The name is derived from Ogwen Valley, a locality in Snowdonia where it outcrops.
The rocks occur throughout Llŷn and eastwards into Snowdonia within Gwynedd.
[1] The Group consists of about 1000 m thickness (in the Pwllheli area) of mudstones and siltstones with some basal sandstones together with tuffs and oolitic ironstones laid down during the Arenig and Caradoc epochs of the Ordovician Period.
[2] The Nant Ffrancon subgroup alone exceeds 2km thickness in central Snowdonia.
The subgroup as itself been classed as both a formation and a group at times.