Gogarth Cliff Top Cameras a Great Success

Instructors from Plas Y Brenin, the National Mountain Centre in Snowdonia, have removed two cameras from Mousetrap Zawn at South Stack on Anglesey. The cameras were placed there in February for the RSPB and have allowed close up viewing of nesting Puffins and Choughs throughout the summer. Now that the birds have gone for the winter the cameras need to be retired for some routine maintenance.

The cameras needed 140 meters of cabling fixing to the sheer cliffs of Mousetrap Zawn to focus on a ledge where Puffins were nesting in burrows and a small cave just above the sea where Choughs were nesting. There are very few nesting Choughs in the UK and to see them was a particularly exciting prospect for birdwatchers. The camera images were watched from Ellin’s Tower, the RSPB’s information centre at Gogarth.

The ‘chough cam’ was apparently the hardest camera to place and remove because of its proximity to the sea and the necessity for some aid climbing to get it into place. The camera that focused on the Puffins was controllable from Ellin’s Tower and could zoom in, look around and even had a windscreen wiper for the lens.

John Cousins, Director of Training at Plas y Brenin said:
‘As climbers and sea kayakers we really appreciate the cliffs of South Stack and the wonderful variety of wildlife in the area. Climbers have very successfully maintained voluntary access agreements to specific parts of these cliffs for many years and we are therefore delighted to be able to help RSPB in this project and enable the general public to get a birds-eye, or indeed climbers-eye, view of the area.’

For more information on the Gogarth ‘cliff cams’ visit

The National Mountain Centre’s News From Plas Y Brenin

The RSPB article Cliff top cameras give RSPB visitors a birds-eye view

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