Pen-y-Gwryd

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The Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel
The Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel

Pen-y-Gwryd is a pass at the head of Nantygwryd and Nant Cynnyd rivers in Gwynedd, North Wales and a quarter of a mile from the boundary with Conwy in northern Snowdonia, close to the foot of Snowdon. It is located at the junction of the A4086 from Capel Curig to Llanberis and Caernarfon and the A498 from Beddgelert and Nant Gwynant about a mile from the head of the Llanberis Pass, and is the site of the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel.

Contents

[edit] A Short History of Pen-y-Gwryd from 1810 to present

Pen-y-Gwryd 1891
Pen-y-Gwryd 1891
Ann & Henry Owen
Ann & Henry Owen
Early climbing party Pen-y-Gwryd
Early climbing party Pen-y-Gwryd

The Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel was originally a simple farmhouse dating from 1811 and would become an Inn under the auspices of a John Roberts from Llanberis [1], who eventually sold the Inn (c1940) and left for America. A Mrs. Hughes, who was the widow of the first landlord of the Capel Curig Inn, a Joseph Grifith, (which became The Royal Hotel, now Plas-y-Brenin) and later the widow of Reverend Robert Hughes Capel Curig, took over the Inn (c1843). In 1847 Henry Owen acquired the Inn [2], both he and his wife Ann would run the Inn until 1896 when Mrs. Owen died, Mr. Owen having died in 1891. During the Owens tenure the Inn's status for its comfort and hospitality [3] would only be surpassed by its connection with mountaineering in North Wales [4]. In May 1898 The Climbers Club originated at Pen-y-Gwryd, as it is recorded in its first journal "....its natural birth at Pen-y-Gwryd" and "...its congenial atmosphere...... (The Climbers Club) first struck it's roots". The Climbers Club is now based at Helyg on the A5 between Capel Curig and Ogwen Cottage.

In1870 the Society of Welsh Rabbits (c1865) came into being, the object of which was to explore Snowdonia in winter, and as close to Christmas as possible. Anne Owen related a story to Mr. Carr (author) in 1895, that some thirty years ago that the society had written an article "praising Pen-y-Gwryd as an excellent resort at Christmas", prior to that Mrs. Owen went on to say " ....we rarely, if ever, had a guest at Christmas and since then we have hardly been without guests during the period"

Ten years of indifferent fortune passed before Miss. Roberts from The Royal Hotel, Capel Curig took over the running of the hotel, however it was not until William Hampson along with Arthur and Florence Lockwood took ownership and further developed the property, and in the 1920's created the small trout lake, Llyn Lockwood, opposite the hotel. Under their management the hotel and its mountaineering traditions develop once again. During the second world war, the hotel was taken over by Lake House School from Bexhill-on-Sea.

One hundred years after the Owen's drove the hotel and its mountaineering connection into the public consciousness , Chris and Joe Briggs, at the same time, both improved the hotel and enhanced its mountaineering links by becoming a Mountain rescue post (the plaque is still attached to main entrance), whilst maintaining the hotel's history.

The Pen-y-Gwryd mountain rescue post was closely tied with the two other mountain rescue posts in the area, namely Ogwen Cottage Outdoor pursuits Center now the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation and Plas y Brenin.

The hotel's most notable mountaineering connections are largely due the first successful Everest expedition in 1953 and the Kangchenjunga expedition in 1955, where training and testing of Oxygen equipment for those expeditions took place, at Helyg near Capel Curig. On the right as you enter the hotel there is a Tyrolean style Stuberl with the signatures, written on the ceiling, of the team that did the first ascent of Everest in 1953 and of the successful first ascent of Kangchenjunga in 1955, these include Sir Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay, Sir John Hunt, Charles Evans, George Band, Joe Brown, John Angelo Jackson[5], Wilfred Noyce[6], Tony Streather, Tom Mackinnon, Norman Hardie, Neil Mather, John Clegg and others including Noel Odell from Mallory's 1924 expedition and Chris Bonnington of later successes. There are many photographs and exhibits provided by the original team members in the main bar and guest lounge. In the past each year, now every five years, Pen-y-Gwryd hosts the Everest and Kangchenjunga reunions.

