By the bridge since the 1830s: the story of the Prince Llewelyn
Croeso i Feddgelert! For nearly two hundred years, the Prince Llewelyn has stood on Smith Street beside the old stone bridge, where the Afon Colwyn hurries down to meet the Glaslyn. Mail coaches, Victorian walkers, an archbishop-to-be and even a meteorite have all found their way to our door. Here's our story, and the story of the village and mountains around us.
The hotel's story
The Prince Llewelyn was built in the 1830s as a purpose-built hotel. It was part of a new development on this side of the river by the Sygun estate, on land belonging to its Perthi Farm. Tourists were pouring into Snowdonia at the time, and Beddgelert needed somewhere to put them. Back in 1792 one visitor complained that the village ale-house offered "no butcher's meat, no wheaten bread, no wine, no spirits"!
The hotel took the place of a group of older houses known together as Pen-y-Bont, "the end of the bridge". One of them, Pen y Bont Fawr, plays a big part in the early history of the village's Calvinistic Methodists. Before they built their first chapel in 1794, the congregation met in one of these houses. A coffee room and more bedrooms were added in the 1860s. Today the building is Grade II listed. Cadw describes it as a Regency hotel and lists it for its special interest as "a purpose-built second-quarter C19 hotel retaining good external character". Look up at the upper windows and you'll still see their original wooden intersecting tracery heads.
Innkeepers and guests
The first licence went to John Roberts, known as "John Roberts y Mail" because he drove the mail car between Caernarfon and Beddgelert. Next came Robert Roberts, and then David Jones, a stonemason and builder whose tenancy began around 1839. Visitors' albums praised his daughter for looking after guests so well. His son Rowland Jones took over, and after him Rowland's widow ran the hotel with her children. By 1899 she also ran a coach twice a day, all year round, between Beddgelert and Porthmadog.
Those albums were full of happy guests. One London visitor came back so many times that he "looks upon the hotel as a kind of second home". Around 1850, the Rev. Frederick Temple stayed here with his sister. He later became Archbishop of Canterbury, and after his stay he sent the hotel family's nurse a parcel of Charles Kingsley's books as a thank-you. One guest, F. J. Elliot of London, summed it up in verse:
To tired tourists I would say,
At "Prince Llewelyn" come and stay…
And everything is clean and nice.
The 20th century
In 1923 Sir T. E. Roberts sold the hotel, with its stables and garages on Gwynant Street, to William Brown. By 1939 Nellie M. Brown was the proprietress. In 1941 the hotel was sold to a Mr Hill, and in 1945 the hotel passed to Frederic Robinson Ltd of the Unicorn Brewery, Stockport. The Prince Llewelyn is still a Robinsons house today. It was listed Grade II on 29 April 1952.
"Bedd Gelert Bridge" and the "Prince Llewelyn Hotel", as printed in the 1899 village history Bedd Gelert: Its Facts, Fairies, & Folk-Lore.
From D. E. Jenkins, Bedd Gelert: Its Facts, Fairies, & Folk-Lore (Portmadoc, 1899). Public domain. Scan: Cornell University Library via the Internet Archive.
The night a meteorite hit the Prince Llewelyn
In the early hours of 21 September 1949, people across North Wales and Cheshire saw a brilliant light streak across the sky. At about 1.45am a guest at the Prince Llewelyn heard a series of dull explosions, then a buzzing "like a light aeroplane", and then the sound of roof slates shattering. The hotel manager, Mr Tillotson, was woken by his barking dog and heard bangs "like a naval broadside", but went back to sleep.
The next morning his wife found a jagged hole in the ceiling of an upstairs lounge. On the floor, among the plaster, lay a dark stone about the size of a cricket ball. That evening an old miner in the bar recognised it as a meteorite. It weighed 794g and turned out to be a stony meteorite (a chondrite) about 4,500 million years old. Half went to the British Museum (Natural History) and half to Durham University, and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales holds a small piece. It's one of only two meteorites known to have fallen in Wales. The other fell at Pontllyfni, near Caernarfon, in 1931.
Beddgelert and the legend of Gelert
Every visitor hears the story. Prince Llywelyn returned from hunting to find his baby's cradle overturned and his faithful hound Gelert with blood around its mouth. Thinking the dog had killed his son, Llywelyn drew his sword and killed Gelert. Then he heard the baby crying, safe under the cradle beside a dead wolf that Gelert had fought off. Overcome with grief, Llywelyn buried the hound with honour, and it's said he never smiled again.
