Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape and Conwy Castle and Town Walls

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda.

2. 2. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Conwy Castle and Town Walls.

3. 3. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 65 km into the recorded legs you reach Conwy Castle and Town Walls. Next is back through Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda.

4. 4. back through Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda, late in the day. Next is Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape.

5. 5. Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape. That is the ride.