Sherpa'r Wyddfa​

A specialised bus service delivered by Gwynedd Council connects walkers and climbers from across the county with the foot of Yr Wyddfa.​

Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri provides some of Wales’ most dramatic and beautiful scenes, but in the summer the winding roads around Yr Wyddfa become dangerous queues of parked cars, as walkers and climbers access the mountains.

An improved Sherpa’r Wyddfa service launched in 2022 has 5 routes, beginning and ending in Caernarfon, Bangor, Beddgelert, Betws y Coed, Dinorwic and Porthmadog and all stopping at the foot of Yr Wyddfa.

The buses feature a much more comfortable and attractive proposition for customers too, with new Welsh language branding and a colourful livery reflecting the beauty of the natural landscape, and the iconic Snowdon Lily. This branding is reflected in new leaflets, bus stop flags, information boards and social media assets.​

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Buses offer walkers and climbers far more freedom in exploring the national park compared to a car, because you aren’t tied down to a car park, and instead can roam freely with confidence that there will be a service to you back to your accommodation.​

Since launching this new service in April 2022, passenger numbers have already increased by 18% compared to the same period pre-COVID in 2019. The geography of north Wales is one that has proven difficult to connect; even the Romans struggled to travel quickly through the mountains of Eryri. We hope that this service will connect the mountainous regions of Eryri to the railway that runs along its coastline, thus improving the ability to reach these rural areas sustainably, without the use of cars.

The developments to the service are excellent and are already helping to drive behaviour change as more and more people are opting to leave their cars at the National Park’s park and ride facilities and hop on the bus to take them out for a day of adventure​

Cllr Dafydd Meurig​

Cabinet Member for Environment​

Gwynedd Council​

Download our case study (PDF)