Our Lives: Britain’s Busiest Mountain (BBC One Friday 4 August 2023)

Our Lives: Britain’s Busiest Mountain airs Friday 4 August 2023 on BBC One.

What is this episode about

Yr Wyddfa, also known as Snowdon, is a popular destination. It’s the busiest mountain in Britain, and its popularity keeps growing. At peak times, people will wait in queue for up to 45 minutes just to make it up the last few steps to the summit and get that one last picture. About 750,000 people visit Yr Wyddfa each year. In 2023, a record number of visitors are anticipated as the summit’s visitor centre readies to reopen and the famous train transports passengers to the very top for the first time since October 2019. This summer is shaping up to be their busiest one to date.

The mountain’s altitude of 1,085 metres makes it extremely difficult to keep the five-mile railway track and visitor centre in working order. To keep the bathrooms running, thousands of litres of water are brought up by train every day, and the trash must be brought back down by hand. Shop and cafe staples like sausage rolls, of which over 50,000 are sold annually, are restocked every day.

The Snowdon Mountain Railway has been operating its 10-mile round-trip from Llanberis to Snowdon using Swiss-built steam locomotives since 1896 and is Britain’s only rack-and-pinion railway. More than a thousand people ride the train every day to take in the breathtaking scenery, and dozens of locals are employed year-round by the company.

Yr Wyddfa brings in about £20 million per year for the local economy, but it doesn’t come cheap. Volunteers spend their weekends collecting tonnes of trash from the slopes, while paid park rangers patrol the mountain to ensure the safety of hikers. Hundreds of thousands of feet trample the footpaths every year, causing wear and tear that must be repaired, and transport and parking are perennial points of contention. During peak times, there is a constant stream of buses and taxis transporting eager hikers to the base of the mountain, and there is also a constant stream of illegally parked cars being towed away.

There are 26 individual landowners in Yr Wyddfa, and the vast majority of them are farmers. As they have for hundreds of years prior, sheep and cattle freely roam the slopes, interacting with hikers and paying no attention to the passing trains. Tourists and locals who depend on the land for their livelihood often find themselves at odds. There needs to be mutual respect and accommodation on both sides.

When can we see the episode

Our Lives: Britain’s Busiest Mountain airs Friday 4 August 2023 at 7.30pm on BBC One

Featured Image Credit: BBC One