1974 when a rough, narrow concrete platform was built on the northern side of the line.

There is no passing loop at Rocky Valley.

Although the platform at Rocky Valley halt is marked on the O.S. map, it is not named.

Rocky Valley is the only halt without an official Welsh name, although it is now sometimes called ‘Llechog’, the name of the rocky hill under which it nestles.

Trains observe left-hand running; on the way up they use the ‘straight’ line, and on the way down they use the ‘loop’.

The large square stone building at Clogwyn station is a water tank, used in the days of the old building to take drinking water to the summit. It is no longer used to supply the summit, but an overflow pipe runs to a 9,000-gallon tank at Halfway station.

The points at the summit are powered by electricity when the building’s generators are running, otherwise they can be hand-cranked, if necessary (as can the points at the other passing places).

The right-hand road on approach at the summit (the ‘loop’) is several inches lower than the left-hand road (‘the straight’). This has always been the case since the railway opened.

The ‘balcony’ at Hafod Eryri is now closed to walkers, and can only be accessed by train passengers.

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The railway – summit stations

When the railway first opened in 1896, there was as yet no station building at the summit, just a platform.

There have been four summit stations: the present one at Hafod Eryri, the previous one at the 1930s building, and two on the original site (the 1897 building and a modified one in the 1920s).

The first station building was built adjacent to the line in the following 12 months whilst the railway was closed following the opening day accident. (Although passenger trains were not permitted on the upper part of the line, pending completion of the safety ‘gripper’ rail, works trains were still able to use the line, carrying stone, wood and slate for the station building.)

The station building was finally completed in July or August 1897, a couple of months after trains returned to the summit.

The main platform was open to the elements, but there were two covered waiting rooms which could just accommodate the number of people carried up on the train.

Aside from a booking office, at either end of the building was staff accommodation, including a bedroom.

The other (western, ‘loop’) line did not have a proper platform, though it later had edging stones. This was merely a levelled area just 6 inches above the rails, and thus necessitating quite a step down from the carriage.

In around 1927, with nothing coming of the railway company’s summit hotel plans, a minimal new station building was constructed on the platform in a similar style to the old building. Some might consider that the old building was merely adapted, rather than rebuilt.

The new station building was “adapted” to serve refreshments; certainly what we can see is that there was more space available to the public than before, with the staff accommodation at the southern end being opened to the platform.

The new 1930s building (see that section) was an integral hotel, restaurant and railway terminus.

The current building (see that section) similarly acts as a visitor centre and railway terminus.

The station stands at a height of 3,493 feet (1,065m), i.e., 68 feet (21 metres) below the summit itself.

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The railway in wartime

In the hope of gaining financial benefit, the railway was offered to the Government in World War I, if it could be of any use to them. The offer was not taken up.

The railway did not close during WWI.

However, people were less able to travel to Llanberis during WWI because there were fewer main line trains, and there was petrol rationing.

The railway lost staff (younger men) to the armed forces in WWI.

Two of the railway company’s horses were acquisitioned by the War Office in World War I for use as war horses, for which they were paid £55.

he railway was in such a bad financial condition at the end of WWI that voluntary liquidation was considered, and low scrap offers were made for both the railway and its assets, but trade picked up sufficiently in 1919 for the line to continue.

The railway mostly ran through World War II, though with a shorter season; however, it did close for a while late in the war.

In WW2 many staff were lost to the war effort. Aside from the General Manager and two permanent way members, trains were run by just one train crew of three men.

In WW2 the summit building was mostly not open to the public. It was used by various of the armed forces, notably by the Air Ministry in 1942 and 1943, and by the Admiralty in 1944. Use included the further development of radar in the tracking of both planes and submarines.

Whilst in use by the Air Ministry, two Nissen Huts were erected over the platform at the summit, where generators sat on wagons. (The only power available at the summit at the time was gas in canisters.)

Between 1942 and the end of the war in 1945, the army undertook training on the mountain, using live ammunition.

Services resumed as normal after the war.

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War and military activity

In 1861 a large number of Army Volunteers started from the Caernarfon armoury at 9:30 in the morning, arriving at Llanberis at 11 a.m. After lunch they “marched up to the summit of Snowdon.” After taking refreshments and “firing a round”, they descended.

There were two army rifle ranges on the mountain: in Cwm Dwythwch (Boer War) and Cwm Brwynog (WW2).

The earliest rifle range was located in Cwm Dwythwch, some two miles south-west of Hebron station, behind the bluff of Cefn Drum. The O.S. map of 1901 shows ‘Mantlet’ and ‘Targets’ at the south-west end of the range, at the foot of Foel Gron, with rifle butts – structures at varying distances designed for firing from behind – at 100-yard intervals up to 800 yards.

The current O.S. map still has marked the ‘old mantlet’ (a markers’ hut) – a three-sided stone-built structure measuring 6m long by 4m wide, now without its flat roof. Although the mantlet is well preserved, little exists of the earth firing points amongst the heather and bog. This site had iron targets and was abandoned in favour of a more accessible range further down the valley.

The later firing range was the Aelgerth range, lying between Hebron Station and Ty’n-yr-Aelgerth. The range, measuring over 500m in length, is aligned NE – SW, with the targets being at the south-western end. It is thought to have been established in World War 2. The range started just 50 yards from the door of Capel Hebron.

The remains of four low breeze-block rifle butts can still be seen from the Llanberis path, and at the far end the metal frames of the mechanisms for six targets are still extant behind a breeze-block retaining wall, visible from the Maesgwm path. There are two iron mantlets, later peppered with bullet holes.

In 1910, Snowdon and the neighbouring mountains were used for mountaineering manoeuvres and instruction in mountain warfare. Twenty-six army officers were drawn from twelve regiments and undertook a fortnight’s mountain warfare training with the object of “learning better how to find paths, select mountain roads where transport lines could follow, to scale slopes, scout on the hills, etc.”

In May 1939, a recruiting poster was displayed at the summit, appealing for recruits for the Royal Welch Fusiliers. It was, naturally, the highest recruiting poster in Britain.

In World War 2, the summit building was briefly used by the Army, though more use was made by the Air Ministry and the Admiralty. (See also ‘The railway in wartime’.)

In WW2 the army used live ammunition on the mountain and although it did not affect the area around the railway, they nevertheless displayed warning posters.

In May 1958, Members of the 1/20 (South Midland) Army Signal Regiment (T.A.) took part in ‘Exercise Snow Drop’ on Snowdon, aimed at practising the operation of radio relay wireless equipment, and a relay link was set up from Snowdon to the unit camp in Sherwood Forest, with a relay station in the Buxton area.

In the 1960s and 1970s it was commonplace for the army to send work parties to help with path maintenance on the mountain.

One such exercise was ‘Exercise Mountain Goat’, when the army helped with repair on the Llanberis Path, aided by a Lynx helicopter.

Pont Soldiwrs (Soldiers’ Bridge), on the Pyg Track above Bwlch Moch, was originally built from telegraph poles by the Army in the 1970s. Although it has since been replaced with sleepers, so is not original, it retains its name, rather like Trigger’s Broom.

The army also dynamited rocks; in 1983 the Park Authority used the army to blast away a bluff on the Pyg track below Bwlch y Moch in order to facilitate access.

Later years saw the Army lending a helicopter capable of carrying four nets of rocks, more than the usual.

For three years during World War II, the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel was used to house 35 evacuee boys from a small preparatory school, Lakeside School in Bexhill-on-Sea, it returning to use as a hotel in 1943 when numbers at the school fell and it was forced to amalgamate with another.

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Slate quarries

The largest slate quarry on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa is Glanrafon, on the west side of the mountain between the Rhyd Ddu and Snowdon Ranger Paths, though also visible from the upper Llanberis Path.

The second largest slate quarry is Hafod y Llan (a.k.a. South Snowdon) in Cwm Llan, passed through on the Watkin Path. Most of the workers on this side of the mountain hailed from the Beddgelert area.

Although the Snowdonia Slate Trail (Llwybr Llechi Eryri) passes through Llanberis and Rhyd Ddu, it does not pass through any of the quarries on the massif.

In comparison with the copper industry on Snowdon, the slate industry was very backward.

Most of Snowdon’s slate was shipped from Porthmadog.

The old slate quarry at the foot of the South Ridge is Bwlch Cwm Llan slate quarry.

The small Arddu quarry lies some 250m down the hill from Halfway Bridge on the Llanberis Path (and is best seen from below the Halfway café on the way down).

Arddu quarry actually comprises two tiny tandem workings named Gwaun-y-glo and Gwaen-y-ty. They were worked during the second half of the 19^th century. A small building and incline remain.

The Rhyd Ddu Path virtually passes through Ffridd (or Ffridd Isaf) quarry at its start.

The 19^th century was the heyday of the slate industry.

Most of the quarries on Snowdon closed when they did because they could not compete with the likes of the nearby Dinorwig and Penrhyn Quarries.

Cefn Du quarry, on the very northern edge of the massif and visible from the Llanberis Path, beyond Llanberis, was linked to the Llanberis main line railway.

The Snowdonia Slate Trail, a circular 83-mile trail, skirts the very northern edge of the massif between Llanberis and Waunfawr, passing Cefn Du quarry network. Other slate quarries on the mountain are not passed.

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Hafod y Llan slate quarry

The quarry was also called Cwm Llan Quarry and South Snowdon Quarry.

The Watkin Path passes close to the old barracks. The large, ruined building further away is the old mill.

The quarry started in the first half of the 19^th century, the finished product being sent by a short tramway to the Cwm y Llan cart road and down to Nantgwynant, and then on to Porthmadog.

In the 1870s, with the likelihood of a railway coming from Beddgelert up the Nantgwynant, the quarry was developed considerably.

A major development was the construction of an imposing tramway system to carry the slates by wagon from the mill to the valley bottom. Additional to the inclines, there are small cuttings and high embankments. It was completed in 1874, superseding the use of the lower cart route (largely today’s path).

Developments at this time also included the extension and conversion of the water-powered mill to turbine operation.

Slate production did not reach anything like expected levels, nor was it of the expected quality. It closed in 1883.

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Glanrafon slate quarry

Glanrafon slate quarry, located between the Rhyd Ddu and Snowdon Ranger Paths, was the largest slate quarry on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, and the quarry remains can be clearly seen from both these paths, and also from the summit.

By 1882 the quarry employed 97 men, rising to some 250 men by the end of the century, at its peak.

As the main pit deepened, both slate and waste had to be lifted out of it – over 150 ft from the lowest floor – by use of a powered incline. As built, this was powered by a water turbine, then converted to a double-track water balance incline.

A separate waterwheel kept the pit pumped dry through the use of a pumping rod.

The quarry’s water supply was provided by the lakes of Cwm Treweunydd and, above that, Cwm Clogwyn, with the water carried on an overhead aqueduct to the central mill wheel.

The quarry closed in early 1915.  Since then, up to the 1950s. attempts were made to sell some of the useable slate waste.

A right of way through the quarry links the Snowdon Ranger and Rhyd Ddu paths.

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Copper mines

Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa has more old copper mines than slate quarries.

The earliest copper mine on the massif was the Llanberis mine, in the hillside just above Nant Peris.

The largest copper mine on Snowdon was the Snowdon/Britannia Mine above Glaslyn. (See that section.)

The second largest copper mine was Clogwyn (Coch) mine, located at the foot of Clogwyn Du’r Arddu.

Ore from the Clogwyn mine was hauled by horse-drawn sledge down what is today’s lower Llanberis Path, this being called “the Copper Sledge path-way” by early users of the path.

Bingley (1798) wrote of this “new sledgeway”, and Davis (1936) wrote that the grooves made by the sledges could still be seen on rocks above Halfway Bridge.

By 1830 the Clogwyn mine had five active levels, and was worked sporadically in the 19^th century.

It was once rumoured that Clogwyn Mine and the Britannia Mine had a connecting tunnel because they were at a similar altitude. One story tells specifically of three local lads who were lost in the mine in the 1930s, and came out three days later on the other side. However, exploration of both mines since closure has never revealed anything to confirm this.

Most of Snowdon’s copper was sent for smelting to Swansea, then later to St.  Helens.

There are old copper mines on the hillside in both directions from the top of the waterfalls on the Watkin Path. The old remains of buildings at the top of the waterfalls were a crushing mill for the three small copper mines in the area.

In time these small mines came under the same ownership.

A well-preserved small copper mine is located near Lliwedd Bach, reached up Cwm Merch from the lower Watkin Path.

Much of the iron waterwheel remains where it was too much trouble to recover it after closure.

Copper was, by far, the most exploited – and thus the most important – mineral mined on Snowdon, but it was by no means the only one. Aside from the fact that some copper mines also produced a little lead, other rocks and minerals, mined on a very much smaller scale, included hone stones (used for sharpening tools), chert (good for making sparks and fire), ochre (used for making a pigment for colouring), manganese (used in steel and aluminium production), calamine, and setts and cobblestones were dug out for paving roads.

In August 1888 the Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald reported that gold had been discovered in three locations near Llanberis, including Cwm Brwynog on Snowdon, but nothing more was ever heard about this.

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Britannia mine

Over the years, the copper mine above Glaslyn has changed hands at least 8 times and was known by as many different names. Often called the Snowdon Mine, today it is usually called the Britannia Mine, the name of the last successful company to run it (from 1898 until 1915, just before its closure).

It is believed to have been started in the 1760s, and was last worked in 1916.

The mine was worked on eight inter-connected levels. The tunnels ranged in length from 48 ft to 600 ft.

The copper from the Snowdon/Britannia mine by Glaslyn was originally carried up the Mule Track (the zig-zags) to Bwlch Glas, then down the Snowdon Ranger path on sledges.

A visitor in 1798 mentioned “small one-horse sledges,” while a later visitor in 1805 wrote that “these sledges, drawn by two horses will carry six hundred-weight.”

Before the use of ponies on the Mule Track, men carried the ore in bags up to Bwlch Glas on their shoulders.

In 1804 it was written that “Two Denbighshire gentlemen, who are also partners in this concern, have caused a pretty good mountain horse-path to be made from Gorphwysfa [Pen y Pass], beyond Llanberis, to the copper mine.” This was the origin of the Miners’ Track.

In the snowfalls of 1801, where drifts were in places up to 20 yards deep, tunnels had to be cut to get to the mine entrances.

The angled copper seams follow the lie of the land down into Glaslyn to where they join each other, and there was a scheme proposed 1873 to drain the lake so that these seams could be mined; it never happened.

Miners from Beddgelert who worked at the mine used to climb to work over Bwlch y Saethau, descending with the help of iron spikes and chains fixed to the rock. (Using the nearby Gribin ridge would have been safer!)

