Hafod Eryri is one of Wales’s most spectacular visitor centres.
Opening times
Hafod Eryri is not under the management of the National Park Authority. For more information on opening times, visit the Snowdon Mountain Railway website.
Café and Gift Shop
The Summit café sells drinks and snacks from warming Welsh pasties to freshly baked cakes. Gifts, clothing and souvenirs unique to Yr Wyddfa and the railway can be purchased in the Summit gift shop.
History of Hafod Eryri
Although there is no clear record of when the first building on Yr Wyddfa was built, there had likely been some form of shelter on the summit since 1820.
These shelters were wooden huts—huts that by 1930 would have deteriorated and been severely damaged by the fierce and harsh weather on Yr Wyddfa.
It was decided to replace these huts with a new multi-purpose building. Sir Clough Williams-Ellis was commissioned to design the building—an architect admired in the area for his work designing and building the village of Portmeirion near Porthmadog.
During the Second World War, the building was used for experimental radio and radar work.
In 1982, with Sir Clough Williams-Ellis’s design starting to succumb to the weather and challenging conditions, the building was purchased by the National Park Authority, who began a process of planning and consulting on the construction of a new centre for the summit.
Construction began in 2001. Eight years later, on 12 June 2009, Hafod Eryri was opened to the public for the first time by the First Minister of Wales, Rhodri Morgan.