The Carneddau

Friday 5th September 2003

During my holiday in Snowdonia, my first ever walking holiday there, I had set myself the challenge of walking up all fifteen three thousand foot high mountains in the National Park, however, I had already failed in this endeavour because I’d not gone to the top of the precipitous Crib Goch, but I was not to be deterred by this and was determined to visit the top of all the other mountains. I had done two on the first day, two on the second including Snowdon, and then Snowdon again the third day, while on the fourth day I topped the three three thousand foot high mountains in the Glyderau. While I may have only done half my target with just two days left, those two days were spent in the Carneddau, ‘the largest contiguous area of high ground (over 2,500 or 3,000 feet (910 m) high) in Wales and England’, to quote Wikipedia. In this area are seven recognizable tops above three thousand feet, although only one is classed as a Marilyn, which means it has a drop of more than five hundred feet.

When I tried to repeat this walk in 2009 the weather was terrible, but for this walk I had brilliant weather all day as I climbed what I believe are two of the best mountains in Britain. I parked my car beside the A5 trunk road where there is plenty of road-side parking and after crossing the road walked past Glan Dena and Tal y Llyn Ogwen onto the steep hillside following a route beside the Afon Lloer on as far as I can recall ground that was rather wet, but that doesn’t make sense as 2003 was a very hot and dry summer, so either I remember incorrectly or the hillside was well watered from the stream, or maybe the muddy path that I remember was in 2009. The path wasn’t very clear, but it was possible to follow the right route thanks to posts that marked the way so eventually I drew near to Ffynnon Lloe, though before reaching the lake I turned left towards the eastern ridge of Pen yr Ole Wen, which has some sporting scrambles before the terrain levels out to leave me with a pleasing walk to the summit.

I seem to remember thinking at this point that I was fed up with all the scrambling that I was doing, which looking back seems amazing. Now I think that a bit of easy scrambling livens up a walk, but back then I’d become used to striding out along the grassy ridges of the Brecon Beacons National Park, where there is no scrambling. My dislike for scrambling wouldn’t last very long and soon I would embrace it and eagerly seek it out. Pen yr Ole Wen was my first three thousand footer of the day, and is usually climbed direct from Idwal Cottage up the stupendously steep southern ridge (although it’s so steep that ridge doesn’t seem to be an accurate description). My reading around before coming to Snowdonia convinced me to take the longer route via Ffynnon Lloe, and if I’d disliked the scrambling on that route I can’t imagine how I’d have reacted to the south ridge. I came down the south ridge in 2006 and it almost destroyed my knees, they were aching for weeks after.

Having climbed my first three thousand feet high mountain of the day, the walk stayed then above three thousand feet until I’d bagged my fourth mountain of the day starting with a thoroughly enjoyable walk along a narrow ridge past the large cairn of Carnedd Fach and up to the top of Carnedd Dafydd. This is a grand mountain with some truly stunning features, most notably the crags that line its northern slopes, Ysgolion Duon. Carnedd Dafydd may not be a Marilyn, but I feel sure that if it was in Scotland it would have earned the right to be a Munro. A fabulous walk along a narrow rocky ridge took me across Bwlch Cyfryw-drum to the scree covered slopes of Carnedd Llewelyn, but my first target was not the highest point in the Carneddau, it was its partner, Yr Elen.

Yr Elen sticks out from Carnedd Llewelyn and is connected to its bigger parent by a short, narrow ridge. After crossing