Gwynedd tours

Link to Welsh translation

Bangor - The Wartime in Bangor Tour

Bethesda - Slates and Strikes tour

Caernarfon Law and Dissorder tour

Caernarfon - Transport & Industry tour

Caernarfon - Words and Music tour

Dinorwig - Cross-quarry Path tour

Dolgellau - Law and Disorder tour

Ffestiniog - Ffestiniog Railway history tour

Llanberis - Lôn Las Peris

Llanberis - Town to Quarry tour

Porthmadog - Sail, steam and slates

Pwllheli - Rebels and Riots

Other tours

 

Bangor - The Wartime in Bangor Tour

Join the tour at a key location...
Bus Station
High Street
Rail Station
University
Pier
Waterfront

Bangor was transformed in the Second World War by thousands of evacuees. They included children, aero workers, diamond polishers, university students, trainees on an ancient wooden warship and the entire BBC Variety Department, which broadcast some of the most popular shows of the war from Bangor. Even valuable paintings were sent here to escape the bombing of London. Discover these stories, and many more, by scanning the QR codes around the town, or use the list on the right to join the tour online. View tour map.

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Bethesda - Slates and Strikes tour

Join the tour at a key location...
Penrhyn slate quarry (Zip World)
Christ Church
Railway station site (GP surgery)
Felin Fawr workshops

As Penrhyn slate quarry became the world’s largest in the 19th century, Bethesda was transformed from a hamlet into a thriving town. Tourism also grew, with visitors – including Princess Victoria – seeking not only the traditional pleasures of Snowdonia but also gazing in awe at the vast quarry workings.
Quarrying was hard and dangerous work. The quarrymen’s repeated disputes with Lord Penrhyn culminated in Britain’s longest strike, from 1900 to 1903, which harmed the quarry business and forced hundreds of people to leave Bethesda. Among those who remained, the bitter divisions between strikers and non-strikers lasted for generations.
Follow our “Bethesda Slates and Strikes” tour to discover places linked to the story of slate quarrying. At each place, simply scan the QR codes with your smartphone or tablet for that location’s story, then click on “Next” to see the next point on the tour. The circuit will eventually bring you back to your starting point.
To join the tour online, choose a location from the box on the right.
To view a map showing all the site detailed in this tour follow this link.

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Caernarfon - Law and Dissorder tour

Join the tour at a key location...
Caernarfon Castle
Lloyd George statue
Twthill
Former naval battery

Follow our Law and Disorder tour around Caernarfon to discover the town’s long history of administering justice, preventing smuggling and contributing to Britain’s armed forces. Characters along the way include murderers and other rogues, a Victoria Cross winner, a medieval taxman hanged by a mob, an aristocrat who lost a leg at Waterloo, a fugitive American slave and a solicitor who became Prime Minister.
To join the tour online, choose a location from the box on the right.
To view a map of the sites in this tour, follow this link (opens in a new window).

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Caernarfon - Transport & Industry tour

Join the tour at a key location...
Victoria Dock
The Anglesey Arms
Welsh Highland Railway station
Segontium Roman fort

Loading slate onto ships at Caernarfon triggered the town’s rapid growth as a centre of transport and industry. As transport facilities expanded to meet industry’s demands, industry grew around transport, as exemplified by the De Winton foundry’s steam engines. Meanwhile, Customs officers kept watch on in-coming goods, some of which went to bonded warehouses. This heritage can be traced back to medieval ferries and to the Romans, who had a port here and controlled the region’s mines. Today traditions are maintained by the Welsh Highland Railway’s steam trains and by Brunswick ironworks, which provided fittings for the coffin of the Unknown Warrior in 1920.
Follow our “Transport and Industry” tour to discover this aspect of the town’s heritage at the relevant places. At each place, scan the QR codes with your smartphone or tablet for that location’s story, then click on “Next” to see the next point on the tour. The circuit eventually returns you to your starting point.
To join the tour online, choose a location from the box on the right.
To view a map of all the sites in this tour, follow this link (opens in a new window).

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Caernarfon - Words and Music tour

Join the tour at a key location...
Leila Megane’s ex-home
First Archdruid’s clock shop
Site of ‘Herald’ offices

Caernarfon has a long history of nurturing and attracting poets, musical performers, composers and journalists. From the establishment of its first printing press c.1800 grew a thriving print industry. Follow our “Words and Music” tour around the town to discover this aspect of the town’s heritage at the relevant places. At each place, simply scan the QR codes with your smartphone or tablet for that location’s story, then click on “Next” to see the next point on the tour. The circuit will eventually bring you back to your starting point.
To join the tour online, choose a location from the box on the right.
To view a map showing all the site detailed in this tour follow this link (opens in a new window).

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Dinorwig - Cross-quarry Path tour

Join the tour at a key location...
Deiniolen church
Allt Ddu
History of Matilda quarry pit
New York level
Nant Peris church

The footpath which crosses the disused Dinorwig slate quarry provides breathtaking views of the old workings, including towering rockfaces, galleries stacked on the mountainside, abandoned inclines and ruined winding houses. Follow our tour along the footpath to discover the stories of many of these features. At each end of the path, the tour continues into nearby villages where some of the quarrymen lived.
Use our QR codes along the path to see our information about each place. Or you can take the tour while sitting at home by clicking on one of the locations in the box on the right. Use the navigation icons below the text on each page to move to the next location in your chosen direction.
Click here to view all locations on one map (opens in a new window).

