Zip World Velocity Bethesda
Zip World Velocity at the Penrhyn Quarry near Bethesda in north Wales operates the longest and fastest zip line in Europe, a 1.5-kilometre line descending from the quarry rim to the quarry floor at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour in a flight above one of the largest slate quarries in the world. The combination of the engineering achievement, the extraordinary quarry landscape of the Penrhyn Quarry and the sheer speed of the descent creates one of the most dramatic outdoor experiences available in Wales. The Penrhyn Quarry, from whose working terraces the zip line departs, is one of the largest open-cast slate quarries in the world and an extraordinary industrial landscape of enormous scale. The quarry walls, stretching hundreds of metres in height and visible from a wide area of Snowdonia, provide the physical context for the zip line experience and the views from the launch platform over the quarry and toward the Snowdonia mountains create an introduction to the flight of considerable drama. The participant rides in a prone position, face down above the quarry floor, at speeds that exceed those of the fastest conventional ziplines by a considerable margin. The combination of the altitude, the speed and the industrial landscape below creates an experience that is genuinely unlike anything available elsewhere in Britain. The Zip World brand operates several other adventure activities across north Wales, including the underground zip lines and adventure playground at Zip World Caverns in the Llechwedd slate caverns at Blaenau Ffestiniog, creating an adventure tourism offer of considerable variety throughout Snowdonia.