Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon)
Wales's highest peak has a café at the top, a railway that lost a passenger on opening day, and a giant said to be buried under its summit.
Published
Quick Facts
- Location
- Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park, Gwynedd, near Llanberis
- Height
- 1,085 m (3,560 ft), the highest mountain in Wales
- Welsh name
- Yr Wyddfa, often read as "the tomb" or "the burial mound"
- Railway opened
- 6 April 1896 (Snowdon Mountain Railway, Llanberis to the summit)
- Railway length
- About 4.7 miles (7.6 km), Britain's only public rack-and-pinion line
- Summit building
- Hafod Eryri, opened 2009, replacing a 1930s building
- Main walking routes
- Six classic paths: Llanberis, Miners', Pyg, Watkin, Rhyd Ddu and Snowdon Ranger
- Rare resident
- The Snowdon lily, which in Britain grows only in Snowdonia
A mountain named after a grave
Yr Wyddfa is usually understood to mean a tomb or burial mound, and Welsh legend explains why. A fearsome giant, Rhita Gawr, was said to make cloaks from the beards of the kings he killed. King Arthur defeated him in battle, and the giant was buried under a cairn on the summit. The English name is plainer. Snowdon comes from Old English and means "snow hill", which is fair enough on the many winter days when the top is white. Arthur's legends cling to the slopes elsewhere too. Bwlch y Saethau, the Pass of Arrows, is said to be where his last battle was fought. Llyn Llydaw, the lake on the Miners' Track, is one of the places claimed as the home of Excalibur's resting spot.
The train that opened with a tragedy
The Snowdon Mountain Railway opened on 6 April 1896, and its first day went badly. The engine Ladas left the track on the descent and a passenger was killed. The railway closed after the accident and reopened in 1897 following safety improvements. The railway climbs from Llanberis using the Swiss Abt rack-and-pinion system. A toothed rail between the tracks engages a cogwheel under the locomotive, which keeps the train from slipping on the gradient. Several of the original steam locomotives, built in Winterthur in Switzerland, still work the line today. It was built to give Victorian tourists a way up, not to serve any industry. The mountain was already drawing visitors, and the railway was a business bet on that.
From "the highest slum in Wales" to a modern summit
For decades the summit was crowned by a cluster of huts and a 1930s café designed by Clough Williams-Ellis, the man behind Portmeirion. By the early 2000s it had a poor reputation. Prince Charles famously called it the highest slum in Wales. It was demolished and replaced by Hafod Eryri, which opened in 2009. The new building is half-buried in the mountaintop, with granite walls and a low profile that keeps it from spoiling the skyline. Its name means "summer dwelling of Snowdonia". The summit also has a trig pillar and a cairn, and on a clear day the views take in Anglesey and Cardigan Bay. The cloud, however, has no respect for the architecture.
Six paths, six personalities
The Llanberis Path is the longest and gentlest, following the railway line most of the way. The Miners' Track and the Pyg Track share a start at Pen-y-Pass and are the busiest routes. Both join up on the final climb. The Watkin Path begins almost at sea level and climbs the hardest vertical distance. It was opened in 1892 by William Gladstone, then 82, who spoke to a crowd beside a boulder now known as Gladstone Rock. The Rhyd Ddu and Snowdon Ranger paths come up from the west and are quieter. For experienced scramblers, the knife-edge ridge of Crib Goch is a famous, serious alternative. It is a scramble, not a walk, and is no place for the unprepared. Weather matters. Snowdon is one of the wetter spots in Britain, and mist and ice can arrive in any month.
Training ground for Everest, home of a tiny lily
Snowdon's neighbours were used to prepare for the biggest mountain on Earth. The 1953 Everest team trained in the Snowdonia hills and stayed at the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel at the foot of the mountain, where the team's signatures are still on the ceiling of the bar. The slopes also hold botanical rarities. The Snowdon lily, small and white with purple veins, grows in Britain only on a few high crags in Snowdonia. It was first recorded here by the Welsh naturalist Edward Lhuyd in the late 1600s. Look for it only with your eyes. It's rare, protected, and perched on cliffs well away from the paths.
Notable people
- Rhita Gawr
- King Arthur
- William Gladstone
- Clough Williams-Ellis
- Edward Lhuyd
- Edmund Hillary
- Tenzing Norgay
Test yourself
Play the UK quizMore to see nearby
.jpg){kind=link}
The Menai Suspension Bridge
Published
Telford's Menai Bridge was the world's longest suspension span in 1826, and its deck was once hung so loosely that wind made it ripple like a ribbon.
.jpg){kind=link}
Portmeirion
Published
A pastel Italianate village on a Welsh estuary was built by a man who never claimed it was Italian, and it later became the home of The Prisoner.
Caernarfon Castle
Published
Edward I built Caernarfon Castle to look like Constantinople, and 700 years later it staged the investiture of a Prince of Wales twice in the 20th century.