UTS 2022: New Host Venue Revealed!

With less than three months to go until the fourth edition of Ultra-Trail Snowdonia by UTMB®, we’re delighted to reveal our new host venue as Padarn Country Park, Llanberis!

Part news item, part photo essay (all images ©Elliott Waring), read on to learn more about what great news this is for the event.

The stunning National Slate Museum.

As UTS starts to come of age as a UTMB World Series event, it was essential that we secured a new host venue that would provide an environment worthy of delivering an event of this status, as well as offering a location in close proximity to other attractions, amenities and infrastructure, to give it that big European mountain-ultra feel. Indeed, our wish is to positively embed the event within its host territory for the foreseeable future.

Known as adventure capital of North Wales, UTS was very successfully hosted in Llanberis in 2018 & 2019, and we look forward to returning this July (having hosted the event in Capel Curig last September). Within Llanberis village itself, there are a range of accommodation options to suit all budgets, plus a variety of eateries, outdoor gear shops and other attractions to keep a visiting runner’s family and friends entertained throughout event weekend.

Gilfach Ddu: The main hub of attractions within Padarn Country Park.

Hosting an event of this scale in the Gilfach Ddu area of Padarn Country Park (our start/finish area and event centre will be located on the land to the front of the National Slate Museum) has not been achieved previously and will be sure to help elevate the status of UTS as the UK's superlative mountain ultra, while also providing a venue suitable for growth of 1500+ capacity at the event over the coming years.

The sophisticated architectural detail of the museum building is sublime.

Within the immediate vicinity of the Gilfach Ddu site, there are several other attractions and sites well worthy of exploration. Read our ‘Visiting Padarn Country Park’ guide lower down, for more info to help you plan your next visit.

We have some exciting plans for how best to utilise the space available to us at the front of the museum and look forward to welcoming UTS runners to experience an event atmosphere unlike any other this July. Think red carpet, live music, ambient lighting, and the stunning north elevation of the National Slate Museum as the backdrop to your finish line photos!

During your visit, do allow the time to fully appreciate the history the museum showcases.

Made from imported granite block (as opposed to local slate − a display of status and grandeur by its wealthy owners during nearby Dinorwig Quarry’s active days, when it was one of the largest slate mines in the world), the museum’s immoveable walls offer a formidable presence and aura that’s hard to define, but which leaves a lasting impression.

The museum is free to visit (open daily 10:00-17:00, suggested donation £5), so please do explore during event weekend, if not before, and enjoy a bite to eat at the café or purchase something from the shop to take home as a souvenir of your visit to this unique attraction. See what talks and seminars are available and learn more about the museum on its website HERE.

Within the museum walls live an abundance of objects of intrigue and interest.

For those of a more creative disposition, or keen eye for photography, as evidenced by the images on this page by Elliott Waring, the museum itself boasts a visual feast of details and intricacies, unlike anything found elsewhere. View our highlights gallery from this shoot on Facebook HERE.

Just a few of the objects of allure that await visitors to the Museum.

Hosting UTS at the National Slate Museum was a vision originally conceived in late 2019. We’d like to take this opportunity to express our full gratitude to the key event stakeholders whose alignment and empathy towards our objectives with this event have been instrumental in allowing this vision to be realised, three years on. Namely: Paul Sivyer, Head Warden of Padarn Country Park, Elen Roberts, National Slate Museum Manager, as well as Carwyn Williams, Gwynedd Council Leisure Resources Manager and Hugh Edwin Jones, Gwynedd Council Events Manager.

We’re truly thrilled by the prospect of hosting UTS in this new location, and with the full support of UTMB and our commercial partners behind the event, look forward to delivering something truly special to our participants and the host community of Llanberis this July.

We look forward to welcoming you to the National Slate Museum, in Padarn County Park this July.

