Zip World
Penrhyn Quarry Bethesda Bangor Gwynedd LL57 4YG
Imagine being suspended from a wire at 1800 feet, looking down at what was until the 1950s the largest man-made hole on the planet. Welcome to Zip World Velocity – the northern hemisphere’s longest zip wire. At one mile in length, this is the closest humans can get to flying like superman, travelling at speeds anywhere between 75mph and 100mph. You start the journey in the base of Penrhyn slate quarry, which the wire travels over. Once the largest slate mine in the world, it still employs around 300 people, producing some of the finest slate on earth. Now, every five minutes, two people travel down parallel wires for a mile. Once you're properly suspended and the “Safety's off”, you're ready to go.
It's the closest you will get to sky diving without jumping out of a plane and it is incredible to say the least. The ground rushes beneath you, at times just metres away, and suddenly you're soaring over the lake back to the quarry’s base. The lake is astoundingly blue – like a pool of fountain pen ink – and you'll become lost in it. Here, time slows down, giving you the chance to soak in all the unbelievable views of the North Wales coastline just ahead, the Isle of Man beyond and the mountains of Snowdonia to the right. An unmissable experience.
Click here to see Cool Places author Helen Ochyra's video of her Zip World experience.
The sister experience is Zip World Titan, situated near the historic slate-mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, only 40 minutes away from the original Zip World site in Bethesda. This is Europe's first 4-person zip line, spread across some epic scenery, with the two experiences combining to make this part of North Wales the largest zip zone in the world.
