Weather Links

MWIS. Weather forecast for mountain regions. Only active Friday to Sunday. Highly Recommended.

Met Office. Now it's improved to a 5 day forecast! Great.

Snowdonia Snowline - States the altitude of lying snow in the Carneddau.

Metcheck weather

Advertise your Snowdonia Business here! Email for info.

Accuweather

Snowdon Weather Station Project. Weather data, but is down at the moment. The Webcams show Elidir Fawr and Moel Eilio.

Snowdon Sherpa Bus Timetables

Welsh Highland Railway.

Travelline Wales.

theTrainline - Timetables and online booking

The Welsh 3000s - website just about the 14 peaks.

The BMC - British Mountaineering Council.

The Mountain Bothy Association - yes, there are bothies in Eryri...

TAC - The Angry Corrie Scottish hillwalking fanzine, read it free.

Eryri - Snowdonia National Park.

Oggy Cam . Ogwen Mountain Rescue and a Ogwen Valley webcam.

BBC North West Wales.

Graham's Wales Photos. Loads of excellent pics on Eryri in here.

North Wales Photographs Beautiful photos of North Wales by Simon Kitchin.

Cambrian Mountains National Park A 'Should-Be' fourth welsh national park.

Snowdonia Society Charity which looks after the interests onf the National Park.

eryriway.org.uk Sister site to walkeryri, emphasising long distance trails.

Llyn Coastal Path, Stage 2a

Clynnog to Llanaelhaearn (11.5km)

Your second day takes you over Bwlch Mawr and Gyrn Ddu, affording views of Snowdonia and down the peninsula. It is slightly modified from the 'official' route offered by Gwynedd Council, and in my opinion, with a little modifications, could be a better option for this section. The official route takes you along a similar route to this one, but you do not acheive the summit of Bwlch Mawr. To not climb this summit is to miss the views along what you have already walked and of western Eryri in general. Officially you either at the point mentioned in the text, continue through a marshy area to a col, and then down to Trefor. The extra climb my route entails is tiny and you gain it back on stage 2b as you do not lose all the ascent by descending to Trefor (why, I don't know).

Anyway, this is my version of the walk, and I suggest a slightly shorter version of it for the coastal path, by ignoring the summit of Garn Ddu. The reason being it is rather off the track, and I'd feel it could be a pain to get to with a backpacking 'sac. Afterall, the summit is essentially a pile of rocks about 30m high.

Start from the Coach Inn in Clynnog and just past the Post Office on your left there is a minor road. You follow this road for a short while (1/2 a kilometre) before the road turns sharply left. Literally on the bend, there is a waymarker for both Llyn Coastal Path and a Bridleway, to your right. This then climbs steadily uphill through some bracken before veering left. Posts with blue arrows mark the way. Incidentally, this route is different to the one Gwynedd Council publish, but i assume the mistake is on the website and that this was the correct path. Whatever the case, this is an excellent path, unobstructed, not eroded and it starts to give you some sea views finally!

The track continues past a bunkhouse at GR SH415 491 and on into the derelict farm of Pen-yr-allt-uchaf (SH415 489). You will recognise the farm as it has an old, rusty, waterwheel in disrepair at its side. This is a building that occupies an unenviable spot, I could think of many worse places to live. Dream on anyway, unless you have twice the average income you can't afford a starter home here these days. let alone something you's actually choose to live in. Still, the one thing us landless masses have benefitted from recently is the Right to Roam, and shortly after this farm you come to a track that leads you between two walls and at then open hillside. This is Access Land, that is marked on all new OS maps. Decent stockists should only be stocking these maps now, unless at a substantial discount.

The crags of Bwlch Mawr look remarkably close from this point. You have two choices here, one is to follow the wall and green track right to take you past the plantation and eventually to the col between Bwlch Mawr and Gyrn Ddu. The other, and superior route, is to go off track and uphill. You need to be veering slightly left, but ideally you don't want to reach the wall that climbs to the summit, not yet anyway! In good visibility you can pick a route with ease, there is an obvious wide gap in the crags. If you veer too far left and hit the wall, then following this up will take you to the summit, but the wall goes a rather direct route! If you follow my route, then a better route appeared to be to its left, which you can see on the Explorer maps as an area free of loose rocks.

