Blaenau Ffestiniog
Blaenau Ffestiniog is a small town tucked up high in the mountains of Snowdonia and famous for its slate mines and railway. The slate mines are the largest of their kind in the world and are open to the public. The train service is famous for the route and its engineering. See below for further details.

The town itself is in a truly spectacular location, dominated by the mountains of Snowdonia and also the mountains of slate leftover from the once booming mining industry. Blaenau (as its locally known) has an adequate supply of cafes and eating establishments and accommodation should not be a problem.

The world famous Ffestiniog Railway runs 13 miles from the historic slate mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog in the mountains, through the spectacular scenery of the Snowdonia National Park, to the busy harbour town of Porthmadog.

Historic locomotives haul the little trains through rugged mountain terrain, through cuttings and tunnels on the 669ft descent to Porthmadog. The line passes through beautiful woods, past lakes and rivers clinging to the mountainside one minute and crossing picturesque pastureland the next. Most trains offer a buffet service and toilet facilities.

Llechwedd Slate Caverns are open to the public and give a good idea of how a working slate mine and village might have been. Passengers can travel underground and further on by foot to example the atmosphere of working slate in a cold and damp and near-dark environment; or they can visit some of the preserved quarrymen's cottages nearby in the Victorian Village which also has a pub and shops which use re-minted Victorian coins.