Cobden's Hotel

Capel Curig (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈkɑːpɛl ˈkɨːrɪɡ]; meaning "Curig's Chapel") is a village and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales. Historically in Caernarfonshire, it lies in the heart of Snowdonia, on the River Llugwy, and has a population of 226, reducing slightly to 206 at the 2011 census. It lies at the junction of the A5 road from Bangor and Bethesda to Betws-y-Coed with the A4086 road from Caernarfon, Llanberis, Pen-y-Pass and Pen-y-Gwryd. It is surrounded by hills and mountains, including Moel Siabod and Pen Llithrig y Wrach.

Plas y Brenin, located in Conwy County Borough, Wales, is a National Outdoor Centre owned by Sport England. The centre is situated in Dyffryn Mymbyr, the Mymbyr Valley, in Snowdonia and is less than a quarter of a mile south-west of the centre of Capel Curig on the A4086 road.

Caer Llugwy, or Bryn-y-Gefeiliau, is the site of a Roman fort in a loop of the Afon Llugwy near Capel Curig in Conwy, Wales. It is notable in that there has been little development in the surrounding landscape: the valley in which it is situated being much as it was 2,000 years ago. It is a scheduled historic monument. The remains are on private land.

Craiglwyn is a top of Creigiau Gleision in Snowdonia, Wales, near Capel Curig. It lies at the south end of the Creigiau Gleision ridge, and offers good views of Carnedd Dafydd, Pen yr Helgi Du, Pen Llithrig y Wrach, Gallt yr Ogof, Tryfan and Moel Siabod.

Llynnau Mymbyr are two lakes located in Dyffryn Mymbyr, a valley running from the village of Capel Curig to the Pen-y-Gwryd hotel in Snowdonia, north-west Wales. The A4086 runs along their northern banks. Strictly speaking this is one lake, originally called Llyn Mymbyr, with a maximum depth of 30 feet. About 3/4 mile long in total, a delta has built up midway along the north shore, and this has to all purposes cut the lake in two - hence the plural name. The river feeding the lakes is the Nantygwryd (or Nant-y-gwryd), which has its source at Llyn Cwm-y-ffynnon, also marked on maps as the Nant Gwryd, which is a tributary of the Afon Llugwy. The two rivers join at Capel Curig. The lake was used for fly-fishing and sub-aqua courses in the 1960s and is still used today as a canoe training resource by Plas y Brenin and other local education authorities.

Llyn Goddionduon is a remote lake in the Gwydir Forest in north Wales. It lies at a height of 794 ft (242 m) and covers an area of 10 acres (40,000 m2). It is totally surrounded by coniferous forest, although a track leads up to it, enabling a water supply in the event of fire, and anglers also use this path. It is unusual in that it is totally natural, whereas nearly all of the other lakes in the forest have been partially or totally constructed as water sources for the mines which were scattered throughout the Forest. Some sources state that the correct name of the lake should be Llyn y Goeden (Lake of the Tree), but that an error on the maps resulted in the name Goddinduon (duon means "black" in Welsh, but Goddion is not a known word). The lake is stocked with brown trout by the Betws-y-coed Anglers Club. In 1890 an advert for Cobden's Hotel in Capel Curig (over a mile away) stated that this lake could be used by residents for fishing, and the Army Training Camp at Capel Curig still use the lake as a water supply.

Creigiau Gleision is a mountain in Snowdonia, Wales, near Capel Curig. It is the easternmost of the high Carneddau and is separated from the others by Llyn Cowlyd. Directly across this reservoir from Creigiau Gleision is Pen Llithrig y Wrach. To the north-east it runs into the broad ridge of Cefn Cyfarwydd.Creigiau Gleision affords splendid views in all directions, including northwards to the coast, and down the Ogwen Valley and Dyffryn Mymbyr towards Snowdon. In fact the mountain has three peaks, hence perhaps its plural name. The most southerly peak is the highest, at 678 metres (2,224 ft), and the O.S. map also marks the northerly peak (some ½ mile distant) at 634 metres (2,080 ft). Between these two lie a middle peak, of a height between the outer two, but cairnless and unmarked on the O.S. map. Colin Adams, author of The Mountain Walker's Guide to Wales (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2002), has reached the summit of Creigiau Gleision over 450 times. He claims that on many occasions he encountered a ghost there who has spoken to him, and although he makes no reference to this in his book, he wrote about it in 1999.

Llyn-y-Foel ("lake of the mountain" in Welsh) is a lake in Snowdonia, Wales. It is approximately 240 m across, 120 m wide and up to 2 m deep. It lies at 535m altitude at the foot of the main ridge of Moel Siabod at grid reference SH 714 547. The main outflow, at the south-east of the lake, forms one of the main tributaries of Afon Ystumiau, which eventually feeds into Afon Lledr and subsequently into Afon Conwy. The deep brown colour of the water, caused by the peat in the immediate area, gives rise to a unique type of brown trout which can only be found in this lake. Although the lake bears the name Llyn y Foel, it does have another name - Llyn Llygad yr Ych, the Lake of the Ox's Eye - which recounts a tale about an ox that lost an eye under the strain of pulling the dreadful afanc from Betws y Coed to Glaslyn below Snowdon. See Perrin, Jim. Visions of Snowdonia (London: BBC Books, 1997) ISBN 0-563-38302-X.

