A seaside community located in northwest Wales will be finding itself filled with tourists soon enough. A couple of days ago, the Guinness World Record gave the title of the steepest street in the world to a short winding thoroughfare located in Harlech that is a town with 1,400 residents and is located within Snowdonia National Park. The title of the steepest street the world was held by Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand previously. The new steepest street in the world is named Ffordd Pen Llech!
Ffordd Pen Llech is among the two roads that surround Harlech Castle – another important site that is located in the town. It is a 13th-century castle that is situated on a spur of rock in the vicinity of the Irish Sea. The Ffordd Pen Llech descends up to the rock-spur that connects the higher town center with the railway station that is located close to the sea level.
The climb is roughly 330 meters while providing an elevation again of fifty meters thus bringing the average gradient to a mere 15% only. However, there are sections of the street that have an amazing 37.5% gradient – about 2.5% more than Baldwin Street.
Ffordd Pen Llech is so steep that some parts of the street have a ban on vehicles driving up to them. In order to take care of issues that involve vehicles coming from the opposite directions and meeting on the slope and being unable to restart; the northern half has been declared a one-way street with traffic only going downwards.
The person who is responsible for bringing the title to Ffordd Pen Llech is a local resident Gwyn Headley. He was convinced that the street was steeper after his four-wheel-drive skidded down the road for about six feet with all four wheels of the car locked.
Upon searching online, he learned that Ffordd Pen Llech was steeper as opposed to the Baldwin Street of Dunedin. He acted in order to rectify the error for the sake of the community. However, the problems that come with tourists swarming a place are just too much, and it is important that certain precautions are taken. What do you think of this record and would you be willing to visit the steepest street in the world?