At 1085 metres, Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa in Welsh) is the highest mountain in Britain south of Scotland. Precipitous cliffs and wild winter weather that can begin in Autumn and bleed into Spring are an uneasy bedfellow with the mountain's popularity with walkers: with hundreds of thousands making the journey to the summit every year, it is thought to be one of the busiest mountains in the world. The presence of a seasonal cafe on the summit and a funicular railway ascending its comely north-west flank can lead its sometimes severe conditions – which in winter require mountaineering equipment and skills – to be underestimated. So developed are Snowdon's credentials as a mountain it was used by both the 1924 and 1953 Everest teams for training.
Photograph by Anthony Roberts, AlamyWinter near Blaenau Ffestiniog, beneath the Llyn Stwlan dam. The llyn (lake) and its dam provide pumped storage hydroelectric power for the nearby Ffestiniog Power Station. The town of Blaenau Ffestiniog was once a centre of slate mining in North Wales, and the level of industry and natural spoil generated by the nearby works led it to be excluded from Snowdonia National Park's designation. Its location in the centre of the park's footprint therefore caused a peculiar 'hole' in the centre of the national park that remains to this day.
Photograph by Rory Trappe, AlamyThe view from behind Sgwd Yr Eira waterfall, in the Brecon Beacons National Park. An attraction in the Vale of Neath, an area of wooded valleys and rushing cascades known as 'waterfall country', like several falls in the area Sgwd Yr Eira can be cautiously walked behind.
Photograph by Steve Taylor ARPS, AlamyGogarth, a cliff on the northwest coast of Anglesey – itself off the northwest coast of Wales – is a rite of passage for many rock climbers. Evocatively named and highly technical routes such as A Dream of White Horses and Mousetrap creep vertiginously above wild waters, and climbers often brave equally wild weather.
Photograph by Jethro Kiernan, AlamyIce on the summit of Pen y Fan – at 886 metres the highest mountain in South Wales. The lower peak of Cribyn can be seen below. The mountain's relative accessibility and lack of crags make it popular with walkers year-round.
Photograph by Dan Santillo, AlamyThe River Dee, near the town of Llangollen in the vale of the same name, in Autumn. Nearby, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct carries the Llangollen Canal across this river in the east of Wales, near the English border.
Photograph by Anna Denisova, AlamyThe Llangattock Escarpment in the Brecon Beacons National Park. This area was once a limestone quarrying centre, and is now popular with cavers who explore the caverns with natural and excavated that were left behind. Some of the longest cave systems in Britain run beneath this now-serene landscape. The Ogof Fynnon Ddu, on the other side of the Brecon Beacons National Park, is the deepest – descending to 275 metres.
Photograph by Andrew Ray, AlamyTwr Mawr lighthouse on Llanddwyn Island, off the coast of Anglesey, overlooks the mainland. The stretch of water separating Anglesey and the rest of North Wales is called the Menai Strait, which is bridged at the town of Bangor.
Photograph by Adam Burton, AlamyWhere Wales meets England in the South-East of Wales is a landscape of forest, wooded gorges and ancient towns – many of which feature fortifications such as the grand castle at Chepstow. This castle's iron-sheathed doors were built around 1190, and are thought to be the oldest in Europe. Standing above the River Wye at the very entrance (or exit) to Wales, the sprawling castle was commissioned by William the Conqueror and its position gave it considerable strategic importance.
Photograph by Alan Novelli, AlamyIncongruous in its position on the Dwyryd estuary – which for all its scenic virtue, is most definitely Welsh in its weather – is the unique and bizarre village of Portmeirion. Today essentially a resort village and tourist attraction, it was designed by architect Clough Williams-Ellis on the site of a ruined castle in a grand style that fused its coastal setting with a flamboyant Palladian style. The result is a surreal Amalfi-esque village tightly packed into a fetching location, that arguably achieves Williams-Ellis's dream of developing a location 'without spoiling it.' Begun in 1926, the village took nearly 50 years to complete – and was famously used as the filming location for the 1967 science-fiction television series The Prisoner.
Photograph by Jeff Tucker, AlamyWeathering and frost-shattering on the summits of the Glyderau mountains has left a legacy of natural geological sculptures, such as these at Castell y Gwynt, or 'Castle of the Winds' – an outcrop of claw-like rocks atop some of the highest ground in the country. This large plateau, which runs just above 3,000ft in Snowdonia National Park, links the summits of Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach, and offers panoramic views of Snowdon and the Carneddau mountain ranges, and out towards the coast.
Photograph by Stephen Spraggon, AlamyUnpolished evidence of Wales's industrial past can still be found in remote locations. Some are substantial, such as the structures at Rhosydd, where a street of miners' barracks can still be found high in the hills above the village of Croesor. Much of North Wales was mined for its fine, dark slate – and elsewhere quarries, spoil tips and trackways remain as a legacy to the long-diminished industry.
Photograph by Richard Newton, AlamyLooking towards Picws Du, a summit of The Black Mountain in the Brecon Beacons National Park. The distinctive flat tops of the Brecon Beacons have been caused by erosion of the sandstone rock they are built from, contrasting with the slate of the North Wales mountains. Where their grassy surfaces have been eroded, the scars of the footpaths show dusty red against the hillsides. The sparsely populated area has some of the lowest light pollution in Europe, and was designated an International Dark Sky Reserve in 2012.
Photograph by James Osmond, Alamy