Please take your time to read this page and our facts about Snowdon page to find out some more information about this highest peak in Wales and the peaks around and the area in general

We offer day walks up mount Snowdon throughout the year which almost anyone may join.
Please take a look at the adventure days walks page for dates and prices and starting places.

Villages and car parks around Snowdon
The main access points to Snowdon and the mountians are: from Llanberis on the A4086 for the Llanberis path , Pen y Pass at the top of the Llanberis Pass for the PYG and Miners Tracks , on the Beddgelert road the A498 at Nant Gwynant for the Watkin Path and on the A4085 at Rhyd Ddu for the Rhydd Path and the Snowdon Ranger at the Youth Hostel with the same name.
There are bus services from Betws y Coed, Llanberis, Bangor and Caernarfon and a steam train from Caernarfon to Rhydd Ddu Welsh Highland railway website for details
In Summer months a regular "Snowdon Sherpa bus" goes around the mountain meaning that you do not need to start and end at the same place, we make full use of this great service and are more than happy to offer some advice at our shop in Harlech.
Bus timetables: The sherpa bus time tables for Snowdon
 
The Geology 
snowdon facts page for more information abouth the geology

As you climb up Snowdon you'll not just be climbing in height but also in geological time.
If you decide to start from LLanberis you will climb from the Llanberis Slate - originally mud and silt deposited by the rivers, lakes and seas which once occupied the area 400 million years ago which were then squeezed and baked under great pressure and heat, - to gritstones then mudstones and siltstones and, on top, rocks made of volcanic ashes and on the very top more slatey beds with the shells of marine animals - showing how once the very summit was deep under a sea bed. (You can sometimes see these fossils around the summit area in the darker band of rock which contains many if you can find space to look amongst the crowds of other walkers, and train riders in strange atire for a high mountain)

The layers are not horizontal - Snowdon has been pushed into folds by immense eruptions and earthquakes. Then 10,0000 years ago the action of glaciers advancing and retreating, and the ice melting cut out the broad valleys and hanging valleys, and truncated spurs on the north facing slopes.

The summit of Snowdon is the bottom of a syncline, the dip in folded rocks. The best place to see this is from the top of the Pyg track especially when the summit is covered in snow ( not as common as it once was on Snowdon) as this brings out the contrasting layers of the strata of the rock.

Flora and Fauna 
Flora / Plants
On the lower slopes there are foxgloves - common are Bedstraw - with tiny white flowers and Milkwort whose flowers range in colour from nearly white to purpley blue.
Yellow four-petalled Tormentil. In the wet areas you can spot Sundew and Butterwort, two insectivorous plants which trap their prey on sticky droplets from the hairs of their leaves.
Higher up amongst the rocks of the zig-zags of the miners/ PYG tracks you will find Parsley fern -which looks very much like its name sake Parsley.

You'll also find Bilberries/ Wortleyberries/ Blueberris with small red bell flowers that become blackcurrant-like berries in August, very bitter early on and when ripe you can get covered in the purple juice and scare people = it resembles blood and bruising if applied well !

Birds
Meadow Pipits spotted by their distinctive soaring up and parachuting down movement. Curlews (a bubbling cry) and Skylarks have distinctive calls - the latter are usually much higher up in the air than you think.
The Raven is seen when the wind is very strong playing and enjoying itself.

Choughs can be spotted sometimes, they look quite like ravens but with orangey/ red bills and legs.

The Seagull (herring gull / shite hawk ! ) is the most common bird on Snowdon - take care with your food around them they have been know to steal food from people as they picnic at the summit !!! Johnothan Livingston can be seen enjoying him self up high too...
Wheatears - spotted by their white rear end in the Summer.

Industrial archeology around Snowdon
Wales has been exploited for its minerals since the bronze age. The real growth however, was in the 19th century with slate, copper, lead and zinc.
There's a seam of slate that reveals itself in disused workings trending North East from Bethesda to Nantlle showing itself on Snowdon along this line.

Copper miners worked the crags of Clogwyn Goch above Llyn Du'r Arddu and above Nant Peris (there is a local ledgend that these mines are linked by underground tunnels - people I know have tried and failed to connect them - to the point of the daftest carrying ladders up the Llanberis path to the Cloggy mine entrace) and also in Cwm Llan and on the flanks of Gallt y Wenallt.

Snowdon Mountain Railway
Conceived by a group of businessmen over 100 years ago as a replacement to the ponies that used to carry visitors to the summit, it is Britain's only rack railway with toothed racks in the centre of the track that engage with cogs under the carriages, Swiss Technology as seen on th Monch. The engines (some are steam others diesel) are always below the carriages.

A word of warning about the train! do not expect to walk up and ride down, stand by tickets are available but you can wait for hours for a space on the train. All spaces in busy periods are sold out on a return basis in Llanberis, so unless you have purchased a ticket and travelled up by train do not expect an easy ride down. It will often be much quicker and better for you to walk down.

Also see Snowdon facts page for more information

Some Legends or Facts ?
Arthur The West Country may have tried to own Arthur but there are very strong claims for Wales - particularly around Snowdon area.

The movies First Knight and lately Tomb Raider 2 were partly filmed around Snowdon.
According to Welsh tradition, Arthur met his death in a skirmish on Bwlch y Saetheau (Pass of the Arrows) and his knights lie resting on their shields in a little cave on the face of Lliwedd. A great story in a book by Showel Styles.

Some legends even place Arthur's grave as being here under a cairn.
In 1856 when the waters were lowered to help build the track to the mines a primitive canoe was found and many echoed Malory's words of the three "fayr ladyes" who bore away the body of the mortally wounded king across the lake.

More Legends or truth ???
The Welsh name for Snowdon is Yr Wyddfa which means burial place and a legend suggests that the cairn at the top marks the grave of Rhita Fawr a particularly fierce giant who had a cloak made out of the beards of all the kings he'd killed.

A popular legend tells of a local man falling in love with a fairy who lived in Llyn Du'r Arddu. She agreed to marry him provided he never struck her with iron. She brought her fairy cattle and sheep out of the lake with her and they lived a prosperous life. But, inevitably, once he struck her with a bridle accidentally and she went back into the lake taking all the cattle and sheep with her.

Llyn Glaslyn - the Anvanch (a cross between a beaver and dragon ) of Betws y Coed dragged up by Oxen and thrown up the mountain landed in the side leaving a great depression now filled with water

Why is the dragon on the Welsh flag red? It is associated with the fighting dragons imprisoned by Lludd and Llefelys. The significance of these dragons was pointed out by Myrddin, the Merlin of Arthurian legend. Two dragons, one white, one red, had fought for many years. The white dragon at first prevailed but in the end the red dragon overcame the white. It happend on an outcrop to the south of Snowdon, Myrddin explained that the Welsh would ultimately, after a long period of adversity, overcome the foreign  invaders, and maintain their language, lands and freedom. Perhaps that is why the Welsh chose the red dragon

The paths up Snowdon
Details about each of the main pathes up Snowdon with a highlighted map to aid you while you decide which path you might just follow up the mountain.