The open mine chasms which come to the surface and are seen from above the intersection on the Pyg Track are called gunnises. Other good examples can be seen above the Lliwedd Bach mine.

Flat-bottom boats were initially used on Glaslyn at this time, dragged across on ropes, but following sinkings in 1854, a tramway some 700 yards in length was built round the eastern shore of Glaslyn, linking the foot of the old mine incline to the crushing mill by the lake’s outflow.

The copper ore from this mine averaged between 7% – 8% pure copper; this low figure was quite normal for the industry.

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The old crusher by Glaslyn outflow

The ruined building at the outflow of Glaslyn was a crushing mill for the copper mine, built in the 1850s to replace the first mill at the foot of the mine site, then rebuilt in 1874 under new ownership (and subsequently replaced by the new crusher lower down by Llyn Llydaw).

This mill was fitted with 36 stamps (hammers, to crush the rock in order to extract the ore), together with a new overshot 33ft waterwheel.

This waterwheel was built in iron and wooden parts, then assembled on site, after transport from Pen y Pass.

Water was fed to the wheel in a wooden launder (trough), visible in old photographs.

On the other side of the path from the crushing mill are the remains of the company offices.

On the opposite shore of the lake, some 100 yards beyond the outflow, stands a small, isolated ruin – this is the former gunpowder store.

Today, the remains of both buildings can be seen clearly, though the rusted sluice and pipe which can also be seen today on the lip of the outflow were nothing to do with this, but for the later crusher by Llyn Llydaw.

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The old crusher by Llyn Llydaw

The old crusher on the shores of Llyn Llydaw was built in 1900, and replaced the one at the outflow of Glaslyn.

It is likely that cut stone for this came from both the former crusher and the former barracks, both are which today are ruins.

Water came from Glaslyn in a pipe (the remains and sluice can be seen at the outflow), and the 550-foot head of water turned a (Pelton wheel) turbine to produce electricity.

It is believed that in 1906, following the opening of Cwm Dyli power station, mains electricity took over.

The ore mined at Glaslyn reached the crushing mill on an aerial cableway. The remains of several stone stanchions can still be seen between Glaslyn and the crusher.

The ore entered the crusher at the top, whereafter it worked its way down through rollers, using gravity.

The ore was carried away from the crusher on carts along the Miners’ Track.

The Crushing Mill closed in 1916 due to falling copper production and falling prices.

The only remaining items of internal equipment visible today are the two ‘piano-like’ iron items in front of the building. They fell off the wagon when it was being cleared, and were not later collected.

The ruined building next to the old crusher was the quarry manager’s house and offices.

The waste crushed rock from the extraction process was dumped in the lake.

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Barracks

There are a number of old barracks on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa. Copper and slate workers who lived further afield, i.e. too far to walk daily, paid to stay in these during the week, often returning home to their families for the weekend.

There are former barracks by Llyn Teyrn (passed on the Miners’ Track). These date from 1840 but were abandoned after only a short while due to continual dampness.

The miners in the Teyrn barracks cut peat from the other side of the lake, a site still visible today and marked by a dark line.

The main barracks for the Glaslyn mine are at Glaslyn itself, today a ruin. These barracks were built in 1873 to replace earlier ones from 1853.

The barracks had steps down to the lake, so that the miners could get water, and the building was originally tarred on the outside, presumably a waterproofing feature. Cables also ran over the roof, held by iron stanchions, to secure the roof in times of storm.

Originally two storeys, little remains, although the former bread oven can still be seen.

The miners worked long hours for their low pay; in 1882 the average working week was of 78 hours.

Miners had to pay to stay in barracks on the mountain. The barracks had beds and furniture provided by the company.

The barracks were also the location for social gatherings, rather like the quarry ‘caban’. In February 1903, and again in 1904, it was reported that the workmen held “addresses, songs and recitations” in the Snowdon barracks, similar to the social events held in other quarry ‘cabanau’.

It is reported that at Glaslyn the men made a little extra money by selling cups of tea to passing visitors.

There are old mine barracks by Llyn Du’r Arddu serving the Clogwyn copper mine.

The barracks at Cwm Llan slate quarry are passed close to the Watkin Path.

There are also the remains of slate workers’ barracks at Bwlch Cwm Llan (at the foot of the South Ridge), and at Glanrafon and Cefn Du quarries.

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Cwm Dyli pipeline and power station

The pipeline from Llyn Llydaw to the Cwm Dyli hydro power station is 1¼ miles in length, and the upper part of it is passed on the Miners’ Track.

The visible part of the hydro-pipeline measures 1.2 miles.

Cwm Dyli power station was built in 1905/6 (commissioned in 1906) by the North Wales Power and Traction Co. Ltd., whose powers included building associated transmission lines covering an area of 2,100 square miles, i.e. most of North Wales. The intention was to supply electricity to slate quarries and mines, and indeed to electrify the Snowdon Mountain Railway and other railways.

At Llyn Llydaw a tunnel some 200 yds long was driven 30 feet below the normal water level, a shaft being provided in which was the 48-inch main sluice valve.

The water drops some 350 m (1,150 ft) from the intake at Llyn Llydaw down to the turbine, giving a pressure of some 500lbs per square inch.

As built, it was a double pipeline (of 30” and 27” diameter). Construction involved bringing the sections of pipeline up the Llanberis Pass with traction engines, then raising them up the mountain on water-powered inclines, employed hundreds of men, with many more engaged in erecting the transmission lines from the power station.

The power station was one of Britain’s first hydro stations, and was the first instance in Britain of the use of alternating current.

Due to its architecture, it acquired the name of ‘the chapel in the valley’.

In 1989/1990 the twin pipeline was renewed, despite opposition, with a single pipe of 4 ft diameter. The cost was £3.6m, which included replacing the turbine to increase productivity.

Burying the pipeline, a preferred option for many, would have cost an additional £2.5m, and rising. Thus, the pipeline was laid above-ground, as before.

The pipeline featured in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999), where it masqueraded as an oil pipeline in Azerbaijan.

Today the power station building is Grade II* Listed, awarded in 1998.

The listing recognizes its special interest as an early 20th-century power station of considerable architectural quality and its pioneering role in the history of British hydro-electric power.

It still provides power for the National Grid, making it one of the oldest Grid-connected hydro-electric stations in the world.

It is controlled remotely from Dolgarrog power station in the Conwy valley (some 11 miles to the north-east as the crow flies).

In 1949, stiff opposition defeated plans for another scheme, namely the British Electricity Authority’s Snowdonia Hydro-electric Scheme. In so far as the Snowdon Massif was concerned, this entailed: a power station in Cwm Llan, with water being fed from Glaslyn and Llydaw (raised to increase capacity, which would have put the causeway under water) via a pipeline under Y Lliwedd; a reservoir on the slopes of Yr Aran in the Nantgwynant; and a power station by Llyn Dinas, fed by water running along a new concrete-lined leat and tunnel above Rhyd Ddu.

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Bikes & motorbikes

Bikes

The first documented bike to be ridden up Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa was a penny-farthing, in 1884.

There are four bridleways on Snowdon, i.e. where bikes are permitted: the Llanberis Path, the Snowdon Ranger Path, the Rhyd Ddu Path, and the Miners’ track (the latter only as far as the old crushing mill by Llyn Llydaw). Maesgwm is also a bridleway.

Although the Rhyd Ddu Path is a bridleway, few bikes use it.

Due to the numbers of walkers, there is a voluntary ban on bikes between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. from 1^st May to 30^th September. This ban was introduced in 2003.

The section of the Snowdon Ranger Path below the Maesgwm turning is not covered by the ban, as neither is Maesgwm itself. Similarly, the lowest section of the Rhyd Ddu Path, below Pen ar Lôn, is exempt from the ban.

Over 2,500 bikes go up the Llanberis Path annually. A bike-sensitive counter is able to record them.

The most popular month for summiting Snowdon on a bike is October, once the ban has ended.

On the paths, walkers have priority over cyclists, who should slow down and give way to them.

The paths are rugged and many a biker has had to nurse a broken bike on the mountain.

In 2016, Richard Parks (the former Wales international rugby union player turned extreme endurance athlete and television presenter) biked to the summit of Snowdon, having set off in Cardiff, as part of his ‘Extreme Wales’ series.

Needless to say, a unicycle has been ridden up Snowdon.

Only bikes with pedal control are allowed on these bridleways. Bikes that are throttle-controlled are not.

Motorbikes

In 1912 the first ascent of Snowdon was made on a motorbike (up the Llanberis Path). It took 7 hours.

Two attempts were made over Easter 1914; an attempt on Good Friday took 3½ hours, and two riders on the Easter Monday reached the summit in 1½ hours.

A decade later, in May 1924, a 2¾ h.p. BSA motorbike was ridden to the summit in just over 24 minutes, averaging a little over 11mph. Three bikes reached the summit on that occasion, the others with slower times of 31 minutes and 41 minutes. BSA produced a great deal of publicity material from this.

In July 1926 three 172cc Francis-Barnett two-stroke bikes were ridden up in 22 minutes. This was the first ascent by small two-stroke machines. They followed the railway line, keeping “on the right-hand side of the metals”.

In June 1950 sixteen Birmingham motorcyclists set out to ascend Snowdon together; all but one, who experienced a burnt-out clutch, reached the summit.

In 1956 Len Arundale rode his two-stroke motorcycle ten times up and down Snowdon in a day (in 10½ hours).

All of these trackside attempts were made with the agreement of the railway company, who no longer permit such activity. Nor are motorbikes allowed on the footpaths today.

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Cars

In January 1904 Mr Harvey Du Cros attempted to drive to the summit up the railway track from Llanberis (with permission). This was not actually the wisest time of year, as he was to discover when he was prevented from going any further by snowdrifts some 6 or 7 feet deep which he encountered less than a mile from the summit.

His second attempt, in May 1904, was successful, he driving to the summit “with great skill” in a 15-h.p. four-cylinder Ariel. This ascent was also made on the permanent way of the railway from Llanberis and took 3 hours 35 minutes.

Du Cros chartered a train to follow him and the ascent was filmed. The car stopped several times to allow planking to be placed over the points at passing places, and also stopped three times to replenish the cooling-tank with water. The accompanying train brought the car down.

Du Cros’ record didn’t last long, for a fortnight later, in June 1904, Mr W. M. Letts of London reached the summit, again using the railway tracks, in an American 5 h.p. Oldsmobile. Excluding stoppages (for culverts, points, photographs and passing trains) his time was just 61 minutes.

Further ascents were reported in 1908; it was stated that “Mr Assheton Smith, of Vaynol Park, who owns the western slopes of Snowdon, and who is himself an ardent motorist, has already given his permission.”

Various further ascents were made in the 1920s, two of them taking the Llanberis Path rather than the railway line.

The most recent official attempt in a vehicle was in 1951 when twenty T.A. members (attached to the 21^st Special Air Service Regiment) drove an 11 h.p. utility wagon to the summit. They did not use the railway, and hauled the vehicle with ropes in boggy and rocky places.

Vehicles were banned from driving up after this, although during the construction of Hafod Eryri two JCBs were driven up to the summit as they were too wide to be transported on the railway’s largest wagon.

Smaller diggers are often used by the railway’s permanent way staff for various lineside tasks, but these will fit on a wagon.

In 1989 a group of soldiers took a Mini up to the summit in pieces, assembled it there, then briefly drove it about. (They did this with permission.)

In 2011 a man twice drove his vehicle (a 4×4 Vauxhall Frontera) up Snowdon and abandoned it at the summit. He got a 22-month jail sentence.

In 2017 a Hyundai KONA SUV was controversially driven up the Miners’ Track as far as Llyn Llydaw for a promotional TV event.

Remote-controlled model cars have been driven up Snowdon; the Llanberis Path is the best route for this, but the Pyg Track has also been attempted.

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Sherpa buses

The Sherpa bus service is not a recent innovation; it has been a feature of the Snowdonia / Eryri National Park since the 1970s.

The shuttle service was initially introduced to help alleviate parking problems, and to transport walkers to popular starting points for the paths around Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa.

In July 2022 the service was officially relaunched and rebranded by Transport for Wales and Gwynedd Council as ‘Sherpa’r Wyddfa‘. This relaunch involved improvements to the service, including new routes, increased frequency and a new brand identity.

The rebrand also offered better integration with rail and park & ride facilities.

Sherpa’r Wyddfa has been recognised in several transport awards since its relaunch, receiving accolades at the UK Transport Awards and the Bus Awards.

The Sherpa’r Wyddfa service is operated by Cyngor Gwynedd in partnership with Transport for Wales, Conwy County Borough Council and Eryri National Park.

Gwynfor Coaches has been the exclusive operator of the Sherpa network since January 2018.

The number of passengers carried by the Sherpa buses has nearly doubled since pre-Covid, and illegal parking has decreased.

The 2023/2024 figures show a 79% increase in users of the Sherpa service compared to pre-Covid levels.

During the summer of 2024, numbers reached record levels, with a total of 72,296 passengers using the Sherpa’r Wyddfa network in August alone.

Five routes are covered by the network of buses, namely S1 to S5.

The network of buses on these five routes not only covers the base of Snowdon, connecting key locations, car parks and walking paths, but also comes in from further afield from locations such as Bangor, Caernarfon, Betws-y‑Coed and Porthmadog.

Whilst those travelling on the Sherpas immediate to Snowdon are usually visitors and walkers, further out they are used a great deal by locals.

The service runs all year round, seven days a week, though runs to a reduced timetable in winter.

That said, whilst the Sherpa buses run on most bank holidays, they do not run on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day.

The only Sherpa bus that serves the Park & Ride all year round is the S1 (the Caernarfon to Betws y coed service). The S2 and S5 only serve it in high season.

The busiest services are the S1, S2 and S5 which cover Llanberis, Pen y Pass and the Park & Ride car park at Nant Peris (between Llanberis and Pen y Pass).

The paths most frequently served by the Sherpa service are the Pig Track and Miners’ Track  (followed by the Llanberis Path). These three paths combined take some 85% of all walkers on Snowdon.

Payment can be made by car or cash, and dogs are allowed on the buses. There is also room for a wheelchair.

A ticket called ‘1bws’ is the maximum charged, and also allows unlimited daily travel on any bus in north Wales.

Older people can use their bus passes on the Sherpas, but only if they are Welsh bus passes; English concessionary travel passes are not valid.

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Car parking

The National Park Authority has car parks at the bottom of all the main six paths apart from the Llanberis Path. (The bottom of the path is not in the National Park.)

Two parking systems operate at Pen-y-Pass, according to the time of year: online pre-booking operates in summer (Easter to early November), and Pay & Display operates in winter.

Pre-booking was first trialled in 2020 and has continued since then. (Pre-booking went hand in hand with the improvements to the Sherpa bus network.)

