Above Llanberis, on the slopes of Elidir Fawr, the mountain has been cut into giant steps. This was Dinorwig, one of the largest slate quarries in the world, which employed thousands of men and closed in 1969, leaving galleries, inclines, barracks and rusting machinery on the hillside. In 2021 the slate landscape of north-west Wales was added to the UNESCO list, and Dinorwig is a central piece, with Penrhyn quarry at Bethesda. Their slates roofed Victorian cities across Britain and beyond, and the Welsh-speaking communities around the quarries built chapels, choirs and a tradition of fierce independence.
The story is not purely romantic. Quarrymen worked at heights on ropes, breathed slate dust, and many died young. The great Penrhyn lockout and strike of 1900 to 1903 was one of the longest industrial disputes in British history. Beneath Elidir, in the 1970s and 1980s, a vast cavern was blasted out to house the Dinorwig power station, a pumped storage plant known as Electric Mountain, which stores water in a lake high on the hill and releases it to generate power when the grid needs it. The visitor centre in Llanberis runs tours into the mountain.
The riding here is good in a stern way. The A4086 climbs from Llanberis through the Llanberis Pass, a classic glacial valley with huge boulders and cliffs on either side, and sheep on the road, with Snowdon above. The road is narrow, quick to change from sunshine to drizzle, and busy with walkers' cars in summer. Take it early or late. Llyn Padarn beside the town is a handsome lake, and the narrow-gauge Llanberis Lake Railway runs along it from the old quarry workshops. The mountain air is clean and cold, and clouds sit low on the tops.
Llanberis has fuel only sparingly, if at all, and it is a small village of under two thousand people, so check before relying on it; Caernarfon, eleven kilometres away, is the town with larger shops, with its great castle built by Edward I. The village has cafes, outdoor gear shops and pubs, all busy with climbers. For something to eat, a bowl of cawl, Welsh lamb broth, is the right dish after a wet ride. Visit in spring or early autumn, when the tourist crowds thin and the light on the slate is silver.