oin me for a drive from Conwy Town Centre taking in views of Conwy Castle.
I proceed along the Flyover turning left through Deganwy and into West Shore, views of The Great Orme in front before turning right along Gloddaeth Avenue and into Llandudno Town Centre.
Turning left at the roundabout into Upper Mostyn Street before the steep climb up to the summit of the Great Orme.
The Great Orme (Welsh: Y Gogarth) is a limestone headland on the north coast of Wales, north-west of the town of Llandudno. Referred to as Cyngreawdr Fynydd by the 12th-century poet Gwalchmai ap Meilyr,[1] its English name derives from the Old Norse word for sea serpent.[2] The Little Orme, a smaller but very similar limestone headland, is on the eastern side of Llandudno Bay.
Elevation
207 m (679 ft)
Prominence
201 m (659 ft)
Parent peak
Mwdwl-eithin
Listing
Marilyn
Coordinates
53°20′0″N 3°51′20″W
Both the Great and Little Ormes have been etymologically linked to the Old Norse words urm or orm that mean sea serpent (English worm is a cognate). One explanation is that the Great Orme is the head, with its body being the land between the Great and Little Ormes, whilst another, possibly more likely, is that the shape of the Great Orme viewed as one enters the isthmus of Llandudno from the southeast landward end resembles a giant sleeping creature. The Vikings left no written texts of their time in North Wales although they certainly raided the area. They did not found any permanent settlements, unlike on the Wirral Peninsula, but some Norse names remain in use in the former Kingdom of Gwynedd (such as Point of Ayr near Talacre).
Despite there being a theory for the origin of the name "Orme", the word was not commonly used until after the creation of the Victorian resort of Llandudno in the mid-19th century. Before this, Welsh names were predominantly used locally and in cartography to name the headland's landward features and the surrounding area. The entire peninsula on which Llandudno was built was known as the Creuddyn (the medieval name of the cwmwd – a historical division of land in Wales); the headland itself was called Y Gogarth or Pen y Gogarth; its promontories were Pen trwyn, Llech, and Trwyn y Gogarth.
Orme only appears to have been applied to the headland as seen from the sea. In 1748, the Plan of the Bay & Harbour of Conway in Caernarvon Shire by Lewis Morris names the body of the peninsula "CREUDDYN" but applies the name "Orme's Head" to the headland's north-westerly seaward point.[3] The first series Ordnance Survey map (published in 1841 and before the establishment of Llandudno) follows this convention. The headland is called the "Great Orme's Head" but its landward features all have Welsh names.[4] It is likely that Orme became established as its common name due to Llandudno's burgeoning tourist trade because a majority of visitors and holidaymakers arrived by sea. The headland was the first sight of their destination in the three-hour journey from Liverpool by paddle steamer.
Parts of the Great Orme are managed as a nature reserve by the Conwy County Borough Countryside Service. The area, which is 2 miles (3.2 km) long by 1 mile (1.6 km) wide, has a number of protective designations including Special Area of Conservation, Heritage Coast, Country Park, and Site of Special Scientific Interest. The local authority provides a warden service on the Great Orme that regularly patrols the special scientific and conservation areas.[5] There are numerous maintained paths for walking to the summit; a section of the long-distance North Wales Path also crosses the headland. About half the Great Orme is in use as farmland, mostly for sheep grazing. In 2015, the National Trust purchased the summit's 140-acre Parc Farm for £1million.[6]
Geology
The Great Orme is a peninsula made mostly of limestone and dolomite, formed during the Early Carboniferous part of the Earth's geological history. Most of the Great Orme's rocks are between 339 and 326 million years old.[7] The upper surface of the Great Orme is particularly noted for its limestone pavements covering several headland areas. There are also rich seams of dolomite-hosted copper ore. The Great Orme copper mine was estimated to have produced enough copper to make about 2,000 tons of bronze during the Bronze Age.[8] The slopes of the Great Orme are subject to occasional subsidence.[9]
Natural wells were greatly prized in limestone districts and the Great Orme was no exception. Water was required for copper mining purposes as well as for domestic and agricultural use. The following Great Orme wells are known and most still supply running water:
Ffynnon Llygaid. Possibly one of the wells supplying the needs of the once populous Gogarth community before much of it was lost to coastal erosion.
Ffynnon Gogarth. The main water source for Gogarth and in the later 18th and early 19th centuries the power source to operate the famous Tom and Gerry engine.
