SNOWDONIA 360 A Wales of a time
The Snowdonia 360 is Wales’ answer to the NC500 with wild vistas and sublime roads
There’s a six-mile lie going on here. The relatively new Snowdonia 360 is actually a 364-mile loop, and one that’s less crowded with bikers and motorhomes than the sometimes oversubscribed NC500 can be.
You can start wherever you fancy, but I’m starting from home: Machynlleth, the ancient capital of Wales. Coffee supped, map out, sat-nav plugged in, the route can be completed in a day, but two is better. The road to Aberdyfi skims along the broadening Dyfi estuary. From here you follow the route to the ‘kiss-me-quick’ seaside town of Barmouth where hardpressed against this western shore, there are uninterrupted views of the Llyn Peninsula. From Pembrokeshire in the south, shimmering in the shadows of a late summer warmth, the sea spreads out to form the northern edge of Cardigan Bay.
Ride on to Harlech, with its tea rooms on the short High Street, and park by the castle near the pub and get some refreshments before a must-do dip into Portmeiron, the location for The Prisoner. Steep cliffs overlook the wide sandy estuary, woods, streams and a nucleus of old buildings. Blatting past steep-sided mountain walls, past slate quarries, ironstone, lead and silver mines it all promotes geological time travel. The Llyn Peninsula is already a favourite for bikers and whilst Criccieth and Pwllheli are interesting places to stop, the rest is a coastal plain and flat, an easy coastal loop as you arc round and up towards Anglesey. Caernarvon city centre is easy to access and well worth a stop to soak up the imposing 13th century drama of Caernarvon Castle. From here, cross The Swellies of the Menai Straits and on to Anglesey, looping clockwise past the Trac Môn circuit – Wales’ Phillip Island – and up to the lighthouse at South Stack on Holy Island before arcing over the top and back towards the bridge for the mainland.
Then it’s on to Llandudno, a beautiful Victorian seaside town and a great place for cake, a sit down and a tram trip up the Great Orme, before plunging south again, picking up the B5106 that shadows the busier A470 down into Snowdonia National Park and Betwsy-Coed. More tea and cake consumed, it’s ever southward to scythe onto the A4212 which gracefully weaves past lakes and reservoirs down to Bala where the A494 runs close to the shore of Llyn Tegid as you wiggle and meander through soft valleys on a ribbon of broad tarmac all the way to Dolgellau for the final 16-miles through the Mach Loop and onward to Machynlleth. It’s a biking heaven.
Bala or Colwyn Bay are convenient start and end points if you’re approaching from anywhere other than Wales itself. April to October is the optimal window for riding, but be very careful of the sheep. Delve into the fully interactive map at: www. snowdonia360.com
‘WIGGLE AND MEANDER THROUGH SOFT VALLEYS’