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Blaenau Ffestiniog boasts several major tourist attractions, including the Ffestiniog Railway, and also the Llechwedd Slate Caverns, a former slate mine open to visitors. Llechwedd is regularly listed as one of Wales' top 5 visitor attractions.
Located in the mountains of Snowdonia, the town was once a major centre of the slate mining industry. This industry declined during the early 20th century. The town's economy is now largely dependent on tourism. Although the town is in the centre of the Snowdonia National Park, the boundaries of the Park are specifically arranged to omit the town with its substantial slate waste heaps from the Park.
Today Blaenau Ffestiniog railway station on the site of the former Great Western station serves as a combined station for the Ffestiniog Railway and the Conwy Valley line, the previous stations being no longer in use.
The main access route to Blaenau Ffestiniog is via the A470 road which runs from the north to the south of Wales. The A497, which runs West to East, feeds the Lleyn Penninsula into the A487 (which runs from Bangor through Cearnarfon and into Porthmadog, which in turn connects with the North South A470. The Immediately to the north of the town the road climbs steeply to the Crimea Pass and meets the A5 at Betws y Coed.
The Ffestiniog Railway
The railway is about 13.5 miles (21.5 km) long and runs from the harbour at Porthmadog to the slate mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. The line travels through spectacular mountainous scenery and is single track with passing places. The track gauge is 1 ft 111⁄2 in (597 mm). The first part of the line runs along a mile-long embankment called "the Cob", which is the dyke of the Traeth Mawr "polder". The Cob was built between 1807 and 1811 by William Madocks and in addition to its land reclamation function in conjunction with sluice gates at the Britannia bridge, serves also as a roadway (since 1836 this has been at a lower level on the landward side) and a bridge across the Afon Glaslyn. Tolls were charged with a tollgate at Boston Lodge until 2003, when the rights were purchased by the National Assembly for Wales. The higher, original, section of the Cob carries, in addition to the railway, a public footpath throughout virtually its entire length. There is no fencing between the footpath and the railway. |
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About Blaenau Ffestiniog |
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