Lôn Las Ogwen: Porth Penrhyn, Bangor - there and back 7.35km (pram friendly)
Today was a really, easy walk with both girls. To give my back a break I decided to choose a route where Anwen could go in the pushchair. I prefer doing circular routes for the variation but this one is an out and back.
Lôn Las Ogwen is a multi user path which runs 17.46km between Porth Penrhyn in Bangor and Llyn Ogwen. It mainly follows the route of the old railway line that brought slate down the valley from the Penrhyn Slate Quarry in Bethesda to the coast, where it was shipped around the world.
The section we (nearly) completed today, between Porth Penrhyn and Glasinfryn, was developed in the 1980s and is known as Lôn Bach (Little Road).
Distance: 7.35km (according to Strava, so slightly less in reality!)
Time taken: 2 hrs
Parking: Yes- free.
Facilities: No, but there’s plenty in Bangor itself.
To park you turn off the A5 towards Porth Penrhyn on the outskirts of Bangor. Take the first left after this down the hill, cross the river and park at the free car park behind the Old Port Office. The route is very well signed and runs on the bank of the Afon Cegin. (Afon = River)
Porth Penrhyn
Porth Penrhyn is a harbour that was formerly of great importance as the main port for the export of slate from the Penrhyn Quarry, the largest slate quarry in the world at the end of the 19th Century. It was built, and later expanded, by the Pennant family of the nearby Castell Penrhyn (Castell=Castle.)
As soon as you set off on the path you’ll immediately spot the high walls that mark the boundary of the Penrhyn Estate. The track we are walking on follows the former Penrhyn Quarry Railway trackbed. Look out for the Slate Trail signs which give lots of information about the industrial heritage of the area. There are paths splitting from the main route at regular intervals, but if you stay on the main route you can’t go wrong.
Penrhyn Quarry Railway
The railway was a narrow gauge railway of around 9.7km long. It first opened in 1798 as the Llandegai Tramway. The success of the tramway encouraged the owners of the Penrhyn quarry to consider a similar tramway from their slate quarry to Porth Penrhyn. The plan subsumed the existing tramway into a longer railway. It became the Penrhyn Railway in 1801. The line was one of the earliest narrow gauge railways in the world. The railway was operated by horse power along with gravity and three balanced inclines. By the early 1870s the railway was no longer able to keep up with the output of the Penrhyn Quarry and by 1874 the decision had been made to replace the railroad with a steam locomotive worked railway without rope-hauled inclines.
Immediately after the Second World War, there was a short boom in demand for Welsh slate. However, this proved to be a short- lived period of success and cheap foreign imports and new man-made roofing materials quickly began to eat into the market for the more expensive Penrhyn product. A steady decline in traffic through the 1950s and growth in the use of roads for transporting slates direct from the quarry to market meant the end of the railway was inevitable. In June 1962, the last slate train ran, though a few unofficial trips were run as late as Summer 1963.
Easy walking with children.
Open views to Eryri.
Not the longest blog today. This was an easy, straightforward route with some nice views. I believe it gets a little steeper as you go along but I’m looking forwards to walking the next stages and reaching Llyn Ogwen eventually.
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