CastleGwyneddCadw4.7
Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.
The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.
Cadw names a local authority pay and display car park across the road from the castle: Gwynedd Council's Padarn Country Park car park on the A4086, paid by card, machine or PayByPhone. The council's current tariff is not published online (its fees document was unavailable on 17 October 2026), so the status is recorded as unknown; visitors in 2026 paid about £6.60 for the day and warn that the gates close at 8pm and that camera enforcement records entry and exit times. The National Slate Museum quotes £4.50 for the park's car park, undated. No parking at the castle itself.
From the car park cross the A4086 to the footbridge opposite the entrance and follow the woodland path up to the castle steps: Cadw allows 10 to 25 minutes on farm tracks that can be muddy, uneven and slippery, steeper as you near the castle; reviewers call it short but steep. Driving pin: the Padarn Country Park car park (Cadw's own what3words point), 202 m from the castle. By road: half a mile south-east of Llanberis on the A4086.
By rail: Bangor, 14.5 km. By bus: the Dolbadarn Castle stop is on the A4086 beside the castle (Traveline Cymru 0800 464 0000). National Cycle Network route 8 passes 12.7 km away. The Llanberis Lake Railway runs from Gilfach Ddu in Padarn Country Park, about 350 m west.
Castell Dolbadarn, Dolbadarn Castle, is a native Welsh castle on a rocky knoll between Llyn Padarn and Llyn Peris, the solitary guardian of the Llanberis Pass. Most likely built by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Llywelyn the Great, in the late 12th or early 13th century, it watched the route inland from Caernarfon to the upper Conwy Valley. The sturdy round tower, 50 feet high and added in the 1230s, stands out from the unmortared slate curtain walls; its doorway was defended by a portcullis and its spiral stair reverses direction halfway up. Owain ap Gruffudd was probably imprisoned here for 22 years by his brother Llywelyn the Last. Reviewers love the setting of lake and mountains and climb to the caged viewing platform for views over both lakes. One tip from visitors: the short woodland path up from the car park across the road is steep and slippery when wet. Dogs on short leads may explore the ground level, and the National Slate Museum's Stepping Out trail passes the castle.
Open all year during reasonable daylight hours; no admission charge. Cadw may close monuments at short notice in extreme weather.
Terrain level 3, moderate: the approach path, then historic stone at the base of the entrance steps that is difficult when wet, with a handrail on the main steps; natural light only inside the tower, where a single ruinous staircase leads to the top; guardrails close the dangerous areas and the top is exposed to high winds. Do not climb the castellations. Falling stones in bad weather. No toilets, cafe or shop at the castle; facilities are in Llanberis and at the National Slate Museum. Drones are not permitted.
Dogs: Dogs on short leads are welcome on the ground level of the castle; the tower stair is for assistance dogs only.
Photo: Dolbadarn Castle's round tower above the woods on the shore of Llyn Padarn, with the mountains of the Llanberis Pass behind. Tilman2007, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:21854_Dolbadarn_Castle_Llanberis_20240530_0191.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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About 1,300 steps from the museum entrance at Gilfach Ddu: leave by the main archway, follow the pavement out of the park, turn right over the footbridge by the quarrymen's houses onto the field, then left for the castle or onwards to the village; keep to the public pathways. Free; the museum and castle car parks are the council's pay and display.