Everest Reunion Pen-y-Gwryd 1963
Everest Reunion Pen-y-Gwryd 1963
Kangchenjunga planning at Pen-y-Gwryd (c1950)
Kangchenjunga planning at Pen-y-Gwryd (c1950)
Kangchenjunga reunion at Pen-y-Gwryd 1990
Kangchenjunga reunion at Pen-y-Gwryd 1990
Chris Briggs on a mountain rescue 1971
Chris Briggs on a mountain rescue 1971

Other notable visitors include: Charles Kingsley & Henry Kingsley, William Ewart Gladstone (Gladstones), Augustine Birrell, Walter Parry Haskett Smith, Thomas Huxley, Lord Coleridge - past and present (at the time of writing), John Henry Cliffe "Notes and recollections of an Angler (1860), Andrew Ramsay [7], George Mallory in 1914 & Jack Hawkins (actor - Lawrence of Arabia and the Cruel Sea).

[edit] The Roman camp

Surveying of the site prior to excavation of the Roman Camp in 1960
Surveying of the site prior to excavation of the Roman Camp in 1960

The Roman marching camp lies at head of Dyffryn Mymbyr below Snowdon and Moel Berfedd [8][9]. Nothing remains of this camp but grass and bramble covered mounds. The site was first excavated in 1960 by early surveying courses from Plas-y-Brenin under the auspices of Dr. Josephine "Jo" Scarr, now Dr. Josephine Flood. The camp had no permanent buildings, as it was used mainly as an emergency camp on the march from Chester to Caernarvon.

The camp is difficult to observe due to erosion and local land usage, was roughly diamond shaped, the ditch approximately 5ft wide and 2ft deep below the turf-line with a rampart of 8 to 9 ft wide. The Northern rampart runs through the current location of the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel.[10]

[edit] The surrounding area

The "PYG track", one of the routes leading to the summit of Snowdon, begins opposite the youth hostel at Pen-y-Pass, and its name is believed by many to be derived from the initials ("P-y-G"). Older maps, however, label the path as the "Pig track" and the name derives from Bwlch y Moch (the Pigs' Gap), where the path passes through a spur. The Old Miners' Track from the Snowdon copper mines (incorporated into the modern A4086 road between Pen-y-Pass and Pen-y-Gwryd) continues northwards beyond Pen-y-Gwryd, skirting Glyder Fach to Bwlch Tryfan and Dyffryn Ogwen.

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ H.R.C. Carr & G.A. Lister (2nd edition 1948). "IV", The Mountains of Snowdonia. Crosby Lockwood & Son Ltd, p. 60. 
  2. ^ H.R.C. Carr & G.A. Lister (2nd edition 1948). "IV", The Mountains of Snowdonia. Crosby Lockwood & Son Ltd, p. 64. 
  3. ^ Charles Kingsley (1857). Two Years Ago. 
  4. ^ H.R.C. Carr & G.A. Lister (2nd edition 1948). "IV", The Mountains of Snowdonia. Crosby Lockwood & Son Ltd, p. 73. 
  5. ^ Jamie Owen (2005). "IV", Welsh Journeys:Snowdon. Gomer Press, p. 79-101. ISBN 1-84323-569-2. 
  6. ^ Wilfred Noyce (1954). "I", South Col: One mans adventure on the ascent of Everest 1953. William Heinemann, p. 8/11. 
  7. ^ H.R.C. Carr & G.A. Lister (2nd edition 1948). "IV", The Mountains of Snowdonia. Crosby Lockwood & Son Ltd, p. 67. 
  8. ^ D.R. Wilson; R. P. Wright (1964). Roman Britain in 1963: I. Sites Explored:II. Inscriptions. The Journal of Roman Studies vol. 54: pp. 152-185. 
  9. ^ Mr. J. E. Jones (1963). Archeology in Wales 1963. Caernarvonshire Inventory II. 
  10. ^ D.R. Wilson; R. P. Wright (1964). Roman Britain in 1963: I. Sites Explored:II. Inscriptions. The Journal of Roman Studies vol. 54: pp. 152. 

[edit] References

  • Snowdonia, National Park Guide Number 2, edited Edmund Vale, HMSO 1958/1960
  • "A Scrapbook of Snowdonia", Vernon Hall, Arthur H. Stockwell Ltd., 1982, ISBN 0722316224

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 53.08256° N 4.00203° W

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