Pen y Gwryd, originally an early 19th century farm, then a hotel, achieved fame as the birthplace, in 1898, of the Climbers’ Club, and later as the base from which members of the successful 1953 Mount Everest Expedition trained and tested the expedition’s oxygen equipment. This reflects perhaps the most prominent use of the mountains of North Wales from the latter half of the 20th century up to the present. Yet within a mile of Pen y Gwryd is ample evidence that the land here has been occupied since prehistoric times.
From the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age
A short ascent of the slopes to the south of the hotel, and east of the A498 road, leads to an area of peat bog, small patches of which have been dug, relatively recently, for use as fuel. These diggings have revealed the presence of tree stumps that have been radio-carbon dated to around 5700 years ago. Beetles and pollen that were preserved in the acid peat suggest that, rather than thick forests, as previously thought, the hillsides were clothed by more open woodland of mainly oak and alder. There is also evidence of some burning, which suggests late Mesolithic and early Neolithic human influence on the environment.
A few hundred metres’ walk back toward Pen y Gwryd brings one to a crumbled cairn, or tumulus, a burial mound that dates from 3500-4000 years ago. This is the period during which the Beaker Culture, from Europe, which was characterised by distinctive pottery drinking vessels and cinerary urns, was rapidly spreading through the British Isles. Such cairns are found throughout Britain, and reflect the various funerary rituals, from burial of bones to cremation, by which the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age people expressed their diverse cosmologies and their relationships with the environment.
Structures in Times of Conflict
On looking down toward Pen y Gwryd, one can discern the outline of a Roman fort, covering an area of four hectares around the hotel. Rather than a permanent structure, this appears to have been a transient fort, occupied by 2000 soldiers during one of the campaigns, either in 60 AD or 76 AD, against the powerful Druids of Anglesey. These campaigns, the first led by Suetonius Paulinus and the second by Agricola, are described by the historian, Tacitus.
A short descent brings one to the A498 road, on the far side of which stands a World War II pill box. More of these can be seen to the north. Built as part of the Western Command defences against a possible German invasion from the west, they now enjoy the same level of protection as their more ancient neighbours.
Farming Through the Centuries
A few metres to the south of the pill box, a jumble of boulders is all that remains of a 16th or 17th century long house, which was used as a dwelling by herdsmen supervising sheep and cattle in their summer hillside pastures.
Running south to Nant Gwynant, and slowly diverging from the A498, is a rubble track that was once the main road into the valley. This leads gently downhill for a mile, to a scattering of circular structures, which are themselves enclosed within a larger circle. These are the remains of a 2700-year-old settlement that was occupied from the late Bronze Age into the Roman period. They represent a time when the communities were more settled, and farming had become a way of life, with grain crops and root vegetables growing in fields and animals grazing on upland pastures. The walls of these houses were probably little higher than they are now, with a ring of wooden posts supporting a thatched roof.
On the lower reaches of the slopes that rise to the west is a network of dry stone walls. The lower of these are irregular in shape, enclose tiny areas and were probably built over generations during the 16th or 17th centuries. Above these are much more geometrically aligned walls, which are of late 18th or early 19th century origin, and date from the period when the land was being enclosed by the large landowners.
20th Century Hydro-electric Energy
The most prominent structure in this part of the valley is the Cwm Dyli Power Station. Sometimes referred to as ‘the Chapel in the Valley’, because of its appearance, this was built in 1905, and is the oldest hydro-electricity, AC-generating power station in Britain. It is still fed by a pipe that carries water for a mile downhill from Llyn Llydaw Reservoir, which fills the floor of the cwm defined by the circle of mountains known as the Snowdon Horseshoe. In 1912, Cwm Dyli provided the electricity for Marconi’s first transatlantic radio transmission.
Anthony Toole - I was born and brought up in the English Lake District, where I have walked and climbed for most of my life. I was educated as a scientist ...
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