Long before Llandudno became a town the Great Orme was a notorious navigational hazard to the Liverpool ships tempted to use the Menai Straits rather than face the north-west passage around Anglesey.  The earliest record of a shipwreck on the Great Orme is that of the “Phoenix” in January, 1642.  It was one of three warships forming the Irish Sea Fleet of Charles I.  There is no record of any survivors.

The name Hornby Cave, at the westernmost point of the Great Orme, commemorates the shipwreck on New Year’s Day 1824 of the brig “Hornby” bound from Liverpool to the West Indies with a crew of 14 and two passengers.  For two days and nights the “Hornby” had been tossed between Point Lynas and the Great Orme, the captain resolutely refusing to put in to Beaumaris, which was near at hand, declaring “I had rather be at sea for ever than go there”.  A somewhat strange remark since Beaumaris was his home town!  At the moment the “Hornby” struck the sheer cliffs, one of the crew, John Williams, was on the jib boom trying to loosen the sail.  The impact catapulted him onto a ledge where he remained for several hours.  John Williams proved to be the only survivor.  At dawn he climbed the cliffs and made his way across the Great Orme to the village smithy where he told his story to a group of copper miners preparing  to go down one of the shafts.  19 of the miners were subsequently jailed for plundering the wreck.  John Williams settled on the Great Orme and became a miner.