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 Liverpool it runs 392 km to Liverpool; allow about 5 h of riding. The stops in between: Conwy Castle and Town Walls, Beaumaris Castle, Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda and Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
13 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 43 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.
Liverpool owes its looks to the sea. The three great buildings on the waterfront, the Royal Liver Building with its two bronze Liver birds, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building, are known as the Three Graces, and they were built in the early twentieth century when the city was one of the richest ports in the world. The Albert Dock, with its brick warehouses, is now a place to eat and visit museums, but it also tells the story of the trade that made Liverpool, including the dark chapter of its role in the slave trade, which the International Slavery Museum examines frankly. The city lost its UNESCO listing in 2021, after arguments over new development along the waterfront.
Read the complete Liverpool write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Liverpool is where the day begins. Next is Conwy Castle and Town Walls.
Edward I built Conwy Castle in just four years, from 1283 to 1287, as part of his campaign to subdue the Welsh, and the result is one of the most impressive medieval fortresses in Europe. Designed by the master mason James of St George, it stands on a rock above the estuary of the Conwy river, with eight massive towers and high curtain walls, and the town below is still enclosed by its original walls, with twenty-one towers and three gateways. Walking along the walls gives superb views of the town, the castle, the estuary and the mountains of Snowdonia. The castles and town walls of King Edward in Gwynedd were inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1986.
Read the complete Conwy Castle and Town Walls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Conwy Castle and Town Walls comes up about 89 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beaumaris Castle.
Beaumaris is often called the most perfect castle never finished. Edward I began it in 1295 on the shore of Anglesey, at the northern entrance to the Menai Strait, as the last of his great chain of fortresses built to hold down Wales after his conquest. His architect, Master James of St George, designed it as a perfectly symmetrical concentric castle: an inner ring of high walls and towers, an outer ring of lower walls, and a moat linked to the sea so that supply ships could sail up to a dock at the gate. Money ran out, the Scottish wars took priority, and the towers never reached their planned height. Even so, it is a masterpiece of military design, and with the castles of Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech it is listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Beaumaris Castle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 129 km into the recorded legs you reach Beaumaris Castle. Next is Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda.
The Penrhyn Quarry is a hole you can see from a long way off. For much of the nineteenth century it was the biggest slate quarry in the world, a huge series of grey terraces cut into the mountain above Bethesda, and the roofs of half of Britain and of cities as far away as Hamburg after its great fire came from here. Its owner, Lord Penrhyn, was a rich and stubborn man, and in 1900 his quarrymen began a strike that lasted three years, one of the longest and bitterest labour disputes in British history. The community of Bethesda, named after a chapel, was split by it, and the memories are still sensitive. The whole slate landscape of north-west Wales was listed by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda, about halfway. 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 sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda comes up about 239 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Beaumaris Castle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beaumaris Castle 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 Beaumaris Castle. Next is back through Conwy Castle and Town Walls.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Conwy Castle and Town Walls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Conwy Castle and Town Walls, late in the day. Next is Liverpool.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Liverpool write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 392 km.
Liverpool → Conwy Castle and Town Walls is 89 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Conwy Castle and Town Walls → Beaumaris Castle is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beaumaris Castle → Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda → Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries → back through Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda → back through Beaumaris Castle is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beaumaris Castle → back through Conwy Castle and Town Walls is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Conwy Castle and Town Walls → Liverpool is 89 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.