The National Trust is responsible for 15,000 acres of beautiful, fascinating, historic and diverse countryside in Snowdonia – Eryri, as it is called in Welsh.
© NTPL / Joe Cornish
You may remember that 10 years ago, the Trust launched the Save Snowdon Appeal to acquire an important part of Snowdon itself. Well, with the help of a great many generous people we managed it, and since then, the team have been working to keep it as wonderful as it has been for thousands of years.
However, in order to sustain the conservation effort, we need to raise more money.
© NTPL / Joe Cornish
500,000 people climb to the top of Snowdon every year. When you combine that with the climate we get in this part of the world (i.e. lots of rain!) we have a major problem with eroding footpaths. Erosion is a natural process, but to fix it we use a technique that’s been in use since Roman times, called stone pitching. It’s a skilled way of laying stone to create a path, rather like building a dry stone wall horizontally. It’s very effective, but it takes one person one day to lay each metre of footpath, costing £75.
If you’ve been to Snowdonia yourself, you’ll know the special feeling this place evokes. The sense of being close to nature, and close to ancient history too. That special feeling shouldn’t be limited to a few people to enjoy. Being ‘for everyone’ is part of the National Trust’s mission and we’re always looking for ways to open up the experience of Snowdonia to more people.
© NTPL / Joe Cornish
We have to be smart about how we do it. Too many people all in the same place cause physical damage, as well as damaging the remoteness that’s a defining characteristic of Snowdonia. So one of the things we’re doing is creating and restoring a wider network of footpaths, so visitors can disperse throughout the area.
There are other benefits too. Families with small children may not want to slog up to the mountain tops, but they can enjoy the open air and the wonderful views with a walk along our new lower level paths. We also created a new ‘Access for All’ footpath along the riverbank at Beddgelert. It’s proved incredibly popular, over 18,000 visitors used it in the first year.
Five reasons to donate Snowdonia
The Snowdon Lily
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This is the only place in the UK where the Snowdon Lily grows, and even here it’s only found in six small areas. |
That’s why we urgently need to repair walls and fences to stop sheep grazing the lily into total extinction. It would be a disaster for Snowdon’s unique biodiversity if we lose this little plant forever.
From cattle to ospreys
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Sheep have grazed on the side of Snowdon for centuries, but have a taste for eating the shoots of heather and trees, preventing regeneration of woodland. |
We reduced the number of sheep, and brought in some traditional Welsh Black cattle instead, which tend to leave the trees and heather alone.
The woodland’s coming back to life, and a huge range of other species is thriving. Every acre of woodland we create also brings back mosses and lichens, insects, beautiful wildflowers, more birds, more fish and even otters in the rivers. And after a century of no ospreys in Wales a pair returned in 2004 to nest in the area.
The wettest dry stone wallers you’ll ever see
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Come rain or shine you’ll find skilled workers and volunteers out on the mountainside, building and repairing dry stone walls. |
The walls our teams build will still be there in 100 years’ time. This work has already made a difference, because it means heather is starting to become established at the lower levels as part of the regeneration – it has a chance to grow now it’s not being nibbled by grazing sheep. So how about that – a whole ecosystem stimulated into development, just because we repaired a wall (and it only costs £25 a metre)?
1,000 years of history collapsing in front of our eyes
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The area has been associated with copper mines for centuries, and on the slopes of Snowdon sat an old miner's bothy. Sadly, this bothy has recently collapsed. |
It’s very sad because these remains are one of the things that make Snowdonia special. We have hundreds of buildings in the area, and with the wind and the rain getting to them every day, some of them are just falling down in front of us.
The problem is very simple: lack of funds. It’s so depressing that £10,000 would be enough to stop another of these irreplaceable buildings falling into a ruin, but that’s £10,000 we just don’t have.
The restored house and farm buildings at Craflwyn
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We have restored this lovely traditional building, and put to good use as a place for volunteer working parties to stay. |
Craflwyn also makes money for us because we let it out as a self-catering holiday cottage, and it’s become incredibly popular as a wedding venue. It’s just one example of how we’re working hard to raise the funds we need to keep our work going but we just can’t raise enough from efforts like this for everything we need to do.
Please help us by making a donation
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