Betws-y-Coed is the principal village of the Snowdonia National Park This location is the Tourist Information & Snowdonia National Park, official Visitor Center. (
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Snowdonia National Park Situated on the west coast of Britain, in the beautiful area of North Wales. With over 800 sq miles of mountains, forest, rivers & lakes. Many historic Roman Forts, Medieval Churches, & Castles by the score, Snowdonia is a living working area, home to over 26,000 people. Welsh is the main language to 2 thirds of the population. The park is a very popular tourist hotspot, with amazing opportunities to hike, climb, take part in watersports and even paint a picture or photograph the spectacular scenery all around.
The official website for Snowdonia describes the geology:
"Stone Age burial chambers, Roman forts, churches, castles, slate quarries and other industrial works are dotted throughout the area. The slate distinctly covers the mountains where it has been quarried creating steep drops or slippery slopes and gleaming blue in the rain.
Snowdonia National Park was established in 1951 and is the second largest of the 11 National Parks in England and Wales. The Park covers 2,132 square km (823 square miles) and stretches from Cardigan Bay's High Water Mark in the west, to the Conwy Valley in the east and from the River Dyfi and its estuary in the south to the coast of Conwy Bay as far as Conwy in the north.
The Snowdonia National Park takes its name from Snowdon which, at 1085m (3,560 feet), is the highest peak in Wales and higher than any peak in England. In Welsh, Snowdon used to be called Yr Wyddfa Fawr (the Great Tomb or the Great Throne) or Carnedd y Cawr (the Cairn of the Giant). Nowadays it is simply called Yr Wyddfa, but the various names bear testament to a land steeped in legends, history and tradition. This is the ancient Kingdom of Gwynedd, the heart of Wales and the stronghold of 'Cymraeg', the Welsh Language. The Welsh name for the National Park is Eryri (The Highland).
Snowdonia is synonymous with extensive areas of windswept uplands and jagged peaks, the "raison d'être" for its National Park designation. The nine mountain ranges cover approximately 52% of the Park and include many peaks that are over 3000 feet (915m). Apart from the beauty and charm of its high mountains, Snowdonia has inspiring natural and semi-natural habitats. It is a delightfully varied landscape of steep river gorges, waterfalls, passes and green valleys. Remnants of the once common oak, ash, rowan and hazel woodlands are found scattered throughout the Park whilst the beautiful Dyfi, Mawddach and Dwyryd estuaries and 23 miles of coastline and sandy beaches contribute to the overall diversity of habitat forms. This range of habitats is recognised nationally and internationally by the numerous designations ranging from Local Conservation Areas and Sites of Special Scientific Interest to Special Areas of Conservation and the Dyfi Estuary which is a proposed World Biosphere Site.
The Geology of Snowdonia:
The complex and diverse geology of Snowdonia has done much to shape the present landscape as land and sea have changed place more than once. Great mountain ranges have been pushed up out of the oceans only to be slowly eroded away, their debris carried by the rivers and laid on the sea bed to form the substance of future mountains. Volcanic rocks have produced distinctive features on Snowdon, Cadair Idris, the Glyderau, the Carneddau and Arenig.
A distinguishing feature of the rocks of Snowdonia is that some are ancient. The fossil shell fragments on the summit of Snowdon are a memory of life on the seabed over 500 million years ago. The oldest physical feature of Snowdonia is probably the ‘Harlech Dome’ created in the Cambrian era before the volcanoes erupted. Snowdon and Cadair Idris form the northern and southern extents of the dome respectively. What we now know as the Rhinogydd stand at the centre, on what was the original ‘uplift’ of sedimentary rocks, composed of muds and sands, but later altered by the volcanic activity to become the slates and grits of today. In recent geological terms, Ice Age activity has done much to shape the landscape. The glaciers that were at their peak 18,000 years ago in Snowdonia scoured out great U-shaped valleys including Llanberis and Nant Gwynant in the north and Tal-y-Llyn in the south. The same period also formed rocky ‘cwms’ or corries, hanging tributary valleys many of which have breath-taking waterfalls cascading over them, whilst the characteristic pinnacled knife edge ridges or arêtes like Crib Goch are found where two ‘cwms’ formed on either side of a mountain.
Snowdonia's landscape illustrates the history of the area through Stone Age burial chambers, Roman forts, churches, castles, slate quarries and other industrial works.
Ancient stone burial chambers indicate the intimate relationship humans and wildlife have had in Snowdonia since 4000 BC. Since these Neolithic times, Eryri has been dominated by a pastoral tradition. A variety of livestock was farmed in Eryri until the Enclosure Acts in the late 18th Century when sheep displaced cattle as the predominant livestock.
With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, numerous mines and hillside galleries were opened with significant impacts on the region and its communities. However, throughout this period traditional farming practices were largely maintained. After the Second World War an enormous increase in recreational use, together with rapid changes in agricultural practices, had a significant impact on the landscape of Eryri.
Today the main land-use is sheep farming and, to a lesser extent, cattle farming with coniferous forestry becoming more important relatively recently. The tourism industry continues to grow with many coastal towns having already developed as seaside resorts and yachting ports." Text Source: (
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Tourist Information & Visitor Center Website: (
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