Betws-y-Coed Accommodation

More About Betws-y-Coed

Start at the bridge and pick up the riverside path along the Afon Llugwy, a waymarked mile and a half heading up towards Swallow Falls. Or climb to Llyn Elsi from behind St Mary’s church, just under four miles there and back through the forest. The falls themselves are two miles west, open all year.

It is the easiest base in the park to reach without a car. The Conwy Valley line runs six trains a day each way between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog, and the Sherpa’r Wyddfa buses head west towards Llanberis and Caernarfon. The station is unstaffed and has no ticket machine, so buy before you travel or pay the conductor.

Betws-y-Coed was made by painters. There were artists sketching here before David Cox turned up, but it was Cox who fixed the village on the map. He came first in July 1844, made the Royal Oak his headquarters from 1845, and came back every autumn until 1856.

In 1847 he repainted the faded old signboard. It shows King Charles II hidden in the Boscobel oak with cavaliers galloping underneath, which is the whole reason the place is called the Royal Oak. In 1880 two parties fought over the sign in court, and it is still indoors, above the fireplace.

You can still see the shape of all that. The Royal Oak’s former stable block is now the National Park information centre, so the yard where the painters kept their traps is where today’s walkers pick up their maps. And Galeri Betws-y-Coed on Holyhead Road sells paintings and prints seven days a week, ten till five.

Swallow Falls is what most people come for: two miles west, £2 through the turnstile, open all year. Lord Ancaster gave it to the village in 1913, and a community council still runs it today. The name was recorded in 1773 as Rhaeadr y Wennol, the swallow’s waterfall, for the rock that splits the flow into something like a tail.

Come in autumn if you can. The falls run hardest after heavy rain, and the National Park’s own guidance names Betws-y-Coed among the places where visitor numbers can double in summer. Some businesses shut through February, and the Eryri Walk Fest is based in the village over a weekend in early October.