Snowdon

Snowdon, a mountain-range in Carnarvonshire, North Wales, stretches in a north-east-by-north direction from a point 5 miles N. of Crickieith, near the head of Cardigan Bay, to near Conway, but is broken up by valleys and river-courses into five distinct summits, the chief of which, Moel-y-Wyddfa ('conspicuous peak'), the highest mountain in south Britain, was shown by the new Ordnance map of 1889 to rise only 3560 (not 3571) feet above sea-level, and is crowned by two huts, the 'Hotel.' Seen from the top, Moel-y-Wyddfa, the 'King of Snowdonia,' appears to send out three ridges, which gradually divide and subdivide, giving birth to numerous valleys and corries. Its ascent is effected from Llanberis (on the north), Beddgelert (on the south), Snowdon Ranges station (on the west), and Capel Curig (on the east). The first is short (5 miles) and the easiest—a railway was opened in 1896; the last the longest (9 miles) and most difficult, but far the grandest. 'Snowdonia' was made a royal forest by Edward I. of England, and disafforested in 1649. In 1889 Sir E. W. Watkin purchased Snowdon for £5750. See Huson, Round about Snowdon (1893).—Snowdon was also an old name for Stirling.