Pen-y-pass. near Llanberis
Pen-y-pass, 359 metres above sea level, is the highest starting point on the road network for walks to the summit of Yr Wyddfa (1,085 metres). The name denotes the head of the Llanberis Pass.
A roadway over the pass, 1.8 metres wide and featuring small embankments and retaining walls, was in use by the 18th century. The footpath south east from Pen-y-pass follows this route.
Visitors have been impressed for centuries by the Llanberis Pass, including its giant glacial boulders. Historian Edward Llwyd visited in 1682 and was surprised when his guide refused to continue past two cairns at Pen-y-pass without first saying a prayer nine times, as rapidly as possible, while galloping around the cairns!
The road was realigned for carriages in the 19th century. Horses needed rest after the long ascent from each direction. The inn at Pen-y-pass was called Gorphwysfa (‘resting place’). From the mid-19th century it was a favourite meeting place of climbers and hill walkers, some of whom expressed sadness when the hotel was bought in 1967 by the YHA to become a popular youth hostel.
The Miners’ Track, leading towards Yr Wyddfa, is where copper ore from the Llyn Llydaw area was transported. To improve access to mine-workings north-west of the lake, the depth of Llyn Llydaw was reduced by several metres in the 1850s and a causeway built across the lake’s narrowest part.
In 1861 antiquarian G Griffith of Barmouth heard that remains of an ancient boat had been found in mud at Llyn Llydaw. He hurried to the spot and found miners cutting off pieces for firewood! He paid the men “handsomely” to carry the boat – carved from a single piece of oak – to Beddgelert. He had previously found slag from copper smelting together with prehistoric flint arrow heads near Llyn Llydaw.
The other main path from Pen-y-pass towards Yr Wyddfa is the Pen-y-Gwryd Track (“Pyg Track”). The growth of motoring after the Second World War resulted in the car park being enlarged, as shown in the 1970s photo by Walter Harris, courtesy of Conwy Archive Service. To ease pressure on the limited parking, the Snowdon Sherpa bus service (now Sherpa’r Wyddfa) was developed. The 2006 photo shows visitors arriving from Nant Peris on the S1 Sherpa bus, a 1980 Leyland Atlantean belonging to KMP of Llanberis.
Postcode: LL55 4NY View Location Map
Bus times to Pen-y-pass – Sherpa’r Wyddfa website