Llyn Cowlyd is the deepest lake in northern Wales. It lies in the Snowdonia National Park at the upper end of Cwm Cowlyd on the south-eastern edge of the Carneddau range of mountains, at a height of 1,164 feet (355 m) above sea level. The lake is long and narrow, measuring nearly 2 miles (3 km) long and about a third of a mile (500 m) wide, and covers an area of 269 acres (1.1 km2). It has a mean depth of 109 feet (33 m) and at its deepest has given soundings of 229 feet (70 m), this being some 45 ft (14 m) greater than its natural depth, the water surface having been raised twice by the building of dams.The surrounding hills drop steeply to the water's edge, from Cefn Cyfarwydd and Creigiau Gleision to the east, and Pen Llithrig y Wrach to the west, and as a consequence have not been forested in the 20th century, as were the slopes of neighbouring Llyn Crafnant. Indeed, there is not a tree to be seen, and the general aspect is one of bleakness. Dependent on the weather conditions, the waters often appear dark. The supply of water to Llyn Cowlyd is assisted at its south-western end by a leat which runs roughly east–west along the 1370-foot contour to the south and west of the lake, along the Llugwy valley. It is also fed by water from Llyn Eigiau. Llyn Cowlyd can be reached by road from Trefriw, some 3 miles (5 km) to the east, although the metalled road stops at a gate, the best part of a mile from the lake itself, beyond which private vehicles are not permitted. Llyn Cowlyd can also be reached by foot from Capel Curig, some 2 miles (3 km) away, from the ridge of Cefn Cyfarwydd, or from above Dolgarrog. A good path runs along the north-western shore of the lake. The stream which flows from Llyn Cowlyd is called Afon Ddu. This flows into the river Conwy, passing Pont Dolgarrog on the B5106 road, just south of the village of Dolgarrog. The gorge cut by the river at this point is popular for gorge walking.

The Afon Crafnant (English: River Crafnant) is a tributary of the River Conwy (Afon Conwy in Welsh), which is the main river of the Conwy valley in north-west Wales. It flows from picturesque Llyn Crafnant, joining the river Conwy at Trefriw. It is about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) in length. The river Geirionydd is a tributary which flows from Llyn Geirionydd. They have a confluence a little below the former Klondyke Mill, which used water from both rivers. Klondyke was a mining and milling complex connected with some of the metal mines of the Gwydir Forest. The Crafnant is also fed by a number of unnamed streams draining from Cefn Cyfarwydd, the ridge to the north-west. At Trefriw some water from the river is extracted to pass through the Trefriw Woollen Mills to generate hydro-electricity for the machinery, after which the river flows over the Fairy Falls, a popular attraction. Coed Crafnant, an area of woodland in the valley, is managed by the North Wales Wildlife Trust.

Llyn Crafnant is a lake that lies in a valley in Wales where the northern edge of the Gwydir Forest meets the lower slopes of the Carneddau mountains and, more specifically, the ridge of Cefn Cyfarwydd. The head of the valley offers a profile of crags which are silhouetted at sunset. The Forest Park guide (2002) states that "the (view along Llyn Crafnant) is one of the most breathtaking views in all Snowdonia". The summits include Crimpiau 475 metres (1,558 feet), and Craig Wen 548 metres (1,798 feet) which provide views to Moel Siabod and the Ogwen Valley, and Snowdon. Further up is Creigiau Gleision. At 63 acres (250,000 m2) it is the best part of a mile long, although it was clearly once much longer - its southern end shows the evidence of centuries of silting. Jehu's survey (see references) recorded a maximum depth of 71 ft (22 m). Crafnant takes its name from “craf”, an old Welsh word for garlic, and “nant”, a stream or valley. The lake can be reached by car only from Trefriw in the Conwy valley, though many visitors walk there from the village or from the neighbouring lake of Llyn Geirionydd, which runs parallel to it, but a mile distant, the two being separated by Mynydd Deulyn – “mountain of the two lakes”. The lake can also be reached on foot from Capel Curig. There is a Natural Resources Wales car park with toilets, which is reached just before the lake itself, and the lakeside cafe (open from Easter until late summer) offers car parking for patrons. The lake is a popular fishing spot, and is kept stocked with brown trout and rainbow trout. From the cafe, it is possible to hire boats for fishing or for pleasure. Private boating and swimming are not permitted. The lake is a reservoir and was dammed at its northern end in 1874, but the dam itself is barely visible as the outflow plunges down steeply from it. By the outflow is an obelisk, erected in 1896 by the inhabitants of Llanrwst which commemorates "the gift to that town of this lake with 19 acres (77,000 m2) of land" by Richard James. The lake is leased to the owners of what is now the cafe. In the upper part of the valley there is no mains water connection and during the particularly dry summer of 2006 many properties were without water. The River Crafnant ("Afon Crafnant" in Welsh) joins the River Conwy at Trefriw, but not before some of it has been diverted to pass through the Trefriw Woollen Mills to generate hydro-electricity for the machinery. Cornel, a large property in 25 acres (10 ha) on the southern banks of the lake, is owned and operated by the Welsh Scout Council. Areas around the lake have been used for location shots in Hollyoaks, Tomb Raider II, the 1981 fantasy movie Dragonslayer, and the lake also appeared briefly in the 1966 film Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment.

Creigiau Gleision North Top is a mountain in Snowdonia, Wales, near Capel Curig. It is a significant top on the Creigiau Gleision ridge, topping the north end of its crest. Views of Carnedd Llewelyn are better from this summit compared to the main Creigiau Gleision summit, due to less shielding from Pen Llithrig y Wrach.