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.
From Harlech it runs 418 km to Harlech; allow about 6 h 19 of riding. It goes by way of Bryneglwys Slate Quarry, Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries, Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls and Conwy Castle and Town Walls. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 37 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.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Bryneglwys Slate Quarry.
High above the village of Abergynolwyn, in a side valley where the sheep outnumber everyone, the spoil heaps of Bryneglwys tell you that this quiet corner of southern Snowdonia was once an industrial place. Slate was cut here through the second half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, and the whole reason the little Talyllyn Railway exists is to carry it down the valley to the coast at Tywyn. The quarry finally closed just after the Second World War, and the railway, which should have died with it, was taken over by volunteers in 1951 and became the first preserved railway in the world. You can still walk up from the old incline at Nant Gwernol into the quarry workings, past roofless barracks and wheel pits, with streams running through all of it.
Read the complete Bryneglwys Slate Quarry write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bryneglwys Slate Quarry comes up 43 km in. 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.
86 km in you reach Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries. 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, about halfway. 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 sits at 173 km, about halfway. 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 comes up 216 km in. 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.
259 km in you reach back through Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries. Next is back through Bryneglwys Slate Quarry.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bryneglwys Slate Quarry write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bryneglwys Slate Quarry, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 418 km.
Harlech Castle → Bryneglwys Slate Quarry is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bryneglwys Slate Quarry → Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries → Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls → Conwy Castle and Town Walls is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Conwy Castle and Town Walls → back through Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Caernarfon Castle and Town Walls → back through Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries → back through Bryneglwys Slate Quarry is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bryneglwys Slate Quarry → Harlech Castle is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.