21919

 

II  

Designated  

18/06/1999  

18/06/1999  

Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel  

 

Gwynedd  

Beddgelert  

Caernarfon  

Nant Gwynant  

266007  

355797  

 

Situated at the junction of the A4086 and the A498, at the foot of the easterley approach to the Llanberis Pass.  

Commercial  

 

First references to a building on this site suggest that a small cottage-farmhouse was built here c1800-1810. Established as an inn by 1840, the building assumed a prominent role in Snowdonia's growing mountaineering-tourism particularly under the management of Harry Owen between 1847 and 1891. It was during his occupancy that the establishment changed from 'a wretched roadside alehouse' to 'a very comfortable inn', acquiring much of its present architectural character. the main range - a hipped roofed, 5-window range represented by the present front block, appears to date from the 1850's. this was extended and remodelled (including the present entrance front) towards the end of the C19. Further extensions (including the former billiard room) were made in the early C20, and successive changes made to the interior, the most notable of which was the establishment of the Everest Room as a memorial to the Everest Expedition of 1853 (opened by John Hunt). The hotel has a long association with the history of mountaineering and climbing, and it was here that the Climber's Club was founded in 1895 (and its precursor, the Society of Welsh Rabbits, 1870), and the women's Pinnacle Club in 1921. Distinguished visitors include not only pioneer mountaineers and climbers such as C E Mathews and John Hunt, but literary figures such as Mathew Arnold who fist visited in 1856.  

Building comprises main range with further ranges set back to right and to rear. Roughcast render with hipped slate roof with pronounced overhang. Main range (representing the 1850s hotel) is a 2-storeyed, 5-window range, generally with 12-pane sashes though with one 16-pane sash to far right of ground floor, and a 2-light, small-paned casement to right of former porch, itself set to left of centre, flat-roofed and with 16-pane sash window. Left-hand return forms long wing (of c1890), with similar porch to right and fenestration, though upper windows in dormers breaking the eaves line.  

The interior arrangement of axial corridor with small rooms opening off it may reflect and earlier layout, though largely of post-war character. The panelled smoking room, and the Everest room are particularly notable: the latter is log-clad in Austrian alpine style, and features signatures of the Everest team and other notable visitors to the hotel, written on the ceiling.  

Listed as a good example of a small hotel with mid C19 architectural character externally. The building exemplifies in its own history, the history of mountain tourism in Snowdonia, and is particularly notable for its long association with the history of mountaineering and climbing.