CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Aberystwyth it runs 383 km to Aberystwyth; allow about 6 h 58 of riding. The stops in between: Harlech Castle, Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri, Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries and Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
19 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For about 29 km this is Snowdonia Llanberis Pass, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Aberystwyth is Welsh to the core and slightly eccentric with it. The town sits where the rivers Rheidol and Ystwyth meet Cardigan Bay, with a sweeping Victorian seafront, a pier, a ruined thirteenth century castle left by Edward I, and a university that was founded in 1872 as the first in Wales. The university's old building on the seafront, a Gothic fantasy that began life as a hotel, tells you something about the ambitions of the founders, who raised the money from small donations from ordinary Welsh people. The National Library of Wales stands on a hill above the town and holds some of the country's greatest manuscripts.
Read the complete Aberystwyth write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Aberystwyth is where the day begins. Next is Harlech Castle.
When Edward I built his castles in Wales, he was not interested in subtlety. Harlech, raised between 1283 and 1289 by the master mason James of St George, sits on a rocky crag above the dunes of Cardigan Bay, with concentric walls, massive gatehouse and round towers that still look ready for a siege. It is one of the castles of Edward I in Gwynedd listed by UNESCO, together with Caernarfon, Conwy and Beaumaris. The sea once came almost to the foot of the rock, and a staircase down the cliff allowed the garrison to be supplied by boat; the coast has since moved, and now there is a broad plain of dunes and a golf course between the castle and the water.
Read the complete Harlech Castle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Harlech Castle comes up about 99 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri.
High above Porthmadog, in the empty upland between Cwm Pennant and Cwmystradllyn, two abandoned slate quarries sit like ruined castles on the hillside. Gorseddau and the Prince of Wales quarry are part of the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales, which UNESCO listed in 2021, and they tell a story of big hopes and quick failure. Gorseddau in particular was developed in the 1850s with money and ambition, a tramway and a grand multi-storey mill at Ynys-y-Pandy whose roofless stone shell still looks like an abbey. The slate turned out to be poor, and within a couple of decades the whole enterprise had wound down.
Read the complete Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 123 km into the recorded legs you reach Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri. Next is Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries.
Blaenau Ffestiniog is a town built on, among and out of slate. Great grey tips of waste rock tumble down the mountainsides around it, old quarry inclines climb the slopes, and the houses, chapels and walls are all made of the same dark stone. For a century and more this was one of the slate capitals of the world, roofing houses from London to Melbourne, and since 2021 it has been part of the UNESCO-listed Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales. It is not pretty in the conventional sense, but it is magnificent, and on a day of sun breaking through rain clouds it can look like a lunar landscape lit by spotlights.
Read the complete Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries, about halfway. Next is Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape.
Look at the Nantlle valley from the road and you see a green bowl with a ragged grey edge, as if someone had bitten the mountain. It is a place where the quarrying went down instead of along. The pits here are enormous, cut deep below the level of the lakes, with sheer sides, and the biggest of them, the Dorothea, became a flooded hole of cold green water. On the skyline, tips of waste slate lean against each other like broken plates. This is part of the slate landscape of north-west Wales that UNESCO listed in 2021, and the quarries here are among the oldest in the area, producing roofing slate from the eighteenth century and earlier.
Read the complete Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape sits at 132 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries comes up about 234 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 262 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri. Next is back through Harlech Castle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Harlech Castle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Harlech Castle, late in the day. Next is Aberystwyth.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Aberystwyth write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 383 km.
Aberystwyth → Harlech Castle is 99 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Harlech Castle → Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri → Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries → Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape → back through Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries → back through Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri → back through Harlech Castle is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Harlech Castle → Aberystwyth is 98 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.