The introduction of the pre-booking system at Pen y Pass has significantly increased the use of the Park & Ride at Nant Peris.

The introduction of the pre-booking system at Pen y Pass has also significantly reduced illegal parking incidents in the area.

Despite being in its fifth year, about 80% of drivers who turn up at Pen y Pass have not pre-booked (and are consequently turned away, usually being directed to the Park & Ride at Nant Peris).

Over the winter (when it’s not pre-booking), a charge for overnight parking at Pen y Pass was introduced in 2018.

However, overnighting in vehicles is not permitted in SNPA car parks at any time of year; you can park overnight, but not sleep in your vehicle.

The 4-hour lower rate at Pen y Pass was ditched in 2018 as few people used it.

There is a size limit to vehicles parking at Pen y Pass. (Larger vehicles should use the Park & Ride car park.)

Profit from Pen y Pass car park goes towards path maintenance on the mountain. Income from the other SNPA car parks around Snowdon goes into the SNPA’s general coffers.

The Park also owns and runs the Park & Ride car park at Nant Peris, which is served by bus between Llanberis and Pen y Pass.

The road at Pen y Pass is a clearway, which continues for some distance in both directions, including the whole of the Penygwryd area.

As a clearway, cars parked there illegally frequently get ticketed.

Nant Peris Park & Ride and the Snowdon Ranger car park are currently the only car parks with electric car-charging points.

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Facilities

There are car parks at the bottom of all the main paths.

These are National Park Authority car parks except in the case of Llanberis, where there is no SNPA car park because Llanberis is not in the National Park.

However, there is plenty of other parking available in Llanberis.

There are toilets at the bottom of all the main paths except in Llanberis, as the Park Authority has no car park there.

There is, however, both car parking and toilets at the Park & Ride in Nant Peris.

The Park & Ride car park is just 3 miles (6 mins) from Pen y Pass and just over 2 miles (5 mins) from Llanberis.

The nearest places that refreshments can be bought at the foot of the main paths are:

• Pyg/Miners’ Track: at Pen y Pass (either in the café or the YHA)
• Llanberis Path: at the Snowdon Railway station (when trains are running) or in the village (½ mile away)
• Watkin Path: at the Gwynant café (100m from the path)
• Rhyd Ddu Path: at the Cwellyn Arms pub (⅓ mile from the car park)
• Snowdon Ranger Path: at the Cwellyn Arms pub in Rhyd Ddu (1½ miles away)

Taxis are commonly to be found at Pen y Pass and the Llanberis bus interchange.

All the main paths have the Sherpa buses calling by at bottom of the mountain.

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Communications

There are currently two mobile masts on the massif – at Rhyd Ddu and Pen y Pass (the latter not yet commissioned) – with more planned.

There is a mobile signal at the bottom of the Llanberis, Rhyd Ddu and Snowdon Ranger paths.

There is a mast at Pen y Pass but it is not yet operational. (However, there is Wi-fi by the building.)

There is no signal or Wi-fi at Pont Bethania, at the foot of the Watkin Path.

There is mobile phone reception at the summit – 4G and even 5G – though not in Hafod Eryri itself. (The building does have its own internal Wi-fi, but it is not for public use.)

Mobile reception on parts of the mountain is poor; the emergency services use their own TETRA network.

Because of its shape and location, Snowdon causes a “shadow” effect for radio and TV signals in parts of Gwynedd. Engineers had to install special relay transmitters just to get coverage into valleys tucked behind it.

In 1898, the telegraph route to the summit, used initially for the controlling of trains, was extended to public use. In the same year the section of this overhead pole wire from Clogwyn to the summit was placed underground.

In June 1935 an Ashton ‘cage aerial’ was fitted on the then-summit building, and in both June and July it was reported that ultra-short-wave radio tests on a low-power five-metre transmitter from the summit of Snowdon took place from 5 p.m. until midnight, and then at intervals until midday the following day. Radio operators as far as Bristol (130 miles) and Stoke Poges (160 miles) could hear the signal perfectly.

Cefn Du, the hill between Llanberis and Waunfawr on the northern edge of the Massif, was in 1914 the site of Marconi’s wireless transmitting station. On the west side of the hill, a little below the summit, stood ten 400 ft masts, and four years later this transmitting station sent the first wireless telegraph message to Australia. The station was in use until 1938 and was for many years the most important long-wave station in Britain. Much of the concrete-constructed complex and mast access tracks still survive.

In all, some 1,000 different postcard images were produced of Snowdon before the full-colour era, which began in the 1960s.

The first picture postcards of Snowdon date from about 1900. This period up to the First World War was very much a ‘golden age’ for postcards. Black and white images were hand-tinted in colour, usually to a high standard, though by 1930 hand-colouring was outlawed, licking oil-based paint on brushes having evident health dangers.

Black and white images were initially regarded as stark, so sepia colouring was used, before black and white images returned in the 1950s.

Since June 1987 the railway has periodically issued stamps which have been put on items posted. These were ordered in batches of 50,000 in June 1987, summer 1990, 1994, 1996 (marking the centenary), 1999 and 2003. They are simply decorative and have no value.

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Information

The National Park Authority had a large information van as long ago as in the 1970s.

Today the Park uses a VW Transporter van, purchased in 2017. It was branded in a modern style and fitted out accordingly, and entered service in the 2018 season.

This van can often be seen at the start of footpaths, where wardens can offer advice.

The police also have an information van with a large digital screen, which at busy times – such as bank holidays – can sometimes be seen at locations such as Pen y Pass, displaying the likes of the AdventureSmart message.

There are currently two outdoor touch-screen information boards: at the Park & Ride car park (Nant Peris) and at Pen y Pass.

The website https://snowdon.live gives live weather readings from the summit.

Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa is viewable on two live webcams: there is one at Dinorwig Lodge, and another on the National Park Authority building in Penrhyndeudraeth.

Fibre broadband to Halfway station (and the Halfway café) was laid in late 2022. In a highly publicised campaign, the intention was to ultimately take it to the summit, but it was only taken to Clogwyn, then removed back to Halfway. It also serves a couple of isolated properties in Cwm Brwynog.

Hafod Eryri, in its role as an interpretation centre, has a lot of information on offer.

A large map showing all the main paths on the mountain, with brief descriptions, is in the main lobby and rarely has people not looking at it.

All the main paths have information boards at the bottom of the path.

A board at the foot of the Pyg Track is used during the winter to give conditions on the mountain.

Over the winter season, in-depth ground conditions reports are published online twice a week.

On the mountain itself, wardens are an invaluable source of information on all aspects of the mountain.

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Wardens

Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa has a full-time Warden and Assistant Warden, employed by Snowdonia / Eryri National Park Authority.

During high season the full-time wardens are usually assisted by a paid Seasonal Warden or two.

The Snowdon Warden Service is run by the National Park Authority.

The Snowdon wardens’ office is at Pen y Pass.

A team of volunteer wardens works at weekends and on Wednesdays, patrolling the paths, engaging with the public and picking up litter. They often also man the information van.

The volunteer warden team was set up in 2014 by Helen Pye, who was the Head Warden on Snowdon at the time.

The main task of the volunteer wardens is to patrol the paths and to offer help, assistance and information where necessary; they have been described as ‘the friendly face of the mountain’. And while they patrol, they take the opportunity to pick up litter.

During 2024 on Yr Wyddfa, 47 volunteer wardens were on patrol for a total of 103 days, amounting to 4,338 hours, and are estimated to have advised over 4,000 visitors.

During 2025 on Yr Wyddfa, 43 volunteer wardens patrolled on a total of 95 days. In total, the paths were patrolled 299 times that season.

Volunteer wardens are encouraged to keep a current first aid certificate.

Wardens don’t have the authority to stop people going up the mountain when conditions are poor; they can only advise.

The full-time and seasonal warden staff have to be able to speak Welsh but volunteer wardens can be learners.

Former Snowdon warden Aled ‘Coch’ Taylor estimates that he reached the summit over 2,500 times; today wardens are not able to spend anywhere near as much time on the mountain itself and will only get to the summit on a handful of occasions annually.

The full-time wardens on Snowdon are in charge of a region much larger than just the Snowdon Massif itself; it extends, for instance, over the Glyderau to the north and to Beddgelert and Moel Hebog in the south.

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Other transport

Coach tours were popular in the 19^th century, with many running from popular centres such as Caernarfon and Llandudno. The opening of the road up the Llanberis Pass in 1831 offered stops in Llanberis. Many of these coaches were named (The Snowdon, The Tourist, The Snowdon Tourist, The Snowdonian Tourist, The Snowdon Ranger) and their timetable allowed passengers some six hours on the mountain.

As early as 1838 there were advertised trips by rail from England’s cities, to Liverpool, with a steamer bringing travellers to the Menai Straits, to pick up a carriage to Llanberis for an ascent of Snowdon. In 1845 Thomas Cooke (the same man who established the well-known travel agents) arranged a couple of such trips.

The Llanberis main line branch from Caernarfon opened in July in 1869 and visitor numbers increased greatly as the mountain could be reached from anywhere on the rail network in Britain.

The railway company was able to offer day trips to Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa from city centres such as Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. (These would have entailed changing at Caernarfon for Llanberis.)

Despite closure of the branch line in 1930 to regular passenger trains, summer excursions to Llanberis and Snowdon remained popular from coastal towns like Llandudno, Prestatyn and Rhyl.

The main line branch to Llanberis closed fully in 1964; the track was lifted in 1965.

The nearest main-line stations to Snowdon today are at Bangor and Betws y coed, which are both 11 miles away, or 25 minutes on the Sherpa bus.

In 1864 two men travelled from Birmingham to climb Snowdon – using train and coach – and returned the same day. (This was before the Llanberis main line branch was opened.)

Rhyd Ddu station (on the Welsh Highland Railway) was in 1893 renamed as ‘South Snowdon’ and a little later as ‘Snowdon’ in a blatant attempt to draw passengers.

Three of the six main paths cross a railway line at some point:  The Llanberis path passes under the Snowdon Mountain Railway twice; the Rhyd Ddu path crosses the Welsh Highland Railway at the bottom; and the Snowdon Ranger Path crosses the WHR at the bottom, and the Snowdon Railway at Bwlch Glas, near the summit.

In August 1857 an attempt was made to land a hot air balloon on the summit; it ended up in the Menai Straits.

There are taxi ranks at Nant Peris Park & Ride, Pen y Pass and Llanberis bus interchange.

Taxis do not wait at the foot of the Watkin Path, the Rhyd Ddu Path or the Snowdon Ranger Path.

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Search & rescue, and accidents

In 1959 a First Aid post was set up at the summit of Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, run by the Caernarvonshire branch of the British Red Cross Society; they attended a total of 427 casualties that year! Nothing more was reported.

There are 4 defibrillators on the mountain: at Pen y Pass, the summit, Halfway cafe (on the Llanberis Path), and Pen Ceunant café (on the Llanberis Path).

Mountain rescue in Britain largely originated on Snowdon. Throughout the second half of the 19^th century, climbers at both Gorphwysfa (Pen y Pass) and the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotels had been informally involved in rescue, and the latter was designated a Mountain Rescue Post from the early 1920s, going on to be an important base.

Llanberis Mountain Rescue team was formed in 1968 and formally recognised in 1973. Before the Llanberis team was established, the Ogwen Valley team also covered Snowdon.

Most call-outs on Snowdon are handled by the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team, which comprises some 50 members. The team is based in Nant Peris and is consistently the busiest single volunteer mountain rescue team in Britain (followed by the Ogwen team) despite covering geographically only a small area. Indeed, the team is possibly the busiest Mountain Rescue Team in the world.

Call-outs have increased steadily in recent years (though call-outs do not always result in full team deployments). 2023 reached 300 for the first time; in 2024, the team was called out to over 350 incidents; and 2025 call-outs reached 358.

The increase is also indicated by the fact that, on average, Llanberis team members attended twice as many incidents in 2023 as they did in 2015.

More than half of the people seeking assistance from the mountain rescue team are not injured in any way.

Rescues on Snowdon are sometimes assisted by the Aberglaslyn Mountain Rescue Team if there is an incident on that side of the mountain, or if a larger team is required. They are also sometimes assisted by the Ogwen team, though the latter’s primary area of operation is the surrounding mountain ranges such as the Glyderau (including Tryfan) and the Carneddau.

As part of mountain rescue, SARDA (the Search and Rescue Dogs Association) uses dogs to find missing persons. It is generally acknowledged that one dog on the ground can do the work of 20 searchers.

Funding of the mountain rescue team comes entirely from voluntary donations.

Over the years, the Snowdon team has been innovative in the design of stretchers, the use of rescue dogs, and in the use of software in locating lost people or identifying the exact location of a call.

SARLOC (location software) and SARCALL (an incident management platform) are complementary pieces of technology devised in 2009 and developed by members of the UK mountain rescue community (specifically the Ogwen Valley team in North Wales) to enhance Search and Rescue operations. (PhoneFind, developed  in collaboration with two Lake District team members, works in a similar way to SARLOC.)

Used by the Llanberis team, the first successful use of SARLOC was when a person reported being lost “somewhere on Snowdon”. The location was radioed to the helicopter crew, who were able to fly straight to the location. SARCALL is used by the police/rescue controllers to quickly alert, mobilise and manage rescue teams and log the entire incident.

In 2023 the deemed causes of accidents on Snowdon were held to be:

• Bad decision making                      28%
• Human error                                    26%
• Inexperience                                     24%
• Tired/fatigued/unfit                        17%
• Ignorance of pursuit                       17%
• Strong winds                                    8%
• Inadequate communication         7%
• Poor visibility                                    7%
• Heavy rainfall                                   5%
• Inadequate equipment                  4%
• High temperatures                          3%
• Snow                                                  2%
• Ice                                                       1%
• Inadequate footwear                     1%

The Llanberis team currently has 4 vehicles. Land Rovers can, if necessary be driven up to Crusher Corner on the Miners’ Track, for speedier access to the Pyg Track via the Stretcher Path (which also gives its name to Stretcher Corner).

If you need Mountain Rescue, you should dial 999/112 and ask for the Police, then Mountain Rescue. You will initially speak to a police operator who will then pass your information/details on to Mountain Rescue. Mountain Rescue will then shortly ring you back.

When necessary, the team makes additional use of the coastguard Search & Rescue helicopter.

The Snowdon Mountain Railway is sometimes able to help out with the carrying of injured people down the mountain.

Most call-outs happen at the weekend (48%) with Saturday being the busiest day (29%) due to it being the busiest day on the mountain, by far. It is not unusual to have several call-outs on a Saturday.

There is a consistent peak of call-outs at around 4pm.

Most injuries happen in the month of August (because it’s the busiest month on the mountain).

Most incidents take place around the summit, on higher sections of the popular routes, and in locations such as Crib Goch.

Of the main paths, the Llanberis Path is the biggest hotspot for call-outs. Year on year it has more call-outs than any other location. The Rhyd Ddu Path and the Snowdon Ranger Path have fewest call-outs.

The largest group needing assistance on the mountain are young adults, with more incidents involving men than women. (More men walk on Snowdon than women).

Walkers have more accidents than climbers or runners (because there’s a lot more of them).

A slip on something wet is the most common sort of accident.

It was once stated that 1 in 10,000 visitors to the National Park gets injured, according to statistics. The 2025 Management Plan states that Llanberis MRT rescues approximately 1 in every 1,000 Snowdon users.

The winter of 1950/51 proved the most fatal in Snowdon’s history. That Easter, nine people died on the mountain, and it was to acquire the name of ‘Black Easter’. By the end of the year, the death toll had risen to 14.

Snowdon has also seen drownings. A postman (returning from Britannia mine) and an army driver drowned after falling off the Causeway on the Miners’ Track. In 2025, two young women died in the pools on the Watkin Path.

The first documented death on Snowdon was in 1805 when John Closs, a 7-year-old boy, died of exposure after being caught in a snowstorm. He had disobeyed his mother and tried to return from Llyn Cwellyn to Nant Peris on his own.

Perhaps the most documented early death – and certainly the one most quoted by guides as a word of warning – was that of the Rev. Henry W. Starr in September 1846. He had walked from Llanberis to Llyn Cwellyn (via Bwlch Maesgwm), and was then advised by Robert Owen, guide and landlord of the inn there, not to go up to the summit without a guide in view of the poor conditions, but he insisted on the ascent, and was never seen again. Despite a £50 reward and 900 men from Dinorwig Quarry joining in the search, his body was not discovered until 9 months later.

In 2012 a stag group dressed in pyjamas went up in thunderstorm. They had no waterproofs, and only light footwear. Their inevitable rescue made the media, The Times commenting dryly that “they did not even have dressing gowns”.

In 2017 a man wearing only a flimsy Superman outfit had to be treated at the summit for hypothermia (and it wasn’t even winter).

Walkers have been known to suffer from hypothermia even in July.

The ‘Killer Convex’ was the name given to the convex slope on Allt Goch above Clogwyn Coch on the Llanberis Path. In previous winters it has been a real accident blackspot, with many sliding over the edge to their deaths.

In the 1970s there was even a suggestion of a safety net at the edge of Clogwyn Coch; it was not practical, and was not pursued.

More accidents happen on Snowdon than on Everest – by far.

One of the earliest recorded accidents occurred in the winter of 1804. A man named Howell Williams had been promised a jug of honey by a man who lived to the east of Snowdon, and Williams walked over Snowdon as a short cut, with two friends. Snow had previously fallen, and at one point, while “descending this precipice by a winding track, cut by the miners to bring the copper ore to the top” (i.e. the mule track), the snow “gave way under his feet” and “he was precipitated to the bottom, a distance of not less than 400 yards”. His friends were sure he had died, but they found him on his feet, uninjured, but mourning his broken jug.

AdventureSmart Wales (‘Mentro’n Gall Cymru’) was established in July 2017, largely building on the MountainSafe scheme, to promote safety in the mountains. It focuses on three basic questions before setting out: “Do I have the right gear?”; “Do I know what the weather will be like?”; and “Am I confident I have the knowledge and skills for the day?”

In 2012 blue marker plaques were placed on all stiles on Snowdon by the S.N.P.A. in collaboration with Llanberis Mountain Rescue team and the MountainSafe Partnership (now part of AdventureSmart) as a trial for other places in Snowdonia. These give a 6-figure grid reference for that location.

In September 1966 Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation, which had been formed two years previously, applied to put a radio mast, 20 ft high and 2 inches in diameter, on the summit of Snowdon. This mast would ensure radio communication in all areas of the National Park, but it was rejected by the Park Planning Committee on the grounds that it would spoil the natural beauty of the mountain.

The mountain rescue teams communicate with each other by means of the TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) network, the network used by all the emergency services, which offers excellent coverage where normal comms fail.

In October 2025, a memorial service was held in Nant Peris church, entitled Cysgod yr Wyddfa (‘In Yr Wyddfa’s Shadow’), to remember those who have died on Snowdon and the surrounding peaks.

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Helicopters

The most common helicopter seen over Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa is the Coastguard Search & Rescue helicopter.

The Search & Rescue helicopters in Britain are funded by central government, and are operated by the Bristow Group. They carry Bristow’s customary three colours of primarily red and white, with three thin blue stripes.

Today’s Sikorsky S-92A replaced the former ‘yellow budgie’ Sea King (which itself succeeded the Whirlwind and the Wessex). It has a lot more space inside than its predecessor.

The Sikorsky S-92A is defined as a twin-engine medium-lift helicopter. It has a loaded weight of 12 tonnes and measures 56 ft (17m) in length. It has a twin 300 ft. hoist on its starboard side.

The Sikorsky S-92A crew comprises a pilot, a co-pilot (the helicopter is dual-control), a winch operator and a winchman.

The Coastguard Search & Rescue flight which services Snowdon is codenamed Rescue #936. It operates from Caernarfon airport, just 8 minutes’ flight away. It covers not just the mountains, but also all of north Wales, extending into England, including sea areas.

The rescue helicopter can get from Snowdon to the nearest hospital (Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor) in less than 10 minutes.

Bristow operates two near-identical helicopters from Caernarfon: G-MCGJ and G-MCGK. In flight, they can be differentiated only by the lettering on their sides.

The Air Ambulance is a much smaller helicopter (an EC 135 painted in red with green decoration). The one serving the Snowdon area, with the callsign Helimed-61, is also currently based at Caernarfon airport.

Of Wales’ four regional ambulance helicopters, the North Wales aircraft flies the most missions.

The small black and yellow helicopter which is often seen is most likely from the Defence Flying School in Caernarfon, rather than the police, whose helicopter is similar.

There is a helicopter landing site at Pen y Pass, should a transfer of patients be necessary, though only small helicopters can use it.

The park authority occasionally also hires a helicopter to carry materials (such as heli-bags laden with rocks) up to sites where path maintenance or other work is being done. The company used is Airbourne Solutions in Bedfordshire, who specialise in this type of work.

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Aircraft

On 4 February 1943 (i.e. during WW2) a Lockheed Hudson flew into Llechog in cloud. There were no survivors.

On 31 July 1948 a De Havilland Mosquito from 502 Squadron disintegrated in cumulo-nimbus cloud and fell in lower Cwm Tregalan, near the Watkin Path.

In August 1952 a small aeroplane, an R.A.F. Avro Anson, flying from RAF Aldergrove (near Belfast) to RAF Llandow in South Wales, was blown off course, and in poor weather conditions hit Snowdon a little below the railway line at Red Rock bend on the slope of Clogwyn Coch, a little above Clogwyn Station. It skidded up onto the line and burst into flames, killing all three crew members. The plane narrowly missed a descending train carrying 60 passengers, and the wreckage blocked the line, which was damaged; the train pulled up just in time.

As a result of the above, Red Rock bend acquired the name of Tro Êroplên.

On 22 October 1972 a Piper Twin Comanche, flying from Southend to RAF Valley (on Anglesey), was caught in strong down-draughts after flying too low due to a navigation error. Despite warnings from RAF Valley, it crashed into the south face of Crib y Ddysgl at 3,000 ft. The crew of five was killed.

On 24 February 1942, an unmanned De Havilland Queen Bee – a pilotless radio-controlled target aircraft – hit Snowdon.

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Enforced overnighting

In the early days, overnighting in the summit huts in order to see the sunrise on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa was a common event. However, this was done by choice, though sometimes changes in the weather forced overnight stays.

In September 1903 bad weather forced a group of nine to stay over until the following afternoon, passing the night on chairs in the Summit Hotel. The manager of the railway took a special train up that evening to rescue them, but the passengers declined, “so great was the wind pressure.”

In July 1904 railway passengers at the summit were stranded by “a furious hurricane”. They were given the option of either walking down or remaining on the summit all night. Most chose to stay.

A succession of heavy snowfalls at Easter 1936 saw the summit hotel staff (manager, manageress and two waitresses) marooned there for eight days. They had to melt snow to make tea, and were eventually rescued only after their supply of coal ran out; even so, they had to walk three miles down through the snow.

In April 1950, five employees of the summit hotel were trapped there for five days by snowdrifts up to six feet deep, which covered the railway line for two miles. At one point one of the party, Hugh Owen, waded through deep snow to go down to meet a train at Clogwyn which was carrying bread and milk for them.

On Easter Sunday, 1951, a party of 21 was stranded overnight at the summit in blizzard conditions. This was during what became known as ‘Black Easter’ when there were numerous fatalities and accidents on Snowdon.

In August 1952, some 120 passengers were forced to overnight at the summit when a small plane crashed on the line near Clogwyn. Although the line was cleared fairly promptly, strong winds prevented the two trains above that point from descending.

After World War II, the summit building was initially left open in winter to provide shelter. However, vandalism in the winter of 1947 saw the interior of the building covered in a good depth of snow. Following repairs, access continued for another four years until 1951 when, following a particularly bad winter, it was much needed over Easter. However, following more serious vandalism in the spring of that same year, the practice ended for good. As with today, when the building was not open, it was locked and shuttered.

Having an open building at the summit in the winter is generally agreed not to be a good thing, for it can give a false sense of security. Walkers who get into difficulties near the summit may well be tempted to press on to the summit when the safer option may well be to turn back. People too may take fewer safety precautions or might attempt routes beyond their ability, thinking that there is shelter available if things go wrong.  (This argument has also been levelled against bothies in the mountains.)

Being unintentionally benighted on the mountain happens all too often, as the mountain rescue teams can testify to. Being benighted is usually a result of poor planning (often starting too late), inadequate equipment (no head torches, map, or compass), and a lack of awareness of how quickly conditions deteriorate on the high mountains once the sun sets.

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Protected status

In 1947 the Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa area was formally recommended for conservation, and four years later, in the year that the National Park was established, the Nature Conservancy registered it as a site of Special Scientific Interest under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act (1949).

The area surrounding the mountain, including its slopes, has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to its exceptional scientific and biological significance. This designation provides legal protection to the site, which is home to a variety of rare plant species, as well as unique and ecologically sensitive habitats.

Plans for making Snowdon a National Nature Reserve were first announced in 1962 by the Nature Conservancy, and in May 1963 it was announced that this would include 4,735 acres of mountain land,

Yr Wyddfa National Nature Reserve has nearly doubled in size since its early designation and now spans 1,677 hectares (nearly 17 km2 / 6.5 sq. miles) and is owned by three landowners, including the National Trust. The site supports a wide variety of habitats, reflecting the diverse altitude and terrain.

Yr Wyddfa National Nature Reserve supports over 15 protected species and habitats.

In very broad terms the NNR now comprises a triangle on the south-east corner of the mountain, cornered by Clogwyn Du’r Arddu, Penygwryd and Dinas Emrys; this includes the most important botanical sites of Clogwyn Du’r Arddu, Cwm Glas, Clogwyn y Garnedd and Cwm Dyli.

The NNR supports a wide variety of habitats, ranging from sheltered broadleaved woodlands and heathland on the lower slopes, to exposed ridges, summits and high cliffs.

Some 60% of the mountain is a protected conservation site.

Snowdon forms part of the Eryri Special Area of Conservation (SAC), a European designation within the Natura 2000 network of protected areas. This designation aims to safeguard critical mountain habitats and species, including those found in moorland and alpine ecosystems.

Some of these designated areas (the National Nature Reserve, the Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Areas of Conservation) overlap.

In the words of Harold Drasdo in a Climbing Club journal in 1998, “Snowdon is the hardest of hard cases”. Today it is the S.N.P.A. which has to perform this difficult balancing act, made all the more difficult by its statutory duties: the National Park Authority has a duty both “to protect and improve the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the national parks” and yet also “to promote opportunities to enjoy and understand the special qualities of those areas”.

Unavoidably, the second of the above aims can compromise the first. (To this end, the ‘Sandford Principle’ applies; this essentially states that where conflict between the two aims cannot be reconciled by skillful management, then conservation and protecting the environment should come first.)

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Wildlife

The lakes of Llyn Llydaw and Glaslyn have no fish in them; the high copper content makes it impossible for fish to live. Attempts have been made in the past to introduce trout, for fishing, but they never survived for long.

The largest mammals seen on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa are cows, sheep and goats. (For sheep and cattle, see the later section on ‘Farming’.) Mice have been seen at the summit.

Deer once could be found on the lower slopes of Snowdon. In the 16^th century, stags were to be found, and, being a ‘Royal Forest’ (a legal term – the ‘forest’ covered most of Caernarvonshire), warrants were issued for the killing of deer.

The goats found on the mountain are feral, and tend to roam on the east side of the mountain.

The goats are descendants of feral domestic goats, now adapted to mountain life.

On numerous occasions wild goats bleating on the upper slopes have triggered false alarms; they can sound uncannily like a person shouting for help.

‘Gruff’ was the name given to the goat with a gammy front leg who was often seen around Pen y Pass.

Snowdon hosts a diverse insect population, including approximately 50 species each of beetles, moths and spiders, along with various butterflies, grasshoppers, bees, wasps, ants and dragonflies.

Snowdon is home to the rare Snowdon Beetle, which is found only near the summit of Snowdon in the UK. (The entire rainbow beetle population can be found in the top 400 metres of the mountain – i.e. above about the level of Glaslyn or Llyn du’r Arddu.) It is black, but has rainbow colours on its back (hence it’s other name – the rainbow leaf beetle).

The Snowdon Beetle is a cold-adapted species, meaning it thrives in cooler, montane environments. Thus it is found in Eurasia, at locations over 600m above sea level, and these habitats include forests, woodlands, meadows, wastelands and montane grasslands. Snowdon is the furthest west that it is found.

However, the beetle is adversely affected by sheep grazing too early in the season, which causes the eggs it lays in June at the tips of blades of grass to be grazed. A project called Tlysau Mynydd Eryri (‘Mountain Jewels of Eryri’) is collaborating with a range of partners to trial areas that will remain free of sheep grazing for a short period—just long enough for the beetle’s eggs to hatch.

The beetle is a relatively small beetle, measuring about 5½ – 10mm in length, and females are generally larger than males. The adult Snowdon Beetle can be found from April to September.

Snowdon is one of the few places in the UK where Ashworth’s rustic moth can be seen.

The warmer weather, a consequence of climate change, has resulted in more butterflies on Snowdon, they being well-known indicators of environmental change.

Of the five lakes where the arctic pea clam (Pisidium conventus) can be found in Wales, three of them are on Snowdon.

The British mountain hare is not found on Snowdon. They were at one time introduced in Snowdonia but died out; however, there are ordinary brown hares.

Foxes can be seen on the lower slopes. In the 1830s a guide told the story of a Colonel who on horseback had followed a fox over the very summit of Snowdon without dismounting.

The Fox’s path by Crib Goch will have acquired its name from use by foxes.

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Birds

The commonest bird seen at the summit is the seagull, usually scavenging for food.

The largest birds seen on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa today are buzzards.

Other birds of prey occasionally seen include the peregrine falcon, kestrel, red kite and hen harrier.

There are no eagles left on Snowdon; there were once, and it is not impossible that they will return to Snowdonia, given the current success of breeding eagles in Scotland, after coming close to extinction. (Remember that the name ‘Eryri’ has nothing to do with eagles.)

Common large birds include ravens, carrion crows and choughs; the latter, with its distinctive call, favour nests in natural rock crags and in old quarry or mine workings.

Ravens are intelligent birds which sometimes perform acrobatic displays around the summit.

Ring ouzels are threatened mountain blackbirds that migrate from North Africa.

Common smaller birds include the wren, wheatear, pippit, cuckoo, curlew, pied wagtail and grey wagtail. Other seasonal birds include woodpigeons, thrushes, warblers, finches and rooks.

Birdlife was observed on the mountain during Covid lockdown, then afterwards:

In 2020, a significantly higher number of nests and breeding birds were seen on the paths compared to 2021 and 2022.

More individual birds were seen on the paths during 2020 compared to 2021 and 2022.

A greater variety of species was seen on the paths during 2020 compared to 2021 and 2022.

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Farming

Cattle were grazed on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa before sheep, which didn’t take over as the main farming livestock until the end of the 17^th century.

Stated over-simply, cottage life comprised of growing a few crops (often oats) lower down, keeping a couple of cattle near the cottage, and sheep which were kept low down in the winter, but sent higher up on the mountain for the rest of the year. Making life harder was the fact that sheep and cattle often wandered onto areas where crops were growing, the earth boundary walls being quite ineffective.

These farmers were tenants of the large landowners.

Snowdon remains a patchwork of upland farms, there being 26 farm holdings on the mountain today.

The lower slopes of Snowdon were once forested. The deliberate deforestation of the slopes hundreds of years ago (and also undertaken by Edward I) was originally to provide pasture for cattle, a process which started low down the mountain and worked upwards.

Today cattle are still kept for beef on some grassy, lower parts of the mountain (up to about 500m / 1,600 ft).

The cattle calendar is as follows:

• April            Spring calving season
• May/June         Cattle grazing on the mountain
• July             Summer calving season on the mountain
• September        Cattle are brought down to be put to the bull

The breed of sheep seen on the mountain today is the Welsh Mountain.

This is a hardy outdoor breed and one of the oldest sheep breeds in the world; references to the breed are found in literature from the Middle Ages.

All the lower slopes of the Snowdon Massif contain dozens of examples of ancient sheepfolds. A good example can be seen by Llyn Ffynnon y Gwas, passed on the Snowdon Ranger Path; this lake reputedly acquired its name (‘The Lake of the Servant’s Pool’) because a shepherd drowned in the lake while washing his master’s sheep. The map also labels a sheep fold and wash here.

There are also some good examples of sheepfolds on the slopes between Pen y Pass and Cwm Dyli.

It is true to say that sheep grazing has decimated the natural ecology. This can be seen in fenced-off areas where the sheep cannot graze.

On Hafod y Llan farm, the National Trust is investigating the managing of habitats in a beneficial way by combining sheep farming with conservation objectives. With the aid of dogs, sheep are regularly moved away from specific parts of the estate. It is recognised that small changes in livestock grazing, for instance, do have an effect on the landscape, but such changes are slow.

The sheep calendar on the mountain is roughly as follows:

• February          The ewes are scanned to see how many lambs they are carrying.
• April             Lambing season
• May               The ewes and lambs return to the mountain
• June              Hefting, when sheep learn their home range on the mountain and pass this knowledge on to their lambs.
• July              Sheep are gathered from the mountains for shearing, as their wool coats are too warm in the summer.
• October           The gather: Sheep are brought down from the mountain and dipped (to get rid of mites and other pests) and prepared for the rams.
• November          Rams are turned in with the ewes for the mating season.

In 1986 the explosion at Chernobyl nuclear power station, in the Ukraine, released radiation into the air, and a spell of wet weather meant that the soil in upland Snowdonia was contaminated for many years, the most noticeable impact being on the sale of lamb. It took a decade until controls were lifted from over 65 sq. km in the Snowdon area, sheep having to be tested for caesium.

On the National Trust’s Hafod y Llan estate, both Welsh black cattle and Welsh mountain sheep are managed for conservation.

In 1769 Sir James Bucknal Grimston was told by his guide that landlord Assheton Smith let out land “at 3d per acre, the whole at £59 per annum as sheep walks”.

In the past, peat was the most important of all the products dug from the mountain. Evidence of peat cutting – for fuel – can be seen in many locations in the wider area of Cwm Brwynog, including in Cwm Dwythwch, on the slopes of Moel Eilio, and near Capel Hebron.

At Llyn Teyrn the miners in the barracks cut peat from the other side of the lake, a site still visible today and marked by a dark line.

Peat was dug around June-time, then stored for some three months for burning as winter fuel (insufficient drying led to very smoky fires).  Peat was also burned in the summit huts for warmth.

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Plants

Many of the early ascents of Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa were by botanists. In 1726 Dr Richard Richardson compiled a list of places where plants could be found on Snowdon.

In the early days, plants were collected with no concern for their rarity; in August 1844 a man from Anglesey listed some 17 plants which had been “collected within a few yards of the summit of Snowdon”.

An advertisement in 1849 showed the hut owners assisting in removing plants and rocks from the summit:

“PERSONS DESIROUS OF COLLECTING PLANTS OR BRITISH FERNS AND EVERY SORT OF STONES OF DIFFERENT COLOURS FOR THE Purpose of making Monuments before Gentlemen’s Houses, may always be directed to the Places where they are to be found, by the said Philip Williams, as for Stones; and the said John Roberts, as to the Plants, &c.”

The presence of montane heath on Snowdon is rare in the UK. The key factors of high rainfall, exposure to Atlantic weather, and nutrient-poor acidic soils allow it to survive here when it doesn’t in other regions of similar altitude.

Due to their inaccessibility, it was reported in the 1970s that “no less than 150 different species of herb grow in the crevices of the cliffs overlooking Llyn Llydaw and Glaslyn.”

Today some 100 different types of wild flowers grow freely on Snowdon, from the lower meadows up to the higher slopes; natural grasslands provide a rich home for flowers and insects.

The most common plants on Snowdon are heather and bilberry; these hardy plants thrive in the acidic, rocky soil.

The “Snowdon hawkweed” (Hieracium snowdoniense) is a critically endangered plant that is native only to the Snowdonia area of Wales. However, whilst it is named after Snowdon, it doesn’t grow on the mountain itself; the only known wild population is located on a steep, inaccessible cliff face in Cwm Idwal National Nature Reserve. Once thought to be extinct due to overgrazing by sheep, it was rediscovered in 2002.

Grass grows right up to the summit, although it is more moss than grass.

The ancient woodlands that the National Trust cares for in Nantgwynant are internationally important as a key fragment of Wales’ temperate rainforest.

The dog violet and cuckoo flower, whilst by no means uncommon, now grow just 3 inches from the Pyg track as a consequence of good footpath management.

Arctic-alpine plants

Even at the height of the last ice age, some plant life existed on Snowdon; these were lichens, algae and mosses, and would have been present on exposed rock, and possibly plants such as horsetails and ferns – even flowering plants – grew where the soil was not frozen for at least a part of the year.

Snowdon is home to a number of rare arctic-alpine plants which have survived since the last ice age.

Many of these plants are found on high, more inaccessible north-facing cliffs and ledges, which offer a cooler, damper environment and protection from grazing animals.

It is the calcium-rich rock (c.f. fossil shells) which encourage the growth of these Arctic-alpine plants.

These arctic-alpine plants are one of the most important features of Snowdon National Nature Reserve, and a key part of the unique biodiversity that has led to the mountain’s designation as a Special Area of Conservation.

John Ray is widely regarded as one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists; he visited Snowdon in 1658.

The rare Snowdon Lily  (Lili’r Wyddfa) – a hardy Arctic–alpine flowering plant of the lily family – was first discovered in 1682 by Edward Lhuyd (often anglicised as ‘Lloyd’). All the more impressive was the fact that the plant was not even in flower at the time.

Its Latin name is Gagea serotina or Lloydia serotina.

The Snowdon Lily is notably found on Clogwyn Du’r Arddu and on Clogwyn y Garnedd.

The Snowdon Lily is only about 4” tall (10–12cm) and flowers from late May to early July; its six white petals have a diameter only a little larger than a 1p piece.

When not in flower, for the rest of the year the Snowdon Lily is visible only as long, curving, stiff, grass-like leaves, which makes it hard to spot.

The Snowdon Lily is not unique to Snowdon; however, Snowdonia is the only place in Britain where it grows. It is estimated that there are about 100 samples in the whole of Snowdonia.

The Snowdon Lily grows in other countries: it is widespread across the mountainous parts of western North America, and in Europe it is found in the Alps and the Carpathians. It is also native to much of Central Asia.

Moss campion (Silene acaulis) is a true alpine species and grows on Snowdon and in the wider Snowdonia mountain range. This plant forms a dense, cushion-like mat to protect itself from the wind and cold. It is known for its bright pink flowers that cover the cushions in the summer.

Alpine meadow-grass (Poa alpina) is an arctic-alpine plant, being a high-altitude grass species that is well-adapted to the rocky, nutrient-poor soils of the mountain. It grows on Snowdon and elsewhere in Eryri.

Alpine saxifrage (Saxifraga nivalis), Tufted saxifrage (Saxifraga cespitosa) and Purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) are common finds on the mountain’s rocky ledges. The purple saxifrage is known for its beautiful flowers that bloom early in the year, being one of the first alpine plants to flower.

Starry saxifrage and purple saxifrage grow as high as the summit cairn itself, though are missed by most visitors.

Alpine woodsia (Woodsia alpina) is a rare fern species that thrives in the high-altitude crevices of the mountain.

Alpine bistort (Bistorta vivipara) is an arctic-alpine perennial herb that thrives in the UK on mountains in damp grassland or ledges.

Hollyfern (Polystichum lonchitis) is another of the rare arctic-alpine plants that are found on the high-altitude, base-rich cliffs and ledges of Snowdon and Eryri.

The BMC gives advice on climbing and protecting rare plants and fragile habitats, and modern technology (sensor probes with telemetry) allows climbers to know when the ground is frozen; an ice-axe will otherwise dig out rare roots from non-frozen ground.

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Climbing

The first climbers on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa were guides and botanists, their aim being to reach places where rare plants grew.

Not until the latter 19^th century did people start climbing for pleasure, rather than for botanical or geological research.

The first documented climb was in 1798 on Clogwyn Du’r Arddu, by botanists the Reverend William Bingley and the Reverend Peter Bailey Williams. Their route, up what was later named the Eastern Terrace, is a ‘moderate’ climb according to the first climbing guides, and ‘easy’ by today’s gradings; some would even define it as essentially a scramble.

Despite being the first documented climb, Bingley wrote that others had clearly been there before them, and that it was the difficulty and danger of descending which ultimately made them continue upwards to the top.

Roped climbing on Snowdon was first mentioned in 1880, simply to tie climbers together; belaying was not practised at this time.

The popular climbing cliff of Clogwyn Du’r Arddu is more commonly known as ‘Cloggy’. It can be viewed best from Allt Moses on the Llanberis Path.

A National Park leaflet once described Cloggy as “probably the most difficult rock-climbing crag in Wales”.

Cloggy was the first rock-climbing cliff to have a whole book devoted to it; The Black Cliff cost £2.55 when first published in 1971.

The cliff is broken into several large buttresses, most notably: East Buttress, The Pinnacle (above the East Buttress), West Buttress, and Far West Buttress.

Cloggy is today divided into 8 main climbing areas and has over 200 listed climbs on it.

The cliff’s circa 300 metres (980 ft) in height and mountain elevation, combined with the steepness and quality of rock, reportedly gives it the feel of a face on an alpine mountain.

Perhaps the best-known climbs in Cwm Glas, on the north side of Crib y Ddysgl, are on Clogwyn y Person Arête (the ‘Parson’s Cliff’), and the Parson’s Nose. This spur of Crib y Ddysgl projects out between Llyn Bach and Llyn Glas. The plant-collecting parson in question, reportedly the first to climb it, dates from the 1840s.

The Parson’s Nose is a specific climb, often graded as a ‘Diff’ (Difficult) rock climb or a Grade 3 scramble. Clogwyn y Person Arete is the longer, broader ridge scramble that continues after The Parson’s Nose.

In 1872 the first documented attempt on Y Lliwedd’s North Face was made; 1883 saw the first successful ascent of the North Face, via the West Buttress. The following year it was climbed again by a different route.

Y Lliwedd has many named climbs on its north face, such as Far East Buttress, East Buttress, West Buttress and Slanting Buttress.

A 1909 Y Lliwedd was the subject of the first British climbing guide with route descriptions; the publication, simply called ‘Lliwedd’, contained 36 routes. The updated 1939 publication contained 80 routes.

At the foot of Y Lliwedd there used to be a memorial cross of Sicilian marble, which stood 5 ft 8 in high (1.73m) and weighed 15 cwt. It was erected at the foot of Central Gully in 1888 to commemorate a climber who fell and died at that spot.

The memorial was destroyed in a rock avalanche four years later, and was re-erected a little further away. Reportedly “the highest monument of its kind in the Kingdom”, the cross was marked on the 6-inch O.S. map as “marble cross” from 1889 up to the 1950s. The base is still extant today.

Trinity Face, on Clogwyn y Garnedd, the summit’s western face, has many climbs on it, such as (from east to west) Great Gully, Little Gully, Left-hand Trinity, Central Trinity, Trinity Butress and Right-hand Trinity.

Snowdon has an Everest connection: In the early 1950s, the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel was used as a training base by Sir John Hunt’s successful Everest team; this included climbing on Clogwyn Du’r Arddu and testing breathing apparatus and experimenting on Y Lliwedd with the carrying frame for the oxygen apparatus.

In 1953, climbers at Penygwryd, having just toasted the Queen at midnight, heard the news about Everest some hour later, so they  ascended Snowdon and drank a toast at the summit. A telegram was sent to the Queen with the words, “With humble duty. A large gathering of mountaineers assembled at dawn on this your Coronation Day, send greetings from the summit of Snowdon!”

Following the conquest of Everest on May 29, 1953, in the October of that year, ten of the team, including John Hunt and Sir Edmund Hillary, returned to Snowdon for some climbing.

Reunions were held at Penygwryd in 1973 and 1978; on the latter date some members of the team, including Lord Hunt and Sir Edmund Hillary, met for a 25th year commemorative climb of the Snowdon Horseshoe.

Today the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel is noted for its climbing artifacts and Everest memorabilia.

The Climbers’ Club was constituted in 1898 and had its origins on Snowdon, notably the both Pen-y-Gwryd and Gorphwysfa Hotels, but didn’t allow women.

The Pinnacle Club, for women, was established in 1921.

George Mallory, who died in his 1924 Everest attempt, was no stranger to Snowdon; he honed his climbing skills here. A climb on Y Lliwedd – ‘Mallory’s Pipe’ – was named after him when in 1908 he left his pipe on a ledge and climbed down an overhanging slab to retrieve it. It was described at the time as “totally impossible”. The climb is now called ‘Mallory’s Slab’.

A summary of good climbing areas on the mountain could be given as follows: Clogwyn Du’r Arddu, Clogwyn y Ddysgl, Craig Aderyn, Craig y Rhaeadr, Crib Goch, Dinas Mot, Gyrn Las, Llechog and Y Lliwedd.

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Royalty

King Edward I partly ascended Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa in 1284. Following his conquest of Wales, it is recorded that, “He held a triumphal fair upon this, our chief of mountains”. Elsewhere we are told that he “ascended the lofty Snowdon, for the purpose of viewing his hard-earned dominions”.

That Edward should have done this is not surprising. This was the mountain stronghold which for centuries had thwarted English dominance, and it was to here that both Llywelyn Fawr (The Great) and Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf (The Last) had earlier retreated, and to where Owain Glyndŵr was to do the same, a century or so later, to escape the vengeance of Henry IV.

Both Llywelyn Fawr and Llywelyn the Last were styled ‘Lord of Snowdon(ia)’.

Moel Cynghorion (‘The Mountain of Councillors’) is reputedly so named because it was here, during the reign of Edward I, that the Welsh Princes held their councils.

In 1832 it was planned that Princess Victoria, aged 13 at the time, would visit Llanberis, staying at the newly built Victoria Hotel. However, on the day in question she was “indisposed on account of the fatigues of the preceding day”, and she was advised to stay home at their temporary residence (Plas Newydd on Anglesey). Thus, she never showed up, although the rest of her entourage – including the Duchess of Kent, her mother – was there.

A great many newspapers reported that the Princess stayed at Llanberis, some even reporting that she ventured part way up Snowdon. Despite her absence, the hotel was still renamed the ‘Royal Victoria’. (Victoria did subsequently return to Llanberis, as Queen, when she visited North Wales in 1852 and 1853.)

Prince Arthur (7^th child of Queen Victoria) ascended in 1863, aged 13.

King Charles has been to the summit of Snowdon twice – both when he was the Prince of Wales. He first ascended in 1969, a month prior to his Investiture as Prince of Wales. Then in 1976, as Colonel of the Welsh Guards, he went by train to Clogwyn with 30 members of the British Limbless Ex-Service Men’s Assoc., then walked to the summit to show what could be achieved with artificial legs.

Prince Charles once called the former summit building, built in the 1930s, ‘the highest slum in Wales’. (Some equally reputable sources say that he said “in Britain”. Despite enquiries, his comment was not part of a written speech, so the wording cannot be confirmed.)

Many bonfires were held at the summit to celebrate royal jubilees, etc. The first recorded celebratory bonfire was in 1773 to celebrate the coming of age of Lord Viscount Bulkeley, of the Baron Hill Estate, which included a large part of Snowdon. They then became a fairly regular occurrence after 1832, when a bonfire celebrated the Duchess of Kent’s visit with the young Princess Victoria.

There were huge bonfires at the summit in 1863 to celebrate the marriage of Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, and in 1887 and 1897 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s golden and diamond jubilees.

The bonfire in 1863, mentioned above, employed some dozen ponies in carrying 16 barrels of pitch and about 60 empty casks to the summit. Unfortunately, there was low cloud when the bonfire was lit, so “the effect was not so brilliant as it otherwise would have been.”

These bonfires were not held on the actual summit as it would have endangered the wooden summit huts.

On more than one occasion, a bonfire prepared at the summit was maliciously set alight before time, and had to be rebuilt.

Bonfires were occasionally accompanied by fireworks. The first recorded instance was in 1886 to celebrate the Prince of Wales’ wedding day, when “a grand pyrotechnical display” was seen.

(On the Prince of Wales’s wedding day, a pony cart was sent up Snowdon loaded with fireworks to let off on the top; the poor animal went too near the edge, and, falling over, was killed.)

There were also fireworks in 1893, when Sir Edward Watkin (whose path had opened the previous year) supplied fireworks to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. There were also fireworks at the summit in 1900, again to celebrate the Queen’s birthday.

When Prince Charles married Lady Diana in 1981 a gas fire was lit by Clogwyn station (bonfires no longer being held at the summit).

A gas beacon was lit at the summit in June 2022 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee.

In the 1950s Princess Alice, the longest surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria, travelled to the summit by train with her husband, the Earl of Athlone.

The title of Earl of Snowdon was first created and conferred on Antony Armstrong-Jones, when he married Princess Margaret (who became the Countess of Snowdon), the Queen’s sister, in 1960. (This was the first royal wedding to be broadcast on television.)

As 1^st Earl of Snowdon, Armstrong-Jones was commonly known as Lord Snowdon.

Lord Snowdon “and his heirs in perpetuity” are entitled to lifetime free travel on the railway up and down the mountain.

Lord Snowdon rode the train to the summit in 1967, and promptly wrote to the railway company to complain of the ‘unsightly’ building at the summit. The railway responded that no one else had complained.

In 1999 he was created Baron Armstrong-Jones, and from this time, his son, David (a nephew and godson of the late Queen Elizabeth II and a first cousin of King Charles III), styled as Viscount Linley until 2017 when his father died, has been 2^nd Earl of Snowdon. His son, Charles, is heir to the title.

The title of Baron Snowdon dates from 1726, when it was conferred (along with the Dukedom of Edinburgh) on Prince Frederick Louis, grandson of George I and future Prince of Wales. After Frederick’s death, the title was inherited by his eldest son, Prince George, from 1751. When he acceded as George III in 1760 the title merged in the Crown.

The only reigning king ever to have walked/ridden to the summit was the King of Saxony in July 1844.

In July 1828, a German nobleman, Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, ascended Snowdon with a bottle of champagne. (Whilst novel at the time, this is by no means unusual today.)

Princess Gwenllian, the daughter of Llywelyn the Last (Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf), the last native Prince of Wales, is remembered on a plaque on the side of the summit cairn, even though she has no direct connection with Snowdon.

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Famous people

J.M.W. Turner, the famous landscape painter, painted ‘Snowdon from Llyn Nantlle’ around 1799.

The only British Prime Minister known to have walked to the summit was Whig Prime Minister Lord John Russell. In September 1851 he ascended via the Llanberis Path with his wife and family, as part of a five-day stay at the Royal Victoria Hotel.

Prime Minister William E. Gladstone officially opened the Watkin Path in 1892. However, poor weather prevented most of the party (who anyway were on ponies) from getting any further than Bwlch y Saethau.

1n 1998 Sir Anthony Hopkins, the Welsh actor, donated £1m towards the National Trust’s purchase of the Hafod y Llan Estate.

In 2003, Bryn Terfel, the bass-baritone singer sang ‘My Little Welsh Home’ at Bwlch Glas, accompanied by a grand piano which had been brought up by train. This was for a BBC2 Wales programme called ‘Bryn Terfel’s Snowdonia: Closer to Home’.

In September 2006, Carwyn Jones, Wales’ First Minister, travelled up by train and signalled the official start of the demolition of the old building by wielding a club hammer.

-In 2009, Rhodri Morgan, Wales’ First Minister at the time, officially opened Hafod Eryri. He had walked up from Pen y Pass, regarding it as an excellent way to test his fitness after an earlier heart problem.

In June 2019, ten years after its opening, a small stainless steel plaque was unveiled inside the building by Mark Drakeford, Wales’ First Minister.

Mike Peters of The Alarm initiated his annual ‘Snowdon Rocks’ cancer charity event in 2007, and walked up (and played at Halfway and at the summit) for many consecutive years.

In 2012 the Olympic flame was carried to the summit of Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) by mountaineer Chris Bonnington. (This ‘spur’ to the main torch route saw the flame carried in a miner’s lamp on the Snowdon Mountain Railway, before being carried to the very summit.)

On 22 August 2012, a flame was lit at the top of Snowdon (and the other of the UK’s highest peaks) as part of the Paralympic Games. Lord Coe walked to the summit with a group of scouts, where they used a ferrocerium rod, striking it against a rough steel surface to create a spark and kindle the flame.

Between 2013 and 2018 four famous Welsh people had carriages on the Snowdon Mountain Railway named after them, namely: Sir David Brailsford CBE, Bryn Terfel CBE, Katherine Jenkins OBE and Dame Shirley Bassey DBE. They all attended their respective naming ceremonies at Llanberis station. (The ‘Terfel’ carriage was named in 2014; he was knighted in 2017.)

Television and radio presenters are often to be seen on the mountain. (See the later section on film, TV and radio.)

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Writers and poets

Many Victorian writers thought that the difficulty of ascending Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa had been much exaggerated and that it was “really nothing more than what any person, who has good health, and is accustomed to regular moderate exercise, may without fear or hesitation undertake.”

George Borrow, in his 1862 travelogue ‘Wild Wales’, described Snowdon as “a mountain full of ghosts”.

Dafydd Ddu Hiraddug wrote of Snowdon in the 14^th century.

In the early 15^th century, bard Rhys Goch Eryri wrote of Snowdon.

Around the mid-15^th century, Robin Ddu of Anglesey wrote a poem entitled ‘Yr Wyddfa’.

William Wordsworth ascended on the Beddgelert Path one “breezeless summer night” in 1793, intent on seeing the dawn. The poem he subsequently wrote was given pride of place at the very end of The Prelude, his autobiographical poem written from 1799 to 1805.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge took the same route the following year, at 11:00 on a wet and stormy night, hoping that it would be fine in the morning. However, when morning came, he “could see nothing but the impenetrable clouds”, so wrote nothing.

In 1809 The North Wales Gazette published a Welsh poem by Jack Glan y Gors, “Composed on the Summit of Snowdon, Aug, 10th 1809”.

Richard Llwyd (1752 – 1835) was known as ‘The Bard of Snowdon’. Born in Biwmaris, he was a Welsh author, poet and expert on Welsh heraldry and genealogy.

Snowdon is counted as one of the Seven Wonders of Wales (all are in north Wales), commemorated in an anonymously written rhyme, dating, it is believed, from the late 18^th or early 19^th century:

Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham steeple,

Snowdon’s mountain without its people,

Overton yew trees, St Winefride’s well,

Llangollen bridge and Gresford bells.

For 15 years following the opening of Hafod Eryri in 2009, the large windows featured a bilingual poem etched on the glass and written by Gwyn Thomas, the then-National Poet of Wales. This poem has now gone, but the words on the granite outside the main entrance, a line from the poem, remain.

Ifor ap Glyn, National Poet of Wales 2016 – 2022, wrote a poem entitled ‘The Summit of Snowdon’ which reflects personal, familial, landscape and legend connections.

Fictional works featuring Snowdon include School under Snowdon by Mabel Esther Allan (1950), Death under Snowdon by Glyn Carr (2007) and Let’s Catch: Snowdon by N.J. Hill (2018).

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Access & accessibility

The National Park Authority could never charge walkers to use the paths on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa – unless there was a change in the law – because they are Public Rights of Way.

Nevertheless, the idea of charging people to walk on Snowdon was mooted in 1975, when, following the Manassey Report, the Countryside Commission asked the Park Authority to give its blessing to such a scheme, in order to fund the path maintenance work highlighted in the report. Nothing came of it.

Charging has raised its head at regular intervals since then, and was most recently rejected in 2018 by the Snowdon Partnership as being too difficult to police.

Virtually all of Snowdon is private land, with the main paths following public rights of way across it.

As Rights of Way, the paths on Snowdon are open 24/7.

Much of Snowdon is designated as Open Access land; the right to access this land is called the ‘right to roam’, or ‘freedom to roam’, and walking, running, watching wildlife and climbing are permitted.

Those areas excluded from Open Access land (because of their low altitude) include the lower part of the Llanberis Path and parts of Cwm Brwynog, and the lower part of the Ranger Path and the lower part of the Watkin Path.

However, despite the right to roam, within the National Nature Reserve walkers should keep to the paths to protect flora. Also, because of the huge numbers of walkers and problems with erosion, it is better (and easier) if walkers keep to the paths. There are also many places where straying from the actual path would be dangerous.

Without the landowner’s permission, the following are not allowed on Access Land: cycling or horse riding (off the bridleway); water sports, including swimming; hang-gliding or paragliding; driving a motorised vehicle; lighting fires or camping; shooting; foraging or picking flowers; using a metal detector; taking part in organised games or commercial activities; interfering with activities of farmers or other landowners.

Although the railway line passes through Open Access land, walking along it is not allowed; this is private ‘excepted land’ as it is not open countryside.

Snowdon was closed to walkers during the Covid-19 pandemic; initially all access was closed for nearly 10 weeks (as at other busy mountain locations), until restrictions eased.

The paths on Snowdon had been closed to the public before Covid, namely during Foot & Mouth in 1957, 1967 and 2001. On that last occasion, the mountain was totally closed to the public for some seven weeks from 27 February to 18 April, after which disinfection mats were put down.

Wheelchairs can use any of the paths; however, only the Miners’ Track up to Llyn Llydaw is regarded as wheelchair-friendly.

Mobility scooters or powered wheelchairs can legally use any bridleway, though options on Snowdon are limited.

The ‘Tramper’ is a specially designed, all-terrain mobility scooter which can be hired for use on the Miners’ Track as far as Llyn Llydaw.

There are three short tarmac sections above Llyn Teyrn on the Miners’ track; this was done to aid wheelchairs, but was criticised by some at the time.

The diesel-hauled carriages on the railway have room for one wheelchair user.

There is a lift in Hafod Eryri to get wheelchairs from the platform into the building (which is 5 steps and 80cm higher), but they cannot get up to the summit itself.

Every year an annual event – called the Snowdon Push – sees teams of volunteers taking a wheelchair-bound person to the summit and back. This is a timed race, and calls for ingenuity in design, with a mixture of pulling and pushing.

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Races, records & challenges

In July 1895 the South Wales Daily News reported that Ted Bittersby, a Liverpool athlete, ran to the summit of Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa from Llanberis in 53 minutes, then back down again in 38 minutes. Having arrived at Llanberis from Liverpool by bike, he simply remounted and cycled home!

In September 1895 it was reported that Alan Twentyman, accompanied by guide Robert Pritchard had made the ascent in 1hr 13 mins, and the descent – after a 35-minute break – in 48 minutes.

The route of these two ascents was not recorded.

In June 1951 it was reported that two Yorkshiremen ran together down the railway track from the summit to Llanberis in just 28 minutes.

The first organised race up Snowdon was in 1903. The route followed the Beddgelert Path (i.e. largely the Rhyd Ddu Path), starting from Beddgelert. Eight runners took part.

The official International Snowdon Race (Ras yr Wyddfa) started in 1976. 86 runners took part.

The Snowdon Race starts in Llanberis and follows the Llanberis Path to the summit and back.

The runners in the Snowdon Race do not go up the summit steps to the pillar itself but turn round at the foot of the summit cairn on a mat, with live GPS telemetry recording all the necessary data.

The record time for the Snowdon Race stands at 1:02:29, set by Kenny Stuart in 1985. The women’s record stands at 1:12:48, set by Carol Greenwood in 1993.

The Snowdon Race is filmed for TV, and is usually broadcast on S4C the following day.

The record time for just an ascent in the Snowdon Race was also set in 1985 by Robin Bryson; he reached the summit in 39 minutes and 47 seconds. This was during the same race where Kenny Stuart set the overall record, but Bryson reached the summit 10 seconds before Stuart. Bryson pushed the pace hard on the way up, leading for much of the climb, and his ascent time has not been beaten since.

The first recorded full traverse of the Snowdon Horseshoe was in 1847, by Mr C. A. O. Baumgartner.

The record for the Snowdon Horseshoe, starting and finishing at Pen y Pass is 1 hr 10 mins by Tony Moulam (unconfirmed), and 1 hr 20 mins 16 secs by Finlay Wild in 2019 (confirmed).

In total a dozen runners have run it in under 2 hours. The women’s record stands at 1 hr 43 minutes, by Sarah Ridgeway.

The Snowdon 24 race sees individuals or relay teams running up and down the Llanberis Path as many times as possible in 24 hours. The individual record is 9 times (for a male) and 8 times (for a female).

The route of the Snowdon Bike Race, which first took place in 1958 and became an annual event in the 1970s and early 1980s, was the Snowdon Horseshoe!  (The race started and finished at Pen y Pass. The bike was carried in pieces by 3 team members, and had to be in an assembled and rideable state at the start of the race, at the summit, and at the finishing line.)

The Snowdonia Marathon / Marathon Eryri has been run since 1982; it was formerly known as the Snowdon Marathon. It does not go up Snowdon itself, but comprises a clockwise circuit of the Snowdon Massif, measuring a standard 26.2 miles, most of it on tarmac.

The route of the Snowdonia Marathon is broadly from Llanberis, up the pass to Penygwryd, down to Beddgelert, up to Waunfawr, then over Bwlch y Groes back to Llanberis.

The Snowdonia Marathon has several times been voted the best UK marathon by Runner’s World Magazine.

The record time for the Snowdonia Marathon is 2hr 28m 14s, set in 2024.

Snowdon, together with Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike, make up the National Three Peaks challenge.

For most people tackling the Three Peaks, Snowdon is usually done last. (This largely reflects where people live; those living in Scotland tend to do it first.)

The Pyg Track is usually the path taken by those on any type of time challenge because it is the shortest. (However, there is no rule that the Three Peaks has to be completed in 24 hours.)

An early report of the ascent of the Three Peaks dates from October 1899, an unnamed writer telling of his feat, though this was done over several days, at a leisurely pace, and he travelled between the peaks by train.

It is believed that the first serious attempt on the Three Peaks challenge was in 1926 by two men; their driver had a “high-powered sporting motor-car”. The challenge was measured from summit top to summit top, achieved in a total of 22 hrs 55 mins.

The current record for the National Three Peaks, set by Joss Naylor in July 1971, stands at 11 hrs 56 mins. His driver, Frank Davies, drove a rally specification Ford Capri Vita 6. (These were pre-speed camera days.)

In 1968 Eric Beard completed the National Three Peaks solely on foot, starting at Ben Nevis Youth Hostel and finishing on the summit of Snowdon 9½ days later.

It’s possible to do the National Three Peaks from sea to sea (starting at the sea at Fort William and finishing at Caernarfon) in less than 24 hours; in August 1962 three RAF men did it in 17 hours.

A Four Peaks challenge was undertaken in 1937, this including Carrauntoohil (1,038m / 3,406 ft), the highest peak in Ireland.

There now also exists the Five Peaks Challenge, which includes both Carrauntoohil and Slieve Donard (850m / 2,790 ft), the highest peak in Northern Ireland.

Snowdon, together with Cadair Idris (893m / 2,930 ft) and Pen y Fan (886m / 2,907 ft), comprise the Welsh Three Peaks challenge.

If tackling the ‘15 peaks’ (i.e. those over 3,000 ft), three are on the Snowdon massif, namely Crib Goch, Carnedd Ugain and Yr Wyddfa itself.

The first recorded attempt on the 15 Peaks (originally just 14 peaks, but Carnedd Gwenllian, at 3,038 ft / 926m, formerly known as Garnedd Uchaf, is now included) was in 1919.

The most publicised attempt on the 15 Peaks was that described by Thomas Firbank in the novel I Bought a Mountain, his book about life at Dyffryn Mymbyr farm. They were accused of bringing use of the mountains into disrepute and had to publicly apologise.

The record for the 15 Peaks currently stands at a ridiculous 4 hrs 10 mins 48 secs, set by Finlay Wild in May 2019. The women’s record stands at 5 hrs 28 mins 41 secs, set in August 1989 by Angela Carson.

The Welsh 1000m Peaks Race, a.k.a. the Snowdonia Summits Marathon, first took place in 1971. In September 2010, the summit of Glyder Fawr, previously measured at 999m, was re-measured at 1000.8m, and therefore from 2011 this fifth summit has been included.

The full route  of the Welsh 1000m race starts at Abergwyngregyn and finishes on Snowdon, the summits concerned being (in order) Carnedd Llywelyn, Carnedd Dafydd, Glyder Fawr, Carnedd Ugain and Yr Wyddfa. Snowdon is ascended via the Pyg Track, and the winning time is usually a little over 4 hours.

Annually there are numerous ultra events and triathlons which include running up and down Snowdon.

The oldest person to have walked up Snowdon is believed to be Henry Thackwell, an American, who walked to the summit in 1978, aged 90.

In October 2017 100-year-old Stan Edmunds travelled on the Snowdon Mountain Railway to the summit; he is believed to be the oldest person to reach the summit. (The headline of “100-year-old man scales Snowdon” was a little misleading.)

At the young end, three-year olds have been known to walk up Snowdon. This includes 3-year-old Jaxon Krzysik who, in July 2019, completed an ascent of Snowdon unaided, completing the Three Peaks over 3 months.

Thomas Williams was a train driver for the first 30 years of the Snowdon railway’s existence. When he retired, he had made about 8,000 ‘ascents’.

Raymond Foulkes was a post-World War 2 train driver for 34 years, making an average of 24 trips a week for 8 months of the year. He made an estimated 25,000 ‘ascents’. His cousin, Tony Ellis (no relation!), made some 21,500 ascents before moving on to become a traffic controller on the railway.

In 2014 it took Stuart Kettel 4 days to push a sprout up the Llanberis Path with his nose. (He used 22 different sprouts.)

All of the following have been done: walking up on stilts, riding up on a monocycle, walking up in flippers, walking up in an old-style diver’s kit and crawling up on all fours.

It is estimated that well over a million pounds a year is raised on the mountain by people doing the walk for charity.

In 2011 a group of youngsters walked to the summit to raise money from Children in Need. There to greet them at the top was Pudsey (who had taken the train).

In August 1907 Mr T. Shirley Herrick of Surrey ascended 3 times, on three different paths, descending on the 3 others. Starting and finishing at Llanberis, he covered the 32-mile round in 13 hours 25 minutes.

Today the Snowdon Six, as a traverse of all six paths is called, is reckoned to take 15 – 18 hours; it’s nearly 25 miles, with the best part of 9,000 ft of ascent.

In 1962, 32 men from the T.A. took a 15-cwt howitzer field gun to the summit via the Miners’ Track; it was dismantled into a dozen pieces and hauled up on three tubular steel sledges with ropes, then re-assembled 50 yards from the summit. It took 11 hours, and they went down on the train.

In May 2016, as part of the Royal Artillery’s 300th anniversary celebrations, a baton was carried to the highest peaks in England, Wales and Scotland, and additionally a 105mm 2-tonne howitzer gun was taken up Snowdon to Bwlch Glas – by train – and three blank rounds were fired at dawn (around 5.20 a.m.). Given that this type of gun can fire a standard shell more than 8 miles, many were woken up early that day.

BASE jumping has in the past been done from the summit. In May 2019 Josh Beinn completed a ‘Three Peaks’ by BASE jumping from Snowdon summit.

In 2019 a group BASE jump (called a ‘boogie’) took place from the cliffs of Clogwyn Du’r Arddu.

Hang-gliders have often launched from near the summit.

In 2018, Sam Laming became the first Wingsuit pilot to perform a ‘Proximity Flight’ over a UK mountain, by flying approximately 30 metres over Snowdon’s summit, after jumping from a helicopter with fellow wingsuit camera pilot, Mike Hitchcock.

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Carrying things up

Items carried to the summit, often for charity, have included the likes of life-size farmyard animals, kayaks, boats, a firemen’s ladder, a telegraph pole, a loaded wheelbarrow, tractor tyres, a surfboard and a fridge.

One person carried a 30kg (66 lb) manual, off-grid washing machine up the mountain to raise funds for a global charity that provides these machines to low-income communities.

Extreme ironing might include taking a washing machine, an ironing board, an iron and a generator, then doing some actual ironing at the summit.

A group of plumbers once carried up a complete shower kit and constructed it on the summit, and a group took up a trampoline (in pieces) and used it at the summit.

A man from Welshpool has twice taken on the fundraising challenge of carrying one, and then two, people on his back up the mountain.

Sadly, not everything carried up to the summit is taken back down afterwards.

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The law

It was reported in 1901 that a policeman had been appointed to “guard Snowdon”. His duties were “chiefly the regulation of traffic, and to warn people of dangerous places.”  During the winter he was only required to visit the top of the mountain once a week “to see that the little property located there is undamaged by storms, etc.”

In 1905 a request was made to continue with an extra policeman on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, given that there were a lot of navvies living in tents in the area. These men were working on power lines associated with the hydro-electric power station in Cwm Dyli, and there were reports of them “molesting residents”.

Wild camping is not permitted on Snowdon without the landowner’s permission.

Where permission has been given, any camping should be done responsibly and discretely, following the Wild Camping Code.

The only official campsite on the Snowdon Massif is the National Trust’s campsite at Hafod y Llan.

Wild swimming or other watersports are not permitted on Snowdon without the landowner’s permission.

Cycling or horse-riding off a bridleway is not permitted without the landowner’s permission.

The flying of drones is not permitted without the landowner’s permission.

The National Trust, a major landowner on Snowdon, does not allow the use of drones on any of its land.

Strictly speaking, BASE jumping, paragliding and hang-gliding are illegal on access land without the landowner’s permission.

It is permitted to ride a bike or an electric bike up Snowdon, but only up those paths which are designated bridleways. If electric, the bike must have pedals, and not be throttle-only controlled.

Driving a motorised vehicle on the mountain is not permitted.

Foraging or picking flowers is not permitted without the landowner’s permission.

Shooting or using a metal detector is not permitted without the landowner’s permission.

Taking part in organised games or commercial activities is not permitted without the landowner’s permission. Strictly speaking, many of the races held on the mountain are commercial activities.

If a dog is on the path, it doesn’t have to be on a lead by law, but it must be under effective close control.

If a dog leaves the path, it has to be on a lead between 1^st March and 31^st July, because this is Open Access land. (It must legally be on a lead no more than 2m long.) At other times it must still be under close control.

Littering is illegal on Snowdon. Gwynedd Council officers can fine you £100 (£75 if paid within 10 days) for littering in a public place, which includes Rights of Way.

Graffiti is often left on the mountain. Legally, graffiti is defined as a criminal act of damaging property and can carry a £5,000 fine or a prison sentence.

Graffiti invariably attracts more graffiti, so is removed as soon as is possible, usually by volunteer wardens.

Old graffiti? – In 1686 botanist John Lloyd ascended Snowdon, and at the summit “carved our names in stones as several others had done before us, for we were as willing to be famouse as they.”

Similarly, in the 1860s, when the summit cairn sported a wooden pole, many carved their names on it – and the higher the better.

It is quite rare to spend a day on the mountain and not smell weed at some point; indeed, it is quite common to smell it at the summit. (In the UK, cannabis is a Class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, which means that it is illegal to possess, grow, distribute or sell it — including smoking it anywhere (even privately).

Wardens are not legally empowered to stop people from going up the mountain if conditions are dangerous; they can only advise.

Overnighting in a campervan in a National Park car park is not permitted.

It is still legal to ride a horse up a bridleway on Snowdon.

Whilst it may not be illegal to leave memorials on the mountain, the Park Authority has a stated policy of removing memorials for a number of reasons, including the fact that it is a nature reserve and private property.

(Ben Nevis, meanwhile, is littered with hundreds of painted stones and memorials.)

Loud music should not be played on the mountain. The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act (1949) has enshrined in it the concept of quiet enjoyment and quiet recreation. This has been reinforced by subsequent environmental Acts.

Rolling boulders down the railway track was popular with youths in the 1900s, and drivers had also to look out for boulders tied to the track.

On one occasion someone decided to place a large boulder on the line some 200 yards behind a ‘rider’, who was riding a large slab down the track. However, the boulder travelled at some 45 mph, twice the rider’s speed, and it soon caught up with him. He was hit hard and subsequently died.

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Litter

During the 2024 season, the Caru Eryri team of 123 volunteers collected 1.4 tonnes of litter from Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa.

Well over a ton of litter is picked up by the volunteer warden team from the paths and summit annually.

The most litter is collected at the summit, which is a real litter blackspot throughout the year.

Examples of more bizarre things found on the mountain include a kayak, a trampoline, dumb-bells, a giant inflatable penis and even a rucksack full of drugs.

It is sadly not unusual to find abandoned tents, with everything just abandoned inside.

The only litter bins on the mountain (other than in some of the car parks at the bottom) are in Hafod Eryri, the summit building (when it’s open).

In September 2024, the British Mountaineering Council (BMC), in collaboration with other organisations, organised a clean of the Trinity gullies on Clogwyn y Garnedd – the first ever. These gullies unfortunately act as natural traps for litter blown or dropped from the summit of Yr Wyddfa. In total, 2,765 items were removed from the rock face — 809 of which were drink containers, with Lucozade being the most commonly found brand.

A second clean-up session was held in early August 2025, again including abseiling down from the summit as well as working lower down, and collected over 4,500 items.

Some of the litter had been there so long that it had become embedded in the soil, and some even had plants growing over it.

As late as 1925, Carr & Lister wrote of litter being “emptied too frequently into the gullies of Clogwyn y Garnedd”.

In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, waste of all sorts from the summit huts was routinely thrown over the edge, and this was indeed the fate of the last wooden hut itself when it was demolished in the 1930s.

A common problem is ‘organic litter’, such as apple cores, banana skins and orange peel; these latter two not only take years to degrade, but they are unsightly and, because they are not native, they poison the already fragile soil balance by altering the pH.

The Plastic-Free Yr Wyddfa project (2022-24) reflected the National Park Authority’s commitment to safeguarding the mountain from litter and highlighted the harmful effects of microplastics. This innovative pilot programme introduced new interventions to reduce littering and foster environmentally conscious behaviour changes in the mountain environment.

Water stations for filling bottles can be found at Rhyd Ddu, Pont Bethania and Nant Peris. Additionally, selected ‘Plastic Free Yr Wyddfa’ businesses in Llanberis and Beddgelert.

A recent survey showed that 5% of the summit was microplastics.

Recent research by Bangor University has found microplastics in both Glaslyn and Llyn Llydaw.

In December 2023 a litter pick was held in Cwm Hetiau; some 35 hats were found, so the cwm still lives up to its name!

Rucksack covers are a common find, having simply blown off.

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Lost property

Items of clothing are commonly found abandoned on the mountain.

Valuable items found include keys, wallets, money, glasses, mobile phones, jewellery and even false teeth.

These more valuable items of lost property end up in the wardens’ office at Pen y Pass.

Lost property found at the summit is kept at Hafod Eryri, before being transferred to Llanberis station.

People losing things on the mountain often resort to using the Snowdonia Lost and Found Facebook group.

In December 1899 it was reported that a lady from north London had lost “three valuable diamond rings” in the snow on the summit. (She had taken them off to beat her hands together to restore circulation, then forgotten about them when she replaced her gloves.) They were found some 5 months later when the snow disappeared, and returned to her by Bangor police, to whom it had been reported.

In 2009 an engagement ring and a wedding ring were found on the Pyg Track. The owner was never traced.

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Landowners & boundaries

Although Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa is in the National Park, it is nevertheless mostly privately owned (as is the majority of all land in the National Park).

Three land boundaries essentially meet at Snowdon’s summit.

Today most of the north and west of the mountain is owned by the Welsh Assembly Government. In July 1967, 21,500 acres of the Vaynol Estate on the northern part of Snowdon was sold at auction, some 13,000 acres of this being resold a year later and bought by the Welsh Office for £140,000, a much-reduced price.

The east and south-east are owned by the Baron Hill Estate.

The Baron Hill Estate is a privately owned agricultural estate on both Snowdon and Anglesey. The farm of Gwastadanas covers the entire Snowdon Horseshoe, from the eastern end of Nantgwynant up to the summit. It also includes Moel Berfedd and the western slopes of Cefn y Cerrig. Gwastadanas has been part of the estate since the late 17^th century.

In the south-west, the National Trust owns 1,529 hectares (nearly 4,000 acres) of land on the mountain, including Craflwyn, Hafod y Porth and the Hafod y Llan farm.  The Watkin Path is only part of a network of paths that it maintains in the area.

The National Trust purchased the Hafod y Llan Estate in 1998, this being an area originally unified by the late 19^th century purchases of Sir Edward Watkin.

Amidst fears that a rich buyer would come straight in, the National Trust had launched a high-profile appeal, assisted by a donation of £1m by Sir Anthony Hopkins. Prince Charles also made a generous donation. In total, with the aid of the public, some £4m was raised in the target of 100 days.

At the very summit, the Park Authority leases land from the Welsh Assembly Government, the railway then leasing Hafod Eryri from the S.N.P.A.

The summit building aside, the Snowdon Mountain Railway Company owns all railway land.

Snowdon remains a patchwork of upland farms, there being 26 farm holdings on the mountain.

In the 19^th century a district boundary met at the summit of Snowdon; therefore, to apply for their annual alcohol licences, one hut had to apply to Porthmadog, the other to Caernarfon, as the boundary ran across the summit between them.

A boundary squabble led to a wall being built at the summit in 1897, reportedly “about 8 feet high and about 60 yards long”, totally splitting the summit in half. It can be seen in the photo above, leading down to the station. In 1898 it was arranged that the railway company should take over the other hotel on a 14-years’ lease, and that the wall should be taken down.

In May 2005 Clogwyn y Gwin farm, between Rhyd Ddu and Glan yr Afon slate quarry to the west of the summit, was put up for sale. It was reported that the ownership of the land could be traced back to 1199 when it was owned by Llewelyn ap lorwerth (Llywelyn the Great). In the early 1800s the Owens family lived there, and it was the son who reputedly fired the last shot at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. (The battle had actually ended, and the son, lying wounded, saw an old lady stealing from corpses, so he shot her.)

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Media – film, TV & radio

‘Carry on up the Khyber’ was partly filmed on the lower Watkin path (hence the name of ‘The Khyber Gate’). The location was used as the Khyber Pass with a garrison and border gate. A plaque, unveiled in Llanberis in 2005, commemorates its filming as part of the North Wales Film and television Trail.

Scenes from The Appointment, a 1981 film starring Edward Woodward, were filmed around Llanberis and on the summit of Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa.

The James Bond film ‘The World is Not Enough’ featured the Cwm Dyli pipeline (where the pipeline is supposed to be in Azerbaijan).

Some scenes from The Fever, a 2004 film starring Vanessa Redgrave and Angelina Jolie were shot on Snowdon.

Kyun! Ho Gaya Na…, a 2004 Hindi-language Bollywood film (released in English as Look What’s Happened Now) was partly filmed on Snowdon.

Some scenes from Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic (2008) were shot on Snowdon’s slopes near Llanberis.

Snowdon was used to double as a mountainous region in Tibet in the 1937 film ‘The Secret of the Yangtze’, and later as a Tibetan double in the 1947 film ‘The Lost Horizon’ remake.

In June 1956, Snowdon featured in a live BBC TV programme in the Saturday Night Out series, fronted by Wynford Vaughan Thomas. There was a camera on the summit cairn and also on a train. Whilst the weather was fine for the practice session, on the day the weather was appalling, so the poor live footage recorded was broadcast during children’s programming the following month.

Snowdon has featured in various episodes of Dr. Who, such as: in Army of Ghosts when a team from Torchwood One dug up the remains of an alien spacecraft buried at the foot of Snowdon; in The End of Time the Immortality Gate was found in a spaceship that had crashed at the foot of Snowdon; and in Death of the Doctor UNIT Base 5 was built into Snowdon.

In 2011 an episode of Michael Portello’s ‘Great Railway Journeys’ featured the Snowdon Mountain Railway.

In 2021, a TV advert for EE 5G saw Welsh actor Tom Ellis being shaved remotely by a robotic arm on Snowdon.

The 2013 ITV series ‘The Mountain’ featured people who live and work on the mountain. A sequel followed in 2018.

A more recent BBC TV episode of the programme called ‘Our lives’ featured life on the mountain.

In 2016, Countryfile filmed on Snowdon; this included John Craven taking the train and trying to beat a hill-runner to the summit.

John Craven had earlier visited the summit at the end of May 2007 to film construction progress on Hafod Eryri for BBC Countryfile.

Chris Packer filmed on Snowdon for his series Chris and Meg’s Wild Summer (2021).

In 2007, the series ‘Mountain’ was presented by Griff Rhys Jones. The final episode featured both Snowdon and Snowdonia generally.

In 2017 teams from no less than 11 TV production companies visited to make programmes featuring the railway and the summit building.

In 2018 Great British Car Journeys saw Peter Davidson and Christopher Timothy travelling by train to the summit.

Whilst the first series of the programme ‘SOS Extreme Rescues’ featured only the Ogwen  Mountain Rescue Team, the second series (2025) also featured the Llanberis team.

The first series of The Mountain, about life on Snowdon, was shown on ITV in 2015, with a follow-up series, Return to the Mountain, in 2019.

Ray Mears’ Wild Britain featured an episode on Snowdon, exploring the unique wildlife that lives in the rugged landscape of the mountain.

Coast & Country, an ITV programme, featured Snowdon, with one episode showing a presenter tackling Crib Goch.

Radio has been broadcast live from the summit on numerous occasions, such as on the opening of Hafod Eryri in 2009, on its 10-year anniversary in 2019, for the Olympic torch in 2012, and the naming of the Welsh women’s football team in 2025.

In 2016 an episode of ‘Gardeners’ Question Time’ was recorded at the summit.

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The 2024 survey

Surveys are periodically held on Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa. This latest survey was conducted independently by Strategic Research and Insight, a Cardiff company, and took place from August to October 2024; they collected responses from 1,366 face-to-face interviews and 225 online respondents. Although this sample represents well under 1% of all the visitors to the mountain annually, the results remain of relevance.

74% of Snowdon’s visitors come from England

20% come from Wales

1% come from Scotland

Less than 1% come from Ireland and Northern Ireland

5% come from abroad.

Within England, most visitors come from the North West, followed by the Midlands, then the South East.

43% of visitors fall within the 25-44 age group (the largest group). The average age on the mountain is a little lower than previously measured.

Most visitors were male (62%) and white (93%).

7% identify as from ethnic minority groups – this figure is on the increase.

Some 7% identified as Welsh speakers.

The most common group size was 2.

16% of people had a dog/dogs with them.

76% of respondents arrived by their own petrol or diesel vehicle. Only 5% used electric cars.

Although only 16% used public transport (bus/train/coach) to travel to Yr Wyddfa, 37% of people used public transport at some point on their visit.

Almost half (48%) felt that travelling via public transport on their visit was a viable option.

Most day visitors felt that travelling by car was the best time-effective and convenient option.

62% of visitors to Snowdon stayed overnight, with over half of these staying 2 or 3 nights, i.e. taking mini-breaks.

26% were day visitors from home.

12% were local residents or lived locally.

51% of visitors used websites to prepare for their trips. 11% used social media platforms. 20% admitted to not doing any research of any kind before their visit.

Local residents were most likely to use the paths on the west side (Rhyd Ddu Path, 32%; and Snowdon Ranger Path, 30%) while overnight stays were highest on the Watkin Path, Miners’ Track, and Llanberis Path (all around 65%). (The report phrased it like this, though it is probably more a case that non-locals were less likely to use this side of the mountain.)

Day visitors were most prominent on the Snowdon Ranger Path (31%) and Pyg Track (28%).

August is the busiest month on the mountain, followed by July, then Easter.

(Easter weekend itself is usually the busiest weekend of the year.)

The most popular path over the years is the Llanberis Path, which takes some 42% of the traffic, the Pyg and Miners taking another 42% combined. These three paths therefore take 85% of the traffic.

Traffic on the Watkin path has almost doubled since the Covid pandemic, reflecting the popularity of the falls and pools and the power of social media. Only about 50% of those on the Watkin Path go past the pools.

While 65% of respondents claimed to be aware that Yr Wyddfa is the Welsh name for Snowdon and Eryri is the name for Snowdonia, 35% were not. This awareness was notably higher among online respondents.

Additionally, of the 65% of users who were aware of the Welsh names Yr Wyddfa/Eryri, some 35% believed that there is confusion between the names Yr Wyddfa/Eryri and Snowdon/Snowdonia.

Most visitors (67%) reported being fully aware of the Countryside Code, while 16% had partial knowledge.

82% of visitors stated that they supported the banning the sale of single-use plastics on the mountain, with 97% saying that they would be willing to use re-usable bottles if incentivised. Only 19% were aware of the ‘Plastic-Free Yr Wyddfa’ campaign before their visit.

Only 49% knew that the summit building is only open for part of the year (i.e. late spring to autumn).

Only 54% knew that the only bins on Yr Wyddfa are in the car parks and at the summit building.

Virtually all visitors (99%) reported taking personal responsibility for their litter.

Litter challenges mentioned included a lack of bins (10%) and the inconvenience of carrying waste (1%).

Many advocated for more bins and clearer recycling options.

Almost all visitors (98%) reported improved mental wellbeing after visiting Yr Wyddfa. (A great many reasons were cited.)

98% of visitors expressed a desire to return.

84% of visitors rated the cleanliness of paths and surrounding areas as either excellent or good.

Visitor expectations for National Park car park facilities reveal a clear need for basic amenities such as toilets, signage/information, and … parking itself!  6% expected to see an EV charging point.

There was also a common request for refreshment outlets at car parks.

When asked about improvements, 38% of people were happy with the mountain as it is. The most common request was for more signage and information boards on the mountain, followed by more toilets and parking, and better crowd management at the summit.

Other suggestions included more bins (including for dog waste), more water refill stations (particularly at the summit), more shelter and resting areas, and banning bikes to reduce erosion.

Some respondents suggested safety enhancements to improve the experience for visitors, including installing ropes or handrails on slippery or steep parts of the paths, adding barriers near summits for additional protection, and providing lighting along routes for night walkers.

5% of respondents reported health issues or disabilities; better path maintenance was a common desired improvement.

Visitors rated the cleanliness of paths and surrounding areas positively, with 43% rating it excellent and 41% as good. In contrast, recycling facilities received lower ratings, with only 14% considering them excellent and 24% rating them as good.

The majority of people would expect to find toilets in National Park car parks (as is indeed the case).

In conclusion, it was stated: “Feedback from visitors highlights the importance of preserving the park’s natural beauty whilst also improving accessibility. Striking this balance will be critical for Eryri National Park Authority as it seeks to enhance inclusivity without compromising the landscape’s appeal.”

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Some common Welsh words found in names on the mountain

The following are words commonly found in names:

Pont / bont                        Bridge

Crib, cribin                         Ridge

Clogwyn / Llechog           Cliff

Llyn                                      Lake

Cwm                                    Valley (bowl-shaped, usually glacial)

Allt                                       Steep hill

Bwlch                                  Pass, gap

Afon                                    River

Nant                                    Stream or valley

Glas                                     Blue

Coch                                    Red

Moel                                  A tree-less, bare hill

Y / Yr                                  The

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