‘Straight line by compass... across the mountains’
1831: Snowdonia
‘The base of a mountain is at its bottom and the summit is at its top.’ Lectures like this at Edinburgh put Darwin off the study of rocks, but in the summer of 1831 he set off for the mountains of north Wales with Cambridge geology professor, Adam Sedgwick.
Darwin already knew the area from childhood trips to the Conwy coast, scaling Snowdon and visiting Barmouth on later visits, where he wrote to a friend: ‘the scenery & therefore the walks are quite delightful. I only wish you would make a trip here, & I would Cicerone [ guide] you up & down the mountains, until you had not a particle of wind left in your lungs.’
But the expedition in 1831 had a mission. He and Sedgwick were on the hunt for old red sandstone as they scaled the limestone layers of the Eglwyseg Crags north of Llangollen. They were keen to see if George Greenough’s geological map of 1919 was correct; their fieldwork proved it wasn’t. The two of them possibly then went walking on Anglesey – nobody’s now sure – but what is certain is that Darwin climbed up to Llyn Idwal, a lake hanging high in the flank of the Glyders, and to the top of Moel Siabod above Capel Curig. And then comes the best bit of all: ‘At Capel Curig I ...went in a straight line by compass and map across the mountains to Barmouth, never following any track unless it coincided with my course. I thus came on some strange wild places, and enjoyed much this manner of travelling.’
Plot that on a map and you’ll see a 27-mile line slicing alluringly through lonely moor and crag, past the foot of Moel Siabod and the Rhinogs, skimming the shore of Llyn Trawsfynydd and the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Darwin’s own notes suggests he actually did a good bit of zigzagging, maybe to make use of paths where they ran close or maybe to investigate interesting rocks, and he spent a night in Blaenau. It would make a wonderful two-day adventure today.
When he returned to the family home in Shrewsbury a letter was waiting. He had a place to sail on HMS Beagle. WALK HERE: Study the rocks of Llangollen, Cwm Idwal, Moel Siabod and the Rhinogs with free walk guides at www.lfto.com/bonusroutes