Source: http://www.eryri-npa.co.uk/

A cafe at the summit of Mount Snowdon, previously duped “the highest slum” by Prince Charles, has today been reopened as a  £8.4m visitor centre.

Mount Snowdon is Great Britain’s highest peak south of the Scottish Highlands and is the backdrop of truly a stunning landscape. In fact I have fond memories of doing my geography field trip here when I was at school. Not that much work was done, we mainly concentrated on having snow-ball fights at the time… Very mature 17 year olds!

Anyway – back on topic – the new Ray Hole-designed visitor centre has been called Hafod Eryri (which means  summer residence) marks the end of nearly three years of demolition and building work 3,560ft (1,085m) above sea level.

The granite building is designed to blend in with the landscape and cope with extreme weather while a glass wall offers Wales a “window on the world”. The building has been designed to withstand extreme weather conditions including:

• Winds over 150mph (twice hurricane force)
• Over 5 metres of rain
• Temperatures of -20°C  (excluding wind chill)

If these are the environment the structure has to withstand, can you imagine the conditions builders had to construct in it?! Here’s a great image of the construction team shovelling snow off the railway line which bought supplies up to the site. 

Over 300,000 people visit the summit annually and over ½million walk on the mountain. Rescuers are now worried that more people will be tempted the climb the mountain, attracted by the visitor centre, which will result in more demand for their rescue helicopter.  

I got most of this information from hightrek.com and BBC News website.  There is loads more infomation and pictures here… it’s a very interesting project. Here’s a great video from the BBC: 

Mt. Snowdon Visitor Centre video (Source: BBC, June 12 2009)