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.
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 Bethesda it runs 103 km to Bethesda; allow about 1 h 55 of riding. The stops in between: Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G, Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri and back through Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 19 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G comes up 23 km in. 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.
45 km in you reach Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri. 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.
back through Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G, late in the day. Next is 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 at Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda. That is the ride.
Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda → Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G → Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarri → back through Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in G → Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.