In addition, our thanks must be extended to the various businesses located in Gilfach Ddu. Please consider reciprocating their support for this event by giving them your custom over event weekend, or during prior visits:

• Ropeworks Active: Ropes course and adventure activities provider. Gratefully providing water and power for our shower block!
• Llanberis Lake Railway: Now celebrating their 50^th year, these cute steam trains are well worth a ride! There is also a quaint café at the nearby Gifach Ddu station.
• Vivian Diving Centre: This 18m deep inland dive site offers fantastic visibility all year around, as unlike most dive sites, there is little silt.
• Fframia: Friendly owner Dilwyn, will be sure to offer service with a smile, should you wish to purchase one of his hand-made picture frames. Why not take home a framed image of the beautiful landscapes of the area?
• Crefft Eilidir Crafts: Hand-made place names, made using locally sourced slate. Why not take home a new number or name for your abode?
• Odyn Copr Craft Workshop: Offering a wide range of unique jewellery & crafts, made on the premises by local artist Sam Rogers & team.
• Padarn Pottery: As a self-taught artist, Sharon McCaig has been selling her work for over 30 years. She works from her home studio on nearby Nant Ffrancon valley and her work can be viewed and purchased from her gallery and coffee shop in Gilfach Ddu.

A bold new era for UTS awaits… Will you join us?

There are now just 11 weeks to UTS, so if you haven’t done so already: Enter today! UTS 50 in particular is filling fast, with less than 60 entries now available before its capacity of 600 is filled.

As the UK & Ireland’s only UTMB World Series event, this is the only race in the country where you can collect the Running Stones necessary to gain entry to the 2023 UTMB Mont-Blanc ballot.

More info & entry: www.ultratrailsnowdonia.com

VISITING PADARN COUNTRY PARK

We’re well aware than most UTS runners visit Snowdonia/Eryri in advance of the event (often several times) to recce the trails and get prepared for race day, so why not read through the below guide and take the time to fully take in the sights and sounds of Padarn Country Park, Llanberis, during your next stay?

Within the immediate vicinity of Gilfach Ddu (postcode LL55 4TY), there are a range of other attractions and experiences on offer. One could easily spend a full day here exploring the forest trails and myriad of other interesting sites and scenes.

The National Slate Museum and Gilfach Ddu car park, located in Padarn Country Park.

Parking for the day is a very reasonable £4.50, but no card payment is available at the machine, so bring change, or make use of the PayByPhone app. Please note the car park is regularly patrolled, and failure to pay and display will likely result in a fine!

Padarn Country Park attraction leaflet. © Gwynedd Council. Download hi-res (7MB) PDF HERE.

With walls constructed from the same granite rock as the Slate Museum, the old Dinorwig Quarry Hospital in particular, is a highlight attraction within the park. Set back from the lake, in a position of prominence and with stunning views west over to Moel Eilio summit, here one can view the original medical equipment used in the 1800s’, operating theatre, original X-ray machine, as well as post-mortem slab and mortuary! Admission is free.

The Quarry Hospital, situated a stone’s throw from Gilfach Ddu car park.

One could easily spend a full morning or afternoon running and exploring the beautiful woodland trails in and around the park. Coed Dinorwig is a Site of Special Scientific Interest thanks to its beautiful Sessile Oak trees. On the trees and rocks, moss and lichen can be found in abundance, a rarity in modern times due to pollution, indicating how clean the environment is within the park.

The beautiful woodland of Coed Dinorwig, a place where nature thrives.

A short detour out of the forest, is rewarded with the experience of the completely juxtaposed environment of the abandoned slate mines of Dinorwig Quarry. The slate landscapes of North Wales last year enjoyed inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the routes of UTS passing through many long-since used, but no less impressive sites of slate and copper mining activity from decades past.

Race Director Mike enjoying the moody built environments of Dinorwig Quarry.

At the turn of the century, the site once provided employment for around 3,000 men. During its active period between 1787-1969, the slate produced here was exported globally, and helped to ‘roof the world’. When the quarry closed, Caernarfonshire (now Gwynedd) County Council had the amazing foresight to purchase the site and allow the natural environment to flourish here, whilst also preserving the built environment and encouraging access to the countryside.

The ‘zig zags’ trail through the lower reaches of Dinorwig Quarry, which greets UTS 165 runners upon approach to the Llanberis halfway Aid Station.

A short walk from Gilfach Ddu is Dolbadarn Castle, which all race routes pass in the final kilometre. As a Welsh prince and a major player in politics at the time, Llewelyn the Great merited a castle to match those of his allies and opponents. When built in the early 1200s’, his desire was to emulate the latest advances in military architecture, the resulting building the finest example of a Welsh round tower. Learn more HERE.

The last bit of trail flows right past Dolbadarn Castle.

So, there you have it! Everything you need to know to help you plan your next adventure to Llanberis, get prepared for UTS and fully experience Padarn Country Park. We hope you’re as excited as we are, at the prospect of hosting the next edition of UTS, here in July.

See you in July, if not before!