CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 348 km round trip from Betws-y-Coed - roughly 5 h 53 in the saddle. It goes by way of Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls, Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G, Harlech Castle and Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 43 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Betws-y-Coed is where Snowdonia gets its coat on. The village sits at the meeting of three valleys, the Conwy, the Llugwy and the Lledr, in a wooded hollow ringed by steep hills, and it has been a base for walkers, painters and tourists since the Victorian era. Stone houses and outdoor shops line the main street, and cafés serve large mugs of tea to damp hikers. The resident population is small, and in summer the village hosts many times that number.
Read the complete Betws-y-Coed write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Betws-y-Coed is where the day begins. Next is Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls.
Long before Edward, Caernarfon was Roman, and before that it was legend. The Roman fort of Segontium stood on a hill above the modern town, a garrison post guarding the Menai Strait and the copper of Anglesey, and its foundations can still be seen, with a small museum beside them. The Mabinogion, the medieval Welsh story collection, tells how the emperor Macsen Wledig, the historical Magnus Maximus, dreamed of a beautiful maiden and a fortress at the mouth of a river, and travelled across the world to find them. The place he found, in the tale, was Caernarfon. Whatever the truth, Welsh tradition ties the town to a sense of ancient dignity.
Read the complete Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls comes up 46 km in. Next is Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G.
Edward I built Caernarfon to be unmistakable. Begun in 1283, after his conquest of Wales, the castle rises beside the Menai Strait with polygonal towers and bands of coloured stone that echo, it is said, the walls of Constantinople, a deliberate reference to imperial power. The King wanted a seat of government as well as a fortress, and the town walls were built to enclose a planted English borough, so the whole thing was an act of colonisation in stone. UNESCO listed Edward's castles and town walls in Gwynedd in 1986, together with Conwy, Harlech and Beaumaris, and Caernarfon is the grandest of them.
Read the complete Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
91 km in you reach Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G. 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, about halfway. Next is Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal.
You hear it before you understand it: water running in an iron trough thirty-eight metres above the River Dee, on stone piers so slender they look drawn rather than built. Thomas Telford and William Jessop finished the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in 1805 to carry what is now the Llangollen Canal across the valley, and more than two centuries later narrowboats still glide over it, steered by people trying very hard not to look down. There is a towpath on one side with railings; on the other side there is only the edge of the trough and air. Walk across if you have a head for heights. It is one of the strangest and best ten minutes in Wales.
Read the complete Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal sits at 182 km, about halfway. 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 comes up 228 km in. Next is back through Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
273 km in you reach back through Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G. Next is back through Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls, late in the day. Next is Betws-y-Coed.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Betws-y-Coed write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 348 km.
Betws-y-Coed → Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G → Harlech Castle is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Harlech Castle → Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal is 94 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal → back through Harlech Castle is 94 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Harlech Castle → back through Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls → Betws-y-Coed is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.