The true story is just as Beddgelert. Stories of a man who kills his faithful dog are told all over Europe and Asia, and the village's name almost certainly comes from an early Christian saint called Celert or Gelert. It was first written down as "Bekelert" in 1258. The legend arrived in about 1793 with David Prichard, a storyteller from South Wales who became the first landlord of what is now the Royal Goat Hotel. In 1800 the poet William Robert Spencer heard the tale and wrote his ballad Beth Gêlert, and the story took off. Around 1802, Prichard, the parish clerk William Prichard and Richard Edwards of Pen y Bont Bach raised the stone that marks "Gelert's Grave". Pen y Bont was the name of the houses that once stood on our site, so it's tempting to think of Richard Edwards as an early neighbour.
The legend made Beddgelert one of the best-known stops on the Victorian tour of Wales, and it still works its magic today. The grave is an easy, flat riverside stroll from our front door.
Left: Gelert's Grave in the meadow below Moel Hebog. © Jeff Buck, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.Right: The bronze statue of Gelert near the grave. © Jeff Buck, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.
Llywelyn the Great: the prince behind our name
Our hotel shares its name with the prince of the legend: Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (1173–1240), better known as Llywelyn Fawr, or Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd. His link with Beddgelert is real history, not just folklore. The village grew up around a very early religious community, which became an Augustinian priory some time before 1240, probably between 1210 and 1230. By then it was under Llywelyn's patronage, and he gave the canons land in Pennant.
The priory church survives as St Mary's, Beddgelert's parish church, just across the bridge. Parts of it date from the 13th century, when the community became Augustinian. A fire in 1283, during Edward I's conquest of Wales, destroyed the priory's early records. Just up the valley, at Dinas Emrys, the base of a stone keep may have been built by Llywelyn himself to guard his upland pastures.
The bridge and village of Beddgelert, around 1850. National Library of Wales, CC0.
Two rivers, an old bridge and the Aberglaslyn Pass
Beddgelert sits where two rivers meet, both born on the slopes of Yr Wyddfa. The Afon Colwyn runs past our windows and joins the Glaslyn just below the bridge. People were writing about a bridge here by 1623, and it was probably here long before that, carrying people across to the priory. A great flood in 1799 swept much of it away. It was rebuilt and doubled in width between 1802 and 1811, and that year a toll was set up for the new turnpike road.
Before William Madocks built his great embankment (the Cob) at Porthmadog, the Glaslyn was tidal, and boats could come right up towards the village. Today the river is famous for its turquoise colour, which comes from copper in the surrounding hills. Otters, salmon, kingfishers and dippers all make their home along it. A mile downstream it squeezes through the Aberglaslyn Pass, a wooded gorge that has been a favourite subject for artists and photographers for more than two centuries. You can follow the Fisherman's Path along the river from the village, but take care because it's rocky in places.
Left: Looking up the Glaslyn valley towards Beddgelert in the 1890s. Photochrom Print Collection, Library of Congress. Public domain.
Right: The road through the Aberglaslyn Pass in the 1890s. Photochrom Print Collection, Library of Congress. Public domain.
Beddgelert bridge and village in 1796, before the Prince Llewelyn was built.
Aquatint by J. Bluck after J. Barber, 1796. National Library of Wales. Public domain.
Things to do near Beddgelert
Climb Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon). At 1,085 metres, Yr Wyddfa is the highest mountain in Wales, and two of its classic routes start a short drive from the village. The Rhyd Ddu Path begins at Rhyd Ddu, just off the A4085 to the north. The Watkin Path starts at Pont Bethania in Nant Gwynant. Both are strenuous and best suited to experienced walkers. Moel Hebog, the mountain that towers over the village, can be climbed straight from Beddgelert.
Ride the Welsh Highland Railway. Narrow-gauge steam trains first ran through Beddgelert in 1923, but the line closed in 1937. Volunteers and the Ffestiniog Railway brought it back, and Beddgelert station reopened in 2009. Today you can ride all the way between Caernarfon and Porthmadog, through the Aberglaslyn Pass.
Go underground at Sygun Copper Mine. Beddgelert was a mining village as well as a tourist one, with terraces built for copper miners and quarrymen. Sygun closed in 1903, and the Elmore brothers had pioneered a new flotation process for extracting copper there. In 1986 it reopened as a visitor attraction, with tunnels full of stalactites and stalagmites.
