Читать книгу Great Mountain Days in Snowdonia. 40 classic routes exploring Snowdonia онлайн

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Rock lichen

Wild pony, Eastern Carneddau (Walk 12)

SNOWDON AND MOEL EILIO

Llyn Llydaw from Bwlch y Ciliau (Walk 1)

Snowdon summit from Bwlch Ciliau (Walk 1)

The popularity of Snowdon, Yr Wyddfa in Welsh, has scarcely diminished since the first recorded ascent by the botanist Thomas Johnson in 1639. However, the 18th-century Welsh historian Thomas Pennant mentions a ‘triumphal fair upon this our chief of mountains’ following Edward I’s conquest of Wales in 1284, which, if true, indicates the likelihood of significantly earlier ascents. And although all the early ascents were by scientists of one breed or another, by the time Norfolk-born author George Borrow appeared on the scene to quote Welsh poetry from Snowdon’s summit in the middle of the 19th century, he and his companion were ‘far from being the only visitors to the hill…groups of people, or single individuals, might be seen going up or descending the path as far as the eye could reach.’

Yr Wyddfa is known to everyone as ‘Snowdon’, the highest and arguably the most popular summit in England and Wales. The name Yr Wyddfa, like that of Pen y Gadair to the south, is a name with origins in legend. It is said, although there is no archaeological evidence to support it, that the summit of Yr Wyddfa is the tomb of Rhita Gawr, a fierce, king-killing giant who dressed himself in a cloak made from the beards of those he had killed. Rhita was eventually slain by King Arthur, who had a great cairn thrown over the giant on top of the highest mountain in Eryri.