On the coast, adjoining the Menai Strait separating the mainland from Anglesey, are two important historic settlements. One is the small cathedral and university city of Bangor and the other is Caernarfon, a fortified walled town of Roman origins, with an impressive late 13thC castle, and now a designated World Heritage Site. Both places, along with Port Dinorwic lying between the two, became important slate ports serving vast inland quarries at a time when North West Wales was the main producer of slate in the world. Huge quantities of slate were shipped to meet the demand for roofing tiles in the rapidly developing industrial towns in Britain and elsewhere. The old quarries and small communities that developed near them, lie at the edge of the Snowdonia National Park. Caernarfon was the port for the quarries of the Nantlle valley and Moel Tryfan area. The industrial legacy includes old quarries, former tramways, a network of quarrymen's paths and the trackbed of former narrow gauge railways used to transport the slate. The 22 walks in this book explore the area's varied landscape and fascinating history.