Electric Mountain is a large pumped storage scheme initiated by the National Grid in 1974, when it was still in public ownership. It was one of the largest civil engineering projects in Britain at the time, and is still functioning nearly 50 years later […]

One of the consequences of the “Beast from the East” here in March 2018 was that at least a hundred of the sessile oaks that are a distinctive feature of Padarn Country Park, and make it a site of special scientific interest, were uprooted, […]

Moel y Ci This is a substantial western outlier of the Glyderau range, rising to 396 metres (1303 feet). It is outside the Snowdonia National Park. It was formerly a grouse shoot of the Penrhyn Estate, and was surrounded by a substantial stone wall, […]

Historical notes on Fachwen These notes refer to an eighteenth century estate called Fachwen and owned by Lord Newborough, an extension to it to the north and east when common land was enclosed in 1814, and its absorption into the Vaynol estate by purchase […]

Apart from a weekly shop for food on a Sunday morning, this is my only “outing” of consequence at the moment, whereas in normal circumstances it might not merit an entry here. There are several ways of walking down the hill from Dinorwig, so […]

I live in a relatively remote area, and from time to time problems will arise with telecommunications. I had a landline for 20 years but abandoned it 8 years ago after the internet speed dropped to 136Kps and I got a penalty charge for […]

There are two categories of wild goat in this part of the world. The most well known are the Kashmiri goats on Great Orme, Llandudno which have recently achieved national and international publicity by roaming the streets of the town. Although presented as a recent development, it happens […]

My village has a bit of an identity crisis. To summarize: Dinorwig is the original Welsh name, the only title used on Ordnance Survey maps, and by the local authority to which it belongs, Gwynedd County Council. But if you are ordering goods on […]

https://www.geograph.org.uk Just a brief entry today, to publicize this popular website (no, I don’t get a commission!) It is an effort by many volunteers to provide photographs for every Ordnance Survey grid square in the UK and Ireland, and even has an offshoot now […]

Once a month I walk down through Padarn Country Park to collect a prescription and any other small items of shopping I might need. Usually in a concession to age I come back by bus, but the vagaries of an emergency timetable mean this […]

I am completely new to blogging, so be charitable to me if I blunder about a bit learning how to do this. I am John Byde and have been using Vivaldi browser for several years, so that is how I came to be here. […]