Hafod Eryri, Snowdon Summit Visitor’s Centre

By Keith Kellett

Someone once said that you can see six kingdoms from Snowdon’s summit: Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man and even the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever wrote that obviously went up on a clear day. Quite often, low clouds mean you see absolutely nothing but mist. If you walked up on one of many footpaths, you might still risk visual disappointment. You would certainly enjoy the trip if you rode up to the summit on Llanberis village’s delightful vintage rack railway. Once there, your reward — a meal at the recently rebuilt Hafod Eryri Complex, located just below the summit. If it’s a clear day you’ll get additional sustenance from the view.

By world standards, a restaurant a little over 3,500 feet above sea level isn’t all that remarkable. After all, there are whole countries that sit much higher. But, the Hafod Eryri Complex is in Britain, Snowdon, Wales, to be precise, only 60 feet below the country’s highest point. Officials are careful with facts and figures and say that it’s the highest restaurant in England and Wales. But, technically speaking, the Ptarmigan Restaurant in Cairngorm, Scotland tops it at 3,520 feet –but then again, that’s another kingdom away ….

The Hafod Eryri restaurant, originally designed to fit into the hilly landscape, was extensively renovated and refurbished and now offers an attractive and inviting building to those who make the journey, either by foot or by the little vintage rack railway that has been climbing the mountain since 1896.

Hafod Eryri’s predecessor was a squalid, grim concrete blockhouse, which I was surprised to learn was designed in the early 1930s by the noted and environmentally friendly architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis of Portmeirion fame. (Williams-Ellis designed Portmeirion, a resort village reminiscent of Portofino, which sits on the Snowdonian coastline.)

“But, it wasn’t Williams-Ellis’s original design,” Vince Hughes, the restaurant’s communication manager, said. “He called for large windows, which got completely destroyed after the first winter.”

It’s not surprising, really. Winds of up to 150 miles per hour have been recorded on the summit. So, those windows were replaced with narrow panes, more suited to a military bunker.

Modern technology has, however, allowed big, panoramic windows in the new building. They’re called “’whispering windows.” Stand close and you’ll hear an audio interpretation of what you see (or what you could see if the clouds weren’t there) or a poetry reading from the former National Poet of Wales, Gwyn Thomas.

The steel frame and granite are from Blaenau Ffestiniog and Portugal. Most were transported up on the train in 10-ton pre-fabricated pieces, and some of the work was finished on site. The design is and was intended to blend in with the contours of the mountain, rather than stand out against them.

The pleasing, attractive interior is lined with Welsh oak, a sharp contrast to the former structure, which made a vacuum flask and sandwiches carried up the mountain seem a much better proposition.

It would be tempting for the owners to offer dinner on “the roof of Wales” but they can’t. Everything, including the water, is brought up by train. And, since the electricity comes from the restaurant’s generators, they can’t really operate large ovens, deep-fat fryers, or even dishwashers,

“So, all our crockery has to be disposable,” Hughes said.

Visitors who come up by train, only have half an hour at the summit before returning on the same train, otherwise, a place on a later train isn’t guaranteed. And, it’s a long walk down! Although, of course, if you walked up you can stay as long as you wished. There are now three till points that cater to those walkers. There was once a self-service cafeteria and only one till point. Visitors could easily spend all summit waiting in line for food.

Hot food needs to be of the sort that can be cooked quickly – in a small oven or a microwave. It doesn’t, by any means, mean the choice is restricted, though. And, the prices are reasonable. For instance, a sausage, egg and bacon panini only costs £3.55 – and it’s Lincolnshire sausage, too! There’s also a tempting range of panini, hot savouries such as Cornish pastys (I am reliably informed that, in Cornwall pastys is the correct plural), baguettes and cakes.

It’s all fresh, too. Unable to sleep, I took a walk early in the morning, saw and photographed the food assortment delivered by a baker’s van. “Locally sourced” is a phrase you hear often about the food there. Workers load it on to the early morning train, which brings supplies and any staff needed to reinforce or replace those who have spent the night up there.

Top of the hot food range is the traditional Welsh “Oggie’,” which is almost the same as a Cornish pasty, but made in Wales; and it’s much bigger. Both have similar origins and were a handy means of providing a portable packaged meal for miners. The Welsh coal miners held it by the crimping in the crust, because of the coal dust on their fingers, the Cornish tinners held it so to keep from ingesting the antimony and arsenic, which were a lethal by-product of tin mining,

Both would leave the crusts for the spirits they believed haunted the mine, and, if you kept them fed, would give warning of impending disaster. The Welshman would throw his crust over his shoulder with a cry of “Oggie,” which is probably the origin of the Welsh rugby fans chant.

No, I didn’t try one. Only two hours earlier, I’d got on the outside of a gargantuan Welsh breakfast at the Dol Peris Hotel. Even if I hadn’t, I don’t think I’d manage it; it’s definitely an item for sharing!

(Yes, I know my mobile phone, which I placed by the Oggie to give an idea of the size, is so last century, But, I am planning to replace it soon!)

For more information visit:

www.snowdonrailway.co.uk/hafod_eryri.html

www.dolperis.com

Keith Kellett is globalfoodie’s UK correspondent and an expert on England’s food history and origin. He can be reached at: Keith@globalfoodie.com. You can see more of his work at: travelrat.wordpress.com.