Pitt's Head ( Welsh: Carreg Collwyn) is a distinctive rock located at

grid reference A projected coordinate systemalso called a projected coordinate reference system, planar coordinate system, or grid reference systemis a type of spatial reference system that represents locations on Earth using Cartesian coordinate system, Car ...

, close to the A4085 road in

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

, Wales. Its distinction lies in a resemblance to the profile of politician

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, p ...

Geography

Located as it is near the base of one of the paths to the summit of

Snowdon Snowdon (), or (), is a mountain in Snowdonia in North Wales. It has an elevation of above sea level, which makes it both the highest mountain in Wales and the highest in the British Isles south of the Scottish Highlands. Snowdon i ...

, Pitt's Head Halt was a station on the original

Welsh Highland Railway The Welsh Highland Railway (WHR; ) is a restored Narrow-gauge railway, narrow-gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. It runs from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passes through a number of popular tourist destinations includi ...

, also marking the highest point on that railway. The present reconstruction of the railway does not envisage reopening the halt. The rock gives its name to the Pitt's Head Bridge, where the railway passes under the A4085, and the nearby Pitt's Head Cutting. In the

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

of the region, the rock gives its name to the rock of which it is formed, the Pitt's Head Tuff. This is an

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...

acid ash-flow

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

which

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth and other terrestrial planets. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most p ...

s on the northern flanks of

Snowdonia Snowdonia, or Eryri (), is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in North Wales. It contains all 15 mountains in Wales Welsh 3000s, over 3000 feet high, including the country's highest, Snowdon (), which i ...

. The correct name for this rock cluster is Cerrig Collwyn, Pitt's Head is only a name for one of these rocks. Collwyn ap Tango was said to be Lord of Eifionnydd, Ardudwy and part of Llŷn.

Resemblance

File:Pitts Head; Singular rock, by the road side, ten miles from Carnarvon and three from Beddgelert.jpg, Artist's impression of Pitt's head, 1850 Image:Pitt's Head.jpg, Pitt's Head Image:Pittatpembrokecollegecambridge.jpg, Statue of William Pitt at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

Image:Pitt the Younger.jpg, Portrait of William Pitt, attributed to

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (; 14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists o ...

File:William Pitt by Joseph Nollekens, 1808.JPG, William Pitt by Joseph Nollekens, 1808

Sources

* Cerrig Collwyn - See : Hynodion Gwlad y Bryniau - Cyfres Llafar Gwlad rhif 48 tudalen 7. By Steffan Ab Ioan * The Lakes of Eryri Geraint Roberts Gwasg Carreg Gwalch 1995 * Leigh's guide to Wales & Monmouthshire, 1835, p. 7
Digitised
* — However, this reference confuses irretrievably the town of

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay () is a town, Community (Wales), community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic counties of Wales, historic county boundaries of Denbighshire (h ...

on the North Wales Coast, and the River Colwyn which is close to Pitt's Head. There is no connection between the two apart from the name, but the Encyclopedia places Pitt's Head close to Colwyn Bay. It is nevertheless a source for the name of Pitt's Head. * British Geological Survey, England and Wales Sheet 118

External links

Bank of England statue

{{coord, 53.0414, N, 4.1251, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SH576515), display=title Betws Garmon Rock formations of Gwynedd Rock formations of Snowdonia Geology of Wales Welsh Highland Railway William Pitt the Younger

Geography

Resemblance

Sources

Further reading

External links