Adventures in
North Wales.

Snowdonia is the headline — the most concentrated mountain country south of the Scottish Highlands — but North Wales also holds the UK's first purpose-built mountain bike centre, surf-coast beaches on the Llyn, and ridge sites that fly when nothing on the South Downs will.

North Wales runs from the Eryri / Snowdonia National Park west onto the Llyn Peninsula, north along the Conwy coast to Anglesey, and east through the Vale of Clwyd to Llangollen and the Welsh Marches. Nine spots in the directory cover hiking, climbing, mountain biking, surfing, wakeboarding and paragliding.

Snowdonia itself is the centre of gravity. The Glyderau, the Carneddau and the Snowdon massif hold the most varied mountain climbing in Britain — Tryfan and Lliwedd for atmospheric trad, the Llanberis Pass for the classic single-pitch and multi-pitch lines, the Dinorwig slate quarries for sport. Coed y Brenin, on the southern edge of the park near Dolgellau, is the UK's first purpose-built mountain bike trail centre — opened in 1996 and still the reference for the format.

West of Snowdonia, the Llyn Peninsula points 30 miles into the Irish Sea. Hells Mouth (Porth Neigwl) is the longest west-facing surf bay in north Wales, with consistent Atlantic swell and an unusual mix of holding shape at multiple sizes. Glasfryn Cable Wakeparc near Pwllheli is the only cable park on the peninsula. North-east, the Horseshoe Pass above Llangollen is a long-running paragliding ridge with the cleanest west-wind fetch in the region.

The geography is dense. From Llanberis you can be on Snowdon's ridge by mid-morning, in the slate quarries by lunch, and bodysurfing at Hells Mouth in the afternoon — if you're prepared to drive an hour either side. The bilingual signage is genuine; Welsh is the everyday language in Llanberis, Dolgellau and the Llyn.