The Beddgelert meteorite
A stone that crashed through the roof of a hotel in Snowdonia.
Key facts
- Fell
- 21 September 1949
- Where
- Beddgelert, Gwynedd
- Type
- H5 ordinary chondrite
- Mass
- about 790 g
- Where it is kept
- Natural History Museum, London, and Durham University
- Nation today
- Wales
On 21 September 1949, after loud explosions, a stone of about 790 grams smashed through the roof of the Prince Llewelyn Hotel in the village of Beddgelert in Snowdonia. Measurements of the damage suggested it had come down almost vertically.
It is an H5 ordinary chondrite, rich in metal and well heated in its parent asteroid. The stone was split between the British Museum's natural history collections, now the Natural History Museum in London, and Durham University, where scientists measured its helium, uranium and thorium. Ratios like these let researchers estimate how long ago a meteorite's rock formed and how long it travelled through space.
Beddgelert is one of only two meteorites seen to fall in Wales, and one of several British meteorites to have hit a building.
Did you know?
Beddgelert is one of only two meteorite falls recorded in Wales; the other, Pontlyfni, fell 18 years earlier less than 20 kilometres away.
Buildings are hit more often than people expect, simply because they cover a lot of ground.
Find out more
- Beddgelert in the catalogue: the official class and recorded mass
- H chondrites: what this kind of meteorite is and where it comes from
- All the meteorites of Britain and Ireland, with a map
- Found something in the UK or Ireland? What to do next
Nearest other British and Irish meteorites
- Pontlyfni 14 April 1931 · about 15 km away
- Rowton 20 April 1876 · about 110 km away
- Appley Bridge 13 October 1914 · about 110 km away
- Winchcombe 28 February 2021 · about 185 km away