Capel Bach and the Snowdonia National Park

April 28. 2021

Ffestiniog Railway locomotive Prince at Waunfawr railway station,
of the Welsh Highland Railway.

‘Capel Bach’ in Waunfawr has been a self catering holiday cottage let for almost ten years and is popular with visitors who want to explore Snowdonia National Park and its many mountains and beaches in the area.

Capel Bach has been in my family, the Griffith family for over two centuries and before it’s conversion to a holiday let had been a place of worship for the local farmers and quarrymen until the the local quarry of Gareth Fawr (Large Rock) closed. It then fell into disuse before becoming a cow shed by my grandfather who farmed Tyn yr Onnen the adjoining farm. My Taid (Grandfather) and my father were primarily Welsh sheep farmers and life was certainly hard for them. I remember the cows and calves being fed in Capel Bach as a child. When my father stopped keeping cows concentrating instead on the sheep the cottage of Capel Bach was just left empty for the owls and bats to inhabit.

Capel Bach translated to English is ‘Small Chapel’ and was built in 1784 as a place of worship for a settlement of local farmers in Treflan, Waunfawr. Treflan is Welsh for hamlet. If you stay at Capel Bach you will notice a few of the farms nearby are called Treflan as in Treflan Isaf ( Lower) and Treflan Uchaf (Higher).

Garreg Fawr Slate Quarry a few minutes walk from Capel Bach sits on the lower slopes of Moel Eilio the mountain in front of the cottage on the left. The quarry opened up in 1802 and was worked intermittently until the 1880’s with some small scale work thereafter until the 1930’s. The quarry had a number of different operators including the Garreg Fawr Slate and Mineral Company which jointly worked the quarry and the nearby Garreg Fawr Iron Mines which can be seen on the right hand side of the mountain. A tramway probably dating from around 1901 linked the quarry to the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway a forerunner of the Welsh Highland Railway.

The Welsh Highland Steam Train was reopened in Waunfawr in August 2000 and in April 2009 from Caernarfon via Waunfawr and Rhyd Ddu to Beddgelert. The Welsh Highland is the UK’s longest heritage Railway and is 26 miles long and finally reached Porthmadog in 2011 where you can pick up the famous Ffestiniog Railway. Both the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways stretch for 40 miles through the glorious Snowdonia National Park allowing you time to enjoy the glorious mountain scenery and rural pastures and forests.