inscribed as title and dated " 1874"
Snowdon is a mountain in Snowdonia in North Wales. It has an elevation of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level, which makes it both the highest mountain in Wales and the highest in the British Isles south of the Scottish Highlands. Snowdon is designated a national nature reserve for its rare flora and fauna, and is located within Snowdonia National Park.
The rocks that form Snowdon were produced by volcanoes in the Ordovician period, and the massif has been extensively sculpted by glaciation, forming the pyramidal peak of Snowdon and the arêtes of Crib Goch and Y Lliwedd. It is part of the larger Snowdon range, which includes Garnedd Ugain, Yr Aran, and Moel Eilio. There are several lakes on the mountain, the largest of which is Llyn Lydaw (110 acres (45 ha)), located on the eastern flank at 1,430 ft (440 m).
The mountain has been described as the "busiest in the United Kingdom", and in 2022 it was climbed by 543,541 walkers. There are six main paths to the summit, the most popular of which begins in the town of Llanberis to the north. The summit can also be reached using the Snowdon Mountain Railway, which carried 98,567 passengers in 2021. The rack railway, which opened in 1896, operates over 4+3⁄4 miles (7.6 kilometres), from Llanberis to the Summit station. It generally operates from March to the end of October, with trains running to the summit station from May. The cliff faces on Snowdon, including Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, are significant for rock climbing, and the mountain was used by Edmund Hillary in training for the 1953 ascent of Mount Everest. The mountain, alongside Ben Nevis in Scotland and Scafell Pike in England, is climbed as part of the National Three Peaks Challenge.
The name "Snowdon" is first recorded in 1095 as Snawdune, and is derived from the Old English elements snaw and dun, meaning "snow hill".
The Welsh name of the mountain, Yr Wyddfa, is first recorded in Latin as Weddua vaur in 1284. This is probably an approximation of Pen y Wyddfa Fawr. The element gwyddfa in this context means 'height, promontory', and also appears in the Welsh name for the town of Mold, Yr Wyddgrug.
Gwyddfa later developed the meaning "burial cairn", and there is a legend that the giant Rhita is buried under the mountain's summit cairn. One legend claims that Rhita was defeated and buried on the mountain by King Arthur, and another states that Rhita was killed by the giant Idris who lived on the mountain Cadair Idris. The mountain is also linked to other figures from Arthurian legend, a legendary Afanc (water monster) and the Tylwyth Teg (fairies).
It has been argued that Mount Snowdon strictly refers to a higher mountain in British Columbia, Canada, with the Welsh mountain simply being "Snowdon".However, the Welsh mountain has been referred to in some uses as "Mount Snowdon" or "Mt Snowdon".
In November 2022, national park authority announced they are to refer to the mountain by its Welsh name Yr Wyddfa, not Snowdon. Following a two-year transition period, in November 2024, the authority announced the name would be kept following its success in gaining support and adoption by businesses and media.
A 1682 survey estimated that the summit of Snowdon was at an elevation of 3,720 feet (1,130 m); in 1773, Thomas Pennant quoted a later estimate of 3,568 ft (1,088 m) above sea level at Caernarfon. It was long believed to be the tallest mountain on the island of Great Britain until measurements taken in the eighteenth century confirmed that Ben Nevis and several other Scottish peaks were taller. Recent surveys give the height of the summit as 1,085 m (3,560 ft), making Snowdon the highest mountain in Wales, and the highest point in the British Isles outside Scotland.
The rocks which today make up Snowdon and its neighbouring mountains were formed in the Ordovician Period. At that time, most of modern-day Wales was near the edge of Avalonia, submerged beneath the ancient Iapetus Ocean. In the Soudleyan (former British regional) stage (458 to 457 million years ago) of the Caradoc (British regional) epoch, a volcanic caldera formed, and produced ash flows of rhyolitic tuff, which formed deposits up to 500 metres (1,600 ft) thick. The current summit is near the northern edge of the ancient caldera; the caldera's full extent is unclear, but it extended as far as the summit of Moel Hebog in the south-west.
Snowdon and its surrounding peaks have been described as "true examples of Alpine topography". The summits of Snowdon and Garnedd Ugain are surrounded by cwms, rounded valleys scooped out by glaciation. Erosion by glaciers in adjacent cwms caused the characteristic arêtes of Crib Goch, Crib y Ddysgl and Y Lliwedd, and the pyramidal peak of Snowdon itself. Other glacial landforms that can be seen around Snowdon include roches moutonnées, glacial erratics and moraines.
Mary Keightley (1854-1946) was the youngest daughter of Archibald Keightley (1795-1877), executor of Sir Thomas Lawrence’s estate. She was a good amateur artist. Archibald Keightley (1795-1877), who was a solicitor who was the executor for Sir Thomas Lawrence, who had died earlier in 1830. Mr Keightley was responsible for the sale of Sir Thomas's collections, some of which were not paid for! There is a very interesting story about Sir Thomas's collection of old master drawings which were part of the assets Mr Keightley had to dispose of. Following his work as a solicitor, Mr Keightley a few years later became the Registrar for the Charterhouse School, where he remained for 39 years.
Mary Keightley was born in 1854, in Charterhouse, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom, her father, Archibald Keightley, was 58 and her mother, Sarah Elizabeth Yates, was 41. She lived in London, England for about 20 years and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, United Kingdom in 1891. She died on 20 April 1946, in Camberley, Surrey, England, United Kingdom, at the age of 93.