The top is a rocky plateau, which I'd predict to be damp underfoot in wetter weather. Head for the wall that cuts across your path and you have to clamber carefully over it, then keep on in the same direction, keeping a wall to your right. The summit is a small, rocky pile, and affords excellent views over the plain of Arfon and Foryd Bay. You can make out the route you've taken so far, and even make out the wheat fields at Llanfaglan. One thing that struck me is how wooded the area appears, as if one large forest. You can sit here awhile and see how many summits you can recognise. The vista stretches from the Carneddau, Snowdon, Hebog, Moelwyn to Rhinog and further south. On a clear day, not a hazy one like today, you can see Cardigan Bay and the Llyn Peninsula below you.

Once you've had your cuppa at the Trig point, cross the wall that you followed to the summit and head for the wall that is now directly ahead of you, the one we crossesd earlier. Keep slightly right, and avoid the crag that blocks your more direct descent. You now keep this wall to your right for the next kilometre, the only complication being yet another wall to cross. If you really hate climbing them, then there is a gap in the wall a couple of hundred metres to your left. You finally arrive at a section of plateau that would be severely boggy in the right weather, but you stop short of this and follow the reasonably good path right, over a wooden stile (I'd begun to forget what they were!). This path is followed across the Col (where you'd rejoin the route if you chose to avoid the summit by the route outlined above), and passes between two walls as a track before appearing again on open hilside.

To your right is Gyrn Ddu (but not the actual summit, that is just beyond), and your best bet is to head directly for the top, following a faint and broken track. As the ground becomes rocky, keep an eye out for the gap in the wall to your left, which is one of the few places to get across. Some of these gaps are plugged with barbed wire, so make sure it is a gap before you walk through it! You arrive at the top and you can see the summit of Gyrn Ddu ahead, looking simply like a giant cairn. Cross the short patch of moorland and you then need to clamber up the rockpile. The line I found, was to veer left, just be very caereful of your footing as the rocks are exceptionally loose (they are also very abrasive on the skin) . It is only a 30 metre climb, and the summit is a cairn, with little space around.

However, it was here I'd find the surprise of the day, there was a string of prayer flags (I'm glad I didn't call them bunting) strung across from the cairn to a nearby outcrop, that flapped noisily in the wind. The views are the one reason to walk here, as it offers these across to Yr Eifl, down to Trefor and down the peninsula. This made up for the gale force wind up here, it was enough to make me lose my balance, and on already loose rock, that's not good.

You must now retrace your steps to the gap in the wall and descend to the track below. Follow this track right, and it will eventually take you to Trefor, if you wished, however we must be keeping an eye out for a track that veers off left to Llanaelhaearn and stay on the track for a kilometre only. Keep your eyes peeled for the cottages on your left, and at GR SH 396 462, you should be turning left off the track. You need to go all around the cottage, walking past the back, then the side, and retracing your steps past the front. The track is now fairly straightforward, as it veers right here. You arrive at a junction, with blue arrow waymarks, you turn left, and are soon on a farm track, then a minor road. This leads you quickly into Llanaelhaearn, where The Rivals Inn is the first building on your left. Stop for refreshments before carrying on if you wish, i certainly did.

Click on icons to download the route in Tracklogs and Memorymap format.

Today's Route in Tracklogs (.trl) and MemoryMap format (.mmo)

format file for directly importing into your GPS device

Tracklogs IMHO the best mapping for PC.

MemoryMap Still good, but route handling clumsier.

Viewranger mapping for smartphones.

Fugawi and Anquet are also popular.

Quo The new kid on the block.

Multimap - Free online mapping.

Get a Map - Free online mapping from the OS

Access Land in Wales - online mapping from CCW.