Zip World Penrhyn Quarry (Velocity 2)

Penrhyn Quarry, above Bethesda, was at the end of the nineteenth century the largest slate quarry in the world, employing around 3,000 people. The pit runs nearly a mile long and reaches 370 metres deep, and the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales, the UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes Penrhyn, was inscribed in 2021. It was also the site of the Penrhyn Lockout of 1900 to 1903, the longest dispute in British industrial history. Welsh Slate Ltd still works part of the site today, with around 200 employees.

Zip World’s Velocity 2 crosses the abandoned, partly flooded sections of the old workings on four parallel lines, so riders travel side by side rather than one behind the other. The operator markets it as the fastest zip line in the world, with speeds it states can exceed 100mph on the main run, which covers just over a mile from start to finish. The full experience, including harness fitting and a ride up around three kilometres of quarry track in a converted army truck, takes about two hours. The site runs year-round apart from Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

This is a paid, bookable thrill ride rather than a walk, about 10 miles from Llanberis by road. It suits anyone wanting a short, high-adrenaline addition to a walking-based trip. The operator’s height and weight limits for the harness system rule some riders out, and anyone hoping for a quiet, unhurried look at a slate quarry will be disappointed, since the whole point of Velocity 2 is speed; Dolbadarn Castle looks across Llyn Padarn to the Dinorwig quarry terraces for almost no effort.