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Dolgellau - Law and Disorder tour

Join the tour at a key location...
Former courthouse
Royal Ship hotel
Stag Inn
Cross Keys
Former town jail
Old police station

Take this self-guided walking tour around Dolgellau to discover how some of its buildings are connected to fascinating stories of crime and the administration of justice in centuries past. Along the way you’ll pass places where prisoners were held, find a 1606 depiction of witch ducking, see where a landlady was accused of “harbouring” a policeman, and read about gruesome or bizarre offences.
To start the tour, simply scan any of the QR codes at locations on the circuit, or use the list on the right to join the tour online. Use the “Next” button at the foot of each page to find the next place on the tour. Click here to view map showing all tour locations.

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Ffestiniog - Ffestiniog Railway history tour

Join the tour at a key location...
Porthmadog Harbour
Tan-y-Bwlch
Blaenau Ffestiniog

The vintage steam trains of the Ffestiniog Railway attract many thousands of visitors every year. The landscape you can see through the windows is also steeped in history. For instance, did you know that the last wild wolf in Wales was reputedly killed near Tan y Bwlch (when wolves were already extinct in England)?
Now you can use your smartphone or tablet to discover interesting facts about stations, buildings, landscapes and place-names along the way – and to hear how to pronounce the place-names. Simply scan the HistoryPoints QR codes at any of the stations or other featured locations, then follow the navigation icons below the text to find the next location in your direction of travel.
You can follow the tour from your train seat. Or if you’re walking between stations, you’ll find QR codes to scan at each featured location.
You can use the menu on the right to join the tour online at principal stations.
Please note, the first few locations on the tour on departure from Porthmadog Harbour station come thick and fast! You might wish to take a stroll a short way along the Cob, before or after your journey, to take in the details – e.g. identifying the distant peaks.
In Porthmadog, you can follow our Sail, Steam and Slate tour (see below) to discover how the railway was part of a local industrial boom. 

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Llanberis - Lôn Las Peris

Join the tour at a key location...
Bus stop, Lake R/way Stn
Llanberis Village
Llanberis watersports area
End of Llyn Padarn
Brynrefail

Lôn Las Peris is an easy cycling and walking route along the shore of Llyn Padarn, from Llanberis to the north-western end of the lake. It is maintained by Gwynedd Council. The traffic-free section of the route runs for 1.5km. The route continues through the lakeside car parks to the terminus station of the Llanberis Lake Railway. At the other end, you can continue on minor roads to Brynrefail, Cwm y Glo or Llanrug.
Follow our tour to discover where bombs were secretly stored in wartime, a landing stage from the 2012 Olympics, a rock named for its place in trade-union history and why the lake has a unique type of fish. To start the tour, simply scan any of the QR codes along the route with a smartphone or tablet, or use the list on the right to join the tour online. Use the E-W button at the foot of each page to find the next place on the tour, if you’re going westwards away from Llanberis, or W-E if going towards Llanberis.
Lôn Las Peris on Gwynedd Council website

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Llanberis Town to Quarry tour

Join the tour at a key location...
Capel Coch
Anglesey barracks
Allt Ddu

Follow in the footsteps of slate quarrymen by taking this tour from Llanberis to Allt Ddu. Many who worked in the Dinorwig quarry lived in Llanberis and walked each day across the Bala Bridge, which inspired a local saying. Others lived in the hillside barracks whose evocative ruins you’ll pass. The barracks are above the ‘Llwybr Main’, a narrow zigzag footpath between expertly-made dry strone walls.
Use our QR codes along the route to see our information about each place. Or you can take the tour while sitting at home by clicking on one of the locations in the box on the right. Use the navigation icons below the text on each page to move to the next location in your chosen direction.
Click here to view all locations on one map (opens in a new window).

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Porthmadog - Sail, steam and slates

Join the tour at a key location...
Harbour
High Street
Harbour Station

The historic trains and infrastructure of the Ffestiniog Railway are relics of the industrial boom that made Porthmadog. Take our tour of QR-code locations from the railway’s Harbour station (or any other point on the circuit) to discover how shipbuilding and other industries flourished here on the back of slate exporting. View tour map.

 

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Pwllheli - Rebels and Riots

Join the tour at a key location...
Harbour
Y Maes
High Street

Pwllheli has a long history of protest, as you can discover by taking this self-guided tour. You’ll see where the Riot Act was read in 1752 as women desperately tried to seize food for their starving families, where Plaid Cymru was founded by men who later set fire to an RAF base, and where a Victorian aristocrat was jeered as he canvassed electors. Other stories include the “tithe wars” and a chapel whose blind minister angered his peers in the First World War with his pacifist oratory and support for conscientious objectors. To start the tour, use your mobile to scan the QR codes at any location on the circuit, or use the list on the right to join the tour online. Use the “Next” button at the foot of each page to find the next place on the tour. Click here to view map showing all tour locations.

 

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Our tour of hundreds of QR-code sites along the Wales Coast Path includes many locations in Gwynedd.

Our tour along Thomas Telford's historic Irish Mail road, now the A5, includes Bangor, Bethesda and Nant Ffrancon in Gwynedd.

We also have QR codes along National Cycle Network Route 8, which runs the length of Gwynedd from the Menai Suspension Bridge to the Dyfi valley.

National Cycle Network Route 5 runs along Gwynedd's north-east coast.