Aberglaslyn Hall

Aberglaslyn Hall is an outdoor learning centre near Beddgelert, North Wales on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park. The hall is owned by Leicestershire County Council and was purchased in 1962. It offers dormitory style accommodation for up to 48 people and serves as a residential centre for groups wishing to participate in outdoor activities and environmental education.

In 1873 the land was used as a copper mine run by John Greaves. Aberglaslyn Hall was originally built in 1880 as a private dwelling by John Ernest Greaves. In 1891 Aberglaslyn was sold to John Williams (John A. A. Williams of Glangwna), he enlarged and improved the property, including installing an organ in the current dining room which was powered by a generator from the stream.

As High Sheriff of Caernarvonshire in 1895: John Albert Alexander Williams (born 1863), resided at Aberglaslyn Hall. His musical compositions included the march Cambria which was played at the investiture of the Prince of Wales at Caernarvon in 1911.

In 1914 Aberglaslyn was sold to Horace Raven from Leicestershire, who supplied London Zoo with bamboo during World War I.

During the 1920s Aberglaslyn was sold to Gordon Hayward from Derby; he was a timber merchant and intended to use the woodland for his business, however within two years a preservation order was placed on the woods preventing him from using the timber.

The house has a lodge, Bridge House or Ty Bont, at Pont Aberglaslyn. It is listed at grade II.

In 1962, Ron Swann, deputy Director of Education under Stewart Mason, was asked by Mason to go to Wales and find a suitable building for an outdoor education centre.

In Donald Jones’s biography of Mason the author writes: "The acquisition of the Aberglaslyn Centre is one of the 'epics' of the Mason era. One day in 1962 he sent Ron Swann off 'with orders not to come back from Wales until he had found something'. Never one to fail on a mission like this, Swann found three possible houses, one of which was in an extremely dilapidated condition, nearly a 'romantic ruin', in fact, and this was the one Mason chose."

When the former country house was bought by the council in 1962, it cost just £7,000 it was converted by the council to a residential outdoor education centre opening in 1965.

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