Hafod Eryri, Snowdon new visitor’s centre is the highest building and highest café in Britain (see Slideshow). The Guardian’s architecture critic, Jonathan Glanceyn describes it here as a ‘complete surprise’ and “a feat of ‘engineering sorcery’… fits so effortlessly into that peak is a real credit to those who designed and built it.” On arrival, visitors are greeted by lines of poetry carved into the outside walls of building, by Welsh poet Gwyn Thomas. The building must be able to withstand extreme weather conditions on the summit (Winds over 150mph -twice hurricane force-, over 5 metres of rain a year, temperatures of -20°C  -excluding wind chill).

Well worth either the climb or taking Britain’s only rack-and-pinion mountain railway train.