Losing Faith
Hebron Chapel Remains - December 2025 - Photo © Rob Jones
It’s a case of ‘blink and you’ll miss it.’
Unless you’re on foot, and you’ve lost your way.
For years now I’ve been watching the slow decay of Hebron Chapel on Snowdon. It’s a regular stop walking the dogs. To check it’s still there. To see what’s been lost to the elements and the thieves since my last visit. And yet to find that it’s still beautiful, no matter what happens to it.
One day it will be gone completely.
If you’re climbing Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa via the Llanberis path, and miss the sign, you’ll follow the road under the railway and find yourself with one of the best views of Wales’ highest mountain you can get. And there, to the right, just a few yards off the path is Hebron Chapel. Standing alone in a field overlooking the seemingly uninhabited valley of Cwm Brwynog.
That wasn’t always the case though. It was built in 1833 by Calvinist Methodists and could sit 120 people. At the time it was the valley’s only communal building and acted as a meeting house, concert venue and of course for religious services.
People have been living and farming here since medieval times at least. The valley thrived due to copper mining, the workings like sewing stitches up the nearby slopes.
The railway came in Victorian times. There was a family living in Hebron station, a hundred yards or so up the hill, who lived there rent free so long as they operated the points for the trains in the tourist season.
With the growth of the slate quarries, many families moved down into Llanberis village, and the the chapel eventually closed in 1958. The last service was held outside because they’d mislaid the key. There’s a photo of that event on Historypoints.org.
Hebron Chapel - 2013 - Photo © Rob Jones
When I first photographed it, in 2013, it still had a roof - just. But that was plundered some years back.
The rest, it seems, no one is particularly interested in, and one day it will all be gone.
There are so many Welsh chapels disused now and falling into disrepair. It’s such a sad thing to see, especially when one considers they were once full of life and song.
RJ
