Llanberis

There are really two villages of Llanberis and Old Llanberis (or Nant Peris), lying on the south shores of Llyn Padarn and Llyn Peris respectively, about 2 miles apart, on the Caernarvon - Capel Curig road. They guard the approach to the magnificent, bare and bleak Pass of Llanberis, which runs past the shoulder of Snowdon to Nant Gwynant. Midway between the villages stand the ruins of Dolbadarn Castle, the old guardian of the pass. Llanberis, at the end of Llyn Padarn, is now almost a town. Here is the railway station, and the terminus of the line up Snowdon. Although the backbone of the village is made up of miners' cottages, there are railway hotels, good shops, and some big, pleasant houses on the lake shores. Old Llanberis, more or less joined to the new town by a string of houses along the road, is astride the neck of the pass. The church of St. Peris, in fifteenth-century Perpendicular style, has an ancient roof. There is a healing well nearby. Llanbenis has been spoilt by the slate quarries, and if you want the best view of Snowdon you won't get it here. Yet the quarries are dwarfed by the majesty of Y Wyddfa rising above the steep ridge of Clogwyn d'ur Arddu, and there is a grim splendour still about the scene. The town, too, is a useful centre for climbers, as, apart from the line and track up Snowdon, there are good walks either up the Pass or north over to Ogwen.