LLANDUDNO - QUEEN OF THE NORTH WALES RESORTS
[Llandudno-Home] [TownTrail-Home] [1.Library] [2.TrinitySq] [3.RailwayStation] [4.NorthWesternGdns] [5.Promenade] [6.Cenotaph] [7.PrinceEdwardSq] [8.Pier-MarineDr] [9.HappyValley] [10.UpperMostynSt] [11.Tramway] [12.HaulfreGdns] [13.WestShore] [14.GloddaethSt] [15.LloydSt]
LLANDUDNO TOWN TRAIL - 9
The Happy Valley and the Camera Obscura
The lower slopes of the park (pictured below) consist mainly of informal gardens with a tea pavilion and entertainment centre and these are being rejuvenated with the aid of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The attractions include the restored
camera obscura
built in
1890 and nearby the Aerial
Cable Car line to the summit of the Great Orme,
built in 1969. At over one mile between the two stations, this is
the longest gondola lift in Britain. Each cabin seats four
passengers.
The newly restored camera obscura - first
opened in 1860.
Views are spectacular - like this from Camera
Obscura hill.
Within the Happy Valley the gardens are particularly fine.
Fine landscaped gardens with specimen trees.
Higher up the Happy Valley there is now the
Llandudno Ski and Snowboard
Centre built in 1987 with a
fine artificial ski
slope, at
300 metres the longest in Britain.
There is also a very popular
700 metre metal lined toboggan
run.
The ski centre has its own Swiss Chalet style café and shop.
Above
the Happy Valley, and opposite the ski slope is Pen y Dinas, a
Scheduled Ancient Monument and site
of an
Iron Age hill fort with the remains of over 50 hut circles. Another
feature of
great antiquity at Pen y Dinas is the ‘rocking stone’ on which accused
prisoners are said to have been judged by the druids.