The Snowdonia mountain range in North Wales is some of the best walking country in the entire United Kingdom, and every year thousands upon thousands of people come to enjoy the beautiful scenery and to hike in the hills and mountain trails.
But for early aviators, the mountains here represented a potentially lethal threat, and Snowdonia has the unfortunate accolade of being one of the country’s major sites for aircraft crashes and wrecks. But there are two particular mountains that stand out even amongst this carnage.
To the north of the beautiful Ogwin valley is the Carneddau range. Somewhat less well travelled than the more popular hiking routes further south around Snowdon itself and the town of Llanberis, the Carneddau are great walking country in their own right, and even feature a little-known addition – herds of wild ponies, one of the very few such populations in the UK.
But the Carneddau also hold a another, rather darker secret.
Carnedd Dafydd and Llywelyn – the plane killers.
Standing at over 1000 metres each, these two mountains, which are joined together by a curtain of rock, have had at least a half dozen fatal crashes occur on their rocky slopes over the years. And as I was lucky enough to spend a fair bit of time in 2022 in the area I thought I would trek up and visit one of the most famous; Avro Lincoln RF511.
Check the video above for the full background to this tragic event and to see my hike up to the wreckage.
Source/Related:
http://colclough.bangor.ac.uk/blog/commemorating-70-years-since-the-bethesda-bomber-tragedy-43328
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51870215
https://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/category/crash_sites/wales/
https://aircrashsites.co.uk/air-crash-sites-5/avro-lincoln-rf511/
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