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

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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.

Y Ro Wen and Moel Penamnen circuit. map

Tues 22nd August 2006

click for the map

Distance and Ascent	15 km / 600m	OS Map Required	OS Explorer 18 Landranger 150
Time	5 Hours	Difficulties	Navigation on pathless sections. Some very boggy and rough legs.
Start Location	Dolwyddelan Railway Station, SH 737 521 (free parking available) just off A470	End Location	as start
Grading	Moderate/Hard	Facilities	Pubs, Spar and Post Office in vilage.
Public Transport	Trains from Betws Y Coed or Blaenau Ffestinog.	GPS Files

When i started this website, i wanted walks that were remote, yet still accessible. This walk starts in the scattered village of Dolwyddelan, directly from the railway station. Timetables are available at this page (service T4). It then takes you over remote hills, with views over Eryri and south towards the Arenig and Rhinogydd. There's defiantely the feel of a big sky here. It's not a walk that takes in a lot of rock, or any, in fact. It might not be everyone's cup of coffee, but neither is tea. So this is a wild walk, no crowds, no paths. Take it or leave it!

As stated, the walk starts at the railway station. Leave the carpark and turn left over the railway. Take the first left, and youy will now follow a narrow lane through some houses. Keep on the main lane, ignoring the first right into forestry, continue and the track forks. Follow the right hand fork past some houses, above the river, and you arrive at a gate that marks the start of the footpath.

Once through the gate, you have a pleasant walk along the wooded river. Before long, you arrive at a track that veers left (not on map). Take the path that goes ahead or right through the forest. The forest does not last long, and you find yourself on the path you saw earlier. The navigation here becomes easy, as this track takes you all the way to the summit of Y Ro Wen.

The path takes a rather tortuous route, but the terrain is rough and any shortcuts would probably take longer. It's an idea to make the most of the path, as it's the only good one you'll see today. Take note that most of the gates along the route are tied shut, and you will have to clamber over them.

The track starts to level towards the summit, giving a steady approach to the summit. There is a decent stone shelter on top (but not the highest point) just off the track, which is the last shelter you'll pass today, so an early lunch might be a good idea! Views here are surprising, considering that you're not that high. There aren't any hills near, and those that are look distant. Manod Mawr is only 2 km away at one point, but the nature of the terrain make it appear further. If you know your summits, you can easily spot the Arenig hills to the South East. You should be able to make out a faint path over the next knoll, which is the highest point marked on the map, that follows the fence initially.

The path now cuts across towards another fence, which you should cross at a rather ancient stile. Again, try and keep to the path as it is very faint and could be easily lost. The trick is to keep the forestry reasonably close to your right, eventually you walk along the edge. While there are very boggy areas, they all looked worse than they were. I dont know if this was due to the dry summer, and despite all the recent rain the ground hadn't absorbed enough water. Whichever way you look at it, it's rough terrain, and the views very open to the south.

After a couple of kilometres, the path starts to veer right as you follow the lip of the valley below. Ahead lies Foel-fras, which looks like a decent crag from the valley below, but an inconsequencial bump from this angle. You are still using the forestry as a handrail to your right, and you will pass a couple of lakelets to your left, before arriving at a larger pool. Just before this second pool (visible on the Explorer map) there is a stile that we took right to cross the fence. This route takes you across the summmit of Foel-fras, dont blink or you'll miss it. We had to cross a fence here, no stile just a cross piece, before joining the path that contours the hill to the south.

You will need to try and find this path, or failing that, keep as far left as you can without losing too much height. That means you avoid some of the worst rough bits before the going becomes easier and grassier over to the summmit of Moel Penamnen.

It's a decent viewpoint. Siabod, Snowdon, Moelwynion and South Snowdonia are all laid in front of you. It's also a rather insignificant top, with the remains of a trig being the only thing. There was no shelter for our intended lunch stop, so we decided to skip lunch and descend.

There's a nice, clear path to start with. If it does split, try and keep to the right and find a path that follows a line of posts. This appears to be the way the farmer descends in his Land Rover, and will take you all the way down to the forestry path at SH 730 500. There is on the first section a clear path that leads down to a stile. This stile is not on the descent route, and if you find yourself there, follow the fence right until you find the landrover tracks. The path from the stile leads nowhere useful (and we know!). The track isn't visible from far as it is no more than flattened grass, so keep an eye out for a line of posts descending the hill.

The easy descent takes you to the col below Pen y Benar, where there is a new stile to your right that leads to a very pleasant , but steep, path. The path zig zags down the hill, but soon degenerates into an unpleasant path. However, this need not be followed for long, as there is an alternative path through the trees to the left that is much easier on the feet. While ethics state we should walk on the eroded path, there is also a safety issue to be adressed, and the eroded path was deemed too dangerous.

While it may be steep, this means it's also quite short. You find yourself on a forestry track not a moment too soon, and the path beyond this through scrubland (felled forestry) is short, and leads to the minor road. You get an appreciation of the form of the valley from here that isn't apparent from above, it appears more craggy to start with. Now you need to follow the track down to the village, just keep on the minor road until you reach houses. Then keep on the road until you arrive at the bridge crossing the railway, and you're back where you started. Chances are you saw nobody else all day. We didn't, so it shows that you dont need to go that far to find some peace and quiet (punctuated only by blasting in the Manod Quarries!)

Height Profile of the route (image courtesy of Tracklogs)

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.