This is a true story about a real person, and if you visit Beddgelert you can see where it all happened.
Owen Glendower was a prince of the royal Welsh blood in the time of King Henry the Fourth. In his own country he was called Owain Glyndwr, but the English lords at the court of King Henry, where Owen was a courtier and soldier, found it easier to say ‘Glendower’. These noblemen used to sneer at Owen and call him ‘barefoot Welsh-man’, and when one of them, Lord Grey of Ruthin, stole some of Owen’s lands the young prince decided that the time had come to fight against his enemies. He went back to Wales, proclaimed himself Prince of Wales by right, and called on all Welsh fighting-men to help him free their country from English rule.
For a time the rebellion succeeded. Owen’s men won fight after fight against the men-at-arms which the English lords sent to conquer them. But when King Henry ordered a large army to march into Wales and capture the Prince, the tide of battle turned and the Welsh were defeated. Owen’s fighting-men began to desert him and soon he was left quite alone in the mountains of North Wales, with King Henry’s soldiers hunting him in every valley.
The Prince had a good friend who lived near Beddgelert, close to the highest mountain in Wales. This was Rhys Goch Eryri — Red Reece of Snowdon — and he was called ‘Red’ because of his fiery-red hair and beard. Journeying by night, Owen came to Reece’s house and knocked cautiously on the door. When his friend saw who it was he welcomed the Prince warmly and told him he should stay as long as he wished.
"Danger brings me here, Reece," said Owen, "and I bring danger with me, for if I am found in your house the King’s men will hang you."
"I’ll chance that," laughed Red Reece. "One of my fellows shall keep watch up the Colwyn valley, for that’s the way Henry’s soldiers will come, if they come at all."
So Owen found refuge there, and for a short time his hiding-place was not discovered. Then, one morning, Reece’s watchman came racing up to the house to report a large force of the King’s men approaching along the Colwyn valley.
"You have been betrayed, my lord Prince," said Reece. "They will surely come to search my house. You and I must take to the mountains and hide.
Owen shook his head. "I am the hunted one, not you," he said. "I go alone."
"I go with you," Red Reece told him firmly. "Quick — put on this old cloak and hat, and I’ll dress myself in the same way. If they see us they’ll think we’re a couple of servants."
Owen did as he said, and they slipped out of the back door onto the hillside just as the soldiers approached the front door and spread out to surround the house. Some leafy thickets gave good cover for Owen and Reece at first and they scrambled up the lower hillside without being seen. But on the bare rocky slope above there was no cover, and a keen-eyed soldier down by the house saw them and reported that two servants were running away from the house.
"Running away!" said the captain of the troop. "Then one of them will be Glendower. After them, men!"
Up the hillside rushed the soldiers like a pack of hounds on the scent. Luckily for the fugitives there was no bowman among them, or they would have been shot down. But the soldiers, armed with swords and daggers, were men picked specially for this sort of chase and they were as fast over steep rough ground as Owen and Reece.
"They’ll have us yet," panted Reece as they ran. "You dodge aside when we get behind the rocks yonder — I’ll lead them straight on."
The pursuers were hot on their heels and there was no time to argue. Owen ducked out of sight and Reece, with a defiant yell, raced on. The soldiers followed him. And then Reece’s hat flew from his head, revealing his fiery-red hair and beard.
"That red fox isn’t Glendower!" shouted the captain. "Look —there goes our man!"
Owen was running downhill towards the Pass of Aberglaslyn. In those days the sea came right up to the western end of the Pass, and his plan was to reach it and escape by boat. But the captain of the troop guessed what he was about and sent his fastest runners to cut him off. Owen was forced to swerve back to the right, in the direction of the big mountain called Moel Hebog which stands above Beddgelert. He splashed across the River Glaslyn, thigh-deep in the water, and climbed as fast as he could up the rough hillside. Behind him the pursuing soldiers spread out in a wide crescent to prevent him from escaping to one side or the other. Soon he was high up on Moel Hebog, with the dark cliffs that defend its summit close above him.
Owen had hoped to cross the ridge on the left and escape into Cwm Pennant on the other side. But now he saw the soldiers closing in on that side and knew he could never reach the ridge. He made across to the right — but there too were the clambering figures of King Henry’s men. He was being driven up against the foot of the cliffs, and no man had ever found a way to climb them. Owen Glendower was trapped.
If you look up at Moel Hebog from Beddgelert you’ll see the cliffs stretching away to the left below the top of the mountain. You may be able to make out the dark line of a cleft in the middle of the cliffs. Owen Glendower saw this cleft just when it seemed certain that he would be captured, and climbed up towards it at top speed. It was as steep and narrow as a chimney and nearly three hundred feet from bottom to top, but it was his only chance and he got into it and began to climb. One slip, and he really would have fallen into the hands of his enemies, probably with a broken neck. But Owen was a fine cragsman and he didn’t slip. By the time the breathless soldiers reached the foot of the cleft he was more than halfway to the top.
The captain ordered his troop to follow, but every man refused. They were soldiers, they said, not mountain-goats! The captain decided that he wasn’t a mountain-goat either, and they gave up the chase and retreated down the mountainside. As for Owen Glendower, he climbed out at the top of his chimney and made his way to cave in the side of a mountain called Moel yr Ogof (you can see it from the road a mile north of Beddgelert) where he hid himself in safety. Red Reece kept him secretly supplied with food until the soldiers had left the valley, and then Owen came out of hiding to rally his men and fight once more against his enemies.
More than five centuries afterwards, the rock-climbers of our own time have published a guidebook to the climbing ‘routes’ on Moel Hebog. It describes each climb and records who made the ‘first ascent’ and when. This is how one of the routes is described:
"Glyndwr’s Gully. 250 feet. First Ascent, Owain Glyndwr, circa 1400."
So you see, the story must be true.