Snowdonia National Park

Snowdonia National Park (Welsh: Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri) was established in 1951 as the third national park in England and Wales. It covers 2,142 km² (840 square miles), and has 60 km of coastline. The park is governed by the Snowdonia National Park Authority, which is made up of local government and Welsh national representatives, and its main offices are at Penrhyndeudraeth. Unlike national parks in other countries, Snowdonia (and other such parks in England and Wales) are made up of both public and private lands under central planning authority.

More than 26,000 people live within the park, of whom about 62% speak Welsh.[2] The park attracts over 6 million visitors annually, split fairly equally between day visitors and paying visitors,[2] making it the third most visited national park in England and Wales. Whilst most of the land is either open or mountainous land, there is a significant amount of agricultural activity within the park.

Since the local government re-organisation of 1998, the park lies partly in the county of Gwynedd, and partly in the county borough of Conwy. It is governed by the 18–member Snowdonia National Park Authority, 9 of whom are appointed by Gwynedd, 3 by Conwy, and the remaining 6 by the National Assembly for Wales.

Unusually, Snowdonia National Park has a hole in the middle, around the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, a slate quarrying centre. This was deliberately excluded from the park when it was set up in order to allow the development of new light industry to replace the decimated slate industry.