UKC

I spent Saturday, a perfect day for a mountain trip , at Cwm Idawll, and was impressed with the new visitors centre and cafe at Ogwen, the new building is a big improvement on what was there before, but best of all was the quality of the food and service from the very helpful and friendly staff at the little but great cafe it was a good start to the day, to find lovely food and coffee, as well as gorgeous vegan friendly flapjacks , served by friendly staff, they advised me on the best place to park and chatted about how they are trying to source as much food and ingredients as possible from local suppliers , even the crisps were gorgeous I highly recommend the café.
It was a great start to the day and I had a perfect day climbing with Shelley on Clogwyn Bochlwyd .

In reply to gd303uk:

+1, the lady in the cafe was really nice when we swung by there on Saturday, and they seemed to have a decent selection of food and drinks.

In reply to RyanOsborne:

yeah the food I had was lovely, the cakes and flapjacks are made by the girls/women who work there. very nice food.

In reply to gd303uk:
Sounds very nice but hard to believe it is an improvement on what was there before because the old tea shack was perfect.

I grew old with the guy that served there throughout the eighties and nineties, the one with the strongest accent ever. Made Tom Jones sound like the Queen....

Winter days on the Glyders followed by bacon and egg toasties with hot tea, sat on the cold slate wall outside while the moon comes up over Tryfan.....

In reply to gd303uk:

Yet to go... that place is a proper refuge at times. Need also to pay homage to Ogwen Cottage, learnt a lot there, Birmingham City Council is selling it off... selling off most of its outdoor provision.

In reply to Bloodfire:

Selling off the family silver? I was sent there when I was 14, make or break time at school. I discovered rock climbing and haven't looked back (or should that be down?).
The old green caravan at the side of the road was how it all started (showing my age)

In reply to alan moore:

I agree it was a terribly sad loss, the old tea shack was such an part of Climbing History its demolition to provide a honeypot destination will do nothing but damage the ecology and routes of Idwal..

In reply to muppetfilter:

Goodness me, what a statement.

I spend a morning in Cwm Idwal the other day, poking around with the wife and nipper, and confess that I saw very little "damage to the ecology and routes", certainly none that could be directly attributed to the modern, attractive, subtle new building with a vastly improved cafe and extremely friendly staff.

In reply to muppetfilter:

The old building although romantic in its historic pebble dashed grotty appeal was a mess, the new building and lay out is much better, there are more places to sit and as with a place like Cwm Idawll and its near perfect examples of glaciated geomorphology , lots of schoolery types visit the place, I did with geography in seniors and later with the university studying ecology, there are now places for groups to sit out of the way of the path , and a class room type space with model of the area and projectors explaining the creation of valley and Cwm, there is more room, the building itself uses slate , sorry no pebbledash, the roof is a bit good with its sloping curve , I have not used the toilets but Shelley said they are good, (no graffiti
It's a win win it fits and works.
I have been visiting this area since the 70' s and usually " I don't like change " but when it is done this good I had to say, I was impressed.
And the parking is still the same

In reply to gd303uk:




+1

In reply to gd303uk:

What are you talking about??? It's rubbish, I mean it's not even on the top. I will be boycotting it until it's moved to the top of Tryfan, enclosing Adam and Eve with a funicular railway up Grooved Arete.

In reply to Oujmik:

Hehehe, that's the next phase, with a zip line from above Devils Kitchen across the Llyn to the car park, D

In reply to gd303uk:

I agree that it's a really nice building, but can't quite get my head around why the tea-shack would still serve food through an outside hatch, and not have an option to serve inside, particularly in the winter when a good storm's blowing!

In reply to Cookie (North East Wales MC):


Yes I had wondered that. My guess was that it might be a licensing issue (i.e. They're only allowed to serve takeaway food)!

In reply to gd303uk:


I remember fondly the freebies( usually a big mug of tea and a couple of burgers) I used to get at the hut in 1980. I was leading that summer
for C.H.A. This was the norm at a few places. However, nothing could beat the home-made cakes and scones eaten in the tea-garden at Tyn Y Ffrith Farm, above Penmaenmawr.

In reply to alan moore & others:
But you're all probably too young to remember THE original shack or, to give it its proper name, Mervyns.

Mervyns WAS a shack situated a few yards down the A5 just by the falls. It was green and was secured by wire cables to stop it blowing away!

Now that was a real gem of a place and you had to be tough sometimes just to stand drinking a steaming mug(not a paper cup) of tea. ;0)
Happy days.

In reply to mypyrex:

I think you'll find it has been mentioned already

In reply to muppetfilter:


When I started going to Idwal in the 70's the path around the cwm was a monstrous eyesore, ribbons of erosion all over the place, getting wider by the year and totally destroying the ecology. The new path has not just halted the decline but actually reversed it. Not all change is bad.