Great Orme Tramway

The Great Orme Tramway Runs on the Same Cable System as San Francisco’s Street Cars

The tram is not self-propelled. It is pulled by a continuous underground cable – exactly the mechanism that has operated the San Francisco cable cars since 1873, and which has operated here on the Great Orme headland since 1902. The lower section threads through actual residential streets in Llandudno at a leisurely pace, sharing road space with cars and pedestrians. This section is genuinely charming and slightly absurd: a Victorian cable car threading through a Welsh seaside town at walking pace, the conductor calling stops.

The Great Orme Tramway is the only remaining cable-hauled tramway still operating on public roads in Britain. It climbs 207 metres to the summit of the headland in two sections, changing cars at the halfway Halfway station. The full journey takes 20 to 25 minutes each way. Return tickets run approximately GBP 10 to 12 for adults. The service operates late March through October; it closes for winter.

The Summit

The Great Orme is a 679-acre Site of Special Scientific Interest. Two things are worth knowing before you go up: first, approximately 200 Kashmiri goats live free-roaming on the headland, are unintimidated by humans, and may investigate your possessions without permission. Second, the Great Orme Mines are the largest known prehistoric copper mines in the world, dated to around 4,000 years ago. The underground tour (approximately GBP 9 for adults, 45 to 60 minutes) is the most interesting thing on the headland; the scale of Bronze Age copper extraction here is genuinely surprising and the interpretive exhibits are well done.

On clear days the summit views cover Snowdonia, Anglesey, and the Isle of Man. The summit cafe is functional rather than good – soup, hot drinks, chips – but it is the only option up there.

Llandudno

The town below is a well-preserved Victorian seaside resort with a two-mile promenade between the Great Orme and Little Orme headlands. Alice Liddell – the child who inspired Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland – holidayed here. The Llandudno Museum on Gloddaeth Street covers this and the town’s Victorian development. The Seahorse on Church Walks does reliable fish and chips. Badgers Tea Room on Mostyn Street has been doing cream teas since 1922.

The Imperial Hotel on the promenade is the Victorian grande dame; rooms from approximately GBP 100 to 160 with sea-facing upper floors. The tramway runs until about 17:30 in high season; do not leave the summit so late that you miss the last car down.