I found out today that Ogwen Cottage, which used to be owned by Birmingham City Council, and to which my Mum as a trainee teacher (being an older trainee as both myself and my sister were born by this time) went to and encouraged myself and my sister to go, if we got the chance.
This was one of the places that I learned to love the hills from.
I was a teenager, in the Scouts I’ll admit, but had not had much exposure to the mountains around Snowdonia up until that time, but was able to walk and climb the ranges after going to Ogwen Cottage…
Beautiful country, hard walks, climbing and coastal traverses all in two weeks.
Ogwen Cottage had a central role in the early history of climbing and Mountaineering in Wales. In the 1890s many of the pioneers stayed there when it was a guest house. One of the famous stories is that J M Archer Thompson borrowed the coal hatchet one hard winter, walked with his companion ACROSS the ice of Llyn Idwal and chopped steps to climb the frozen waterfall in the Devil’s Kitchen, the first recorded instance of ice climbing in Wales.
You never completed what you were saying about Ogwen Cottage, I knew it was up for sale, has it been bought?
It gives me a lovely smug feeling to say that as a member I pay nowt to park on NT properties! Plus the XYL can get in to great houses to look at past splendours for nowt, too. Trouble is, she takes me!
It’s a steal Brian, full membership is only £58 or just over a pound a week I’m sure I read some NT car parks are £10/visit in Wales and the Lake District so 6 days SOTAing gets you your money back and that leaves 349days to visit the NT attractions or use the car parks more. It’s a no-brainer.