Walk to Llyn Dinas and Dinas Emrys. A riverside path heads up Nant Gwynant past Sygun to Llyn Dinas, where legend says the red dragon of Wales sleeps. Above it is Dinas Emrys, the hill where Vortigern's tower kept falling down until the young Merlin revealed the two dragons fighting beneath it.
Gelert's Grave and the village. It's a short, level riverside walk, suitable for pushchairs and wheelchairs. While you're out, look for the Rupert Bear connection: Alfred Bestall, who drew Rupert for decades, had a cottage in Beddgelert from 1956.
Nant Gwynant, the valley that leads from Beddgelert towards Snowdon, in the 1890s. Photochrom Print Collection, Library of Congress. Public domain.
A steam train arriving at Beddgelert station on the Welsh Highland Railway. © Colin Park, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.
The entrance to Sygun Copper Mine. © Gareth James, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.
Getting here and staying with us
You'll find us in the heart of Eryri (Snowdonia National Park), right by the bridge where the A498 meets the A4085. We're about 13 miles from Caernarfon and 8 miles from Porthmadog. You can also arrive by steam train on the Welsh Highland Railway, which stops at Beddgelert station, or catch the Snowdon Sherpa bus.
When your day in the mountains is done, come back to a warm bar and stone-baked pizzas, and a comfortable room overlooking the Colwyn with views towards Moel Hebog and the Aberglaslyn Pass. Families and dogs are always welcome. Nearly two centuries after John Roberts y Mail first opened the door, we're still doing what the Prince Llewelyn has always done: making tired travellers feel at home.
Pont Beddgelert and the Prince Llewelyn today. © Eirian Evans, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.
How old is the Prince Llewelyn Hotel?
It was built in the 1830s (Cadw dates it to around 1830) and is a Grade II listed building.
Is Gelert's Grave real?
The stone was put up around 1802 to mark the legend. The village's name most likely comes from an early saint, Celert or Gelert.
Did a meteorite really hit the hotel?
Yes. It fell through the roof on 21 September 1949, and pieces are held by museums including Amgueddfa Cymru.
How far is Snowdon from Beddgelert?
The Rhyd Ddu and Watkin paths both start a short drive from the village.
Sources & image credits
History sources: Cadw, Listed Building 3677: Prince Llewelyn Hotel, and Listed Building 3676: Pont Beddgelert. D. E. Jenkins, Bedd Gelert: Its Facts, Fairies, & Folk-Lore (Portmadoc, 1899), "The Village Hotels" and "The Village". Beddgelert Past (oneplacestudy.org): Prince Llewelyn Hotel, and Pigot's Directory 1828-9. Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales: "Meteorites in Wales", and Mineralogy of Wales: meteorite minerals. RCAHMW / Coflein: Beddgelert (NPRN 33006) and the Royal Goat Hotel (NPRN 16816). Monastic Wales: Beddgelert Priory. Dictionary of Welsh Biography: Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. Eryri National Park Authority: Beddgelert Conservation Area appraisal; Rhyd Ddu and Watkin path pages. National Trust: Aberglaslyn, Llyn Dinas and Cwm Bychan walk. Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways: Welsh Highland Railway history. Sygun Copper Mine: history and facts. Early Tourists in Wales (sublimewales.wordpress.com): the Gelert story and Spencer's ballad.
Image credits: Llewellyn Hotel, Beddgelert; From Aberglaslyn, Beddgelert; Aberglaslyn Pass; Nant Gwynant. All c. 1890-1900, Photochrom Print Collection, Library of Congress. Public domain. Bedd Gelert Bridge and Prince Llewelyn Hotel, from D. E. Jenkins, Bedd Gelert (1899). Public domain. Beddgelert bridge and village, J. Bluck after J. Barber, 1796; Gelert's Grave, c. 1850. National Library of Wales. Public domain. Beddgelert, c. 1850. National Library of Wales, CC0. Gelert's Grave and the Gelert statue, 2012 © Jeff Buck; The Prince Llewellyn Hotel, 2023 © Bill Harrison; Beddgelert station, 2018 © Colin Park; Sygun Copper Mine, 2011 © Gareth James. All CC BY-SA 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0), via geograph.org.uk.