Toilets at the bottom of the mountain
There are toilets at the bottom of all of the main 6 paths up Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa).
We would strongly advise you to use them before starting your walk up the mountain as there are currently no toilets on the mountain at all, and you’re going to be out for many hours.
Apart from in Llanberis, the toilets at the foot of Snowdon are provided by the National Park Authority and are located in their car parks. These toilets are at:
- Pen y Pass (for the Pyg Track and Miners’ Track) – open all year, 24/7
- Bethania (for the Watkin Path) – open all year, 24/7
- Rhyd Ddu (for the Rhyd Ddu Path – open all year, 24/7
- Cwellyn (for the Snowdon Ranger Path) – open all year, 24/7
- Nant Peris Park & Ride – only open seasonally (i.e. roughly from Easter to the end of October).
The National Park does not have an official car park in Llanberis (because it’s not in the National Park), but there are toilets near the lake (open all year), and at Maes Padarn and Y Glyn (both seasonal, from 1 April until the end of October). However, the nearest public toilets to the start of the Llanberis Path are those at the Snowdon Mountain Railway station, which open at 9 a.m.
Are there toilets at the summit?
When Hafod Eryri, the summit building, is open (usually from 10:00 daily from May to the end of October, weather permitting), there are toilets at the summit. However, if it is too windy for trains to reach the summit, then the building will not be open.
You can check the status of the summit building here.
Caught short on the mountain?
If you are unavoidably taken short on the mountain, which can and does happen, it is often not easy to find privacy on a busy path or on the open mountain, but please take yourself away from the path and never urinate in or close to running water. If you need to have a poo, similarly please take yourself well away from the path, and if you can, take the poo away in a poo-bag, as you would with dog poo.
Can the weather affect us?
By the way, it’s useful to know about how the seasons affect people (not that everyone’s the same). Generally speaking, in hot weather you’ll drink a lot more, but you won’t need to pee it all as you will be sweating a lot more. In really hot weather you can drink loads and not need the toilet at all!
In cold weather it’s normal to want to pee more, a phenomenon called ‘cold diuresis’. (As a result of your blood vessels naturally constricting to direct blood flow to your vital organs, your kidneys need to filter more blood than normal, producing more urine.)
The toilets at Rhyd Ddu car park
Read our blog item ‘Sometimes it’s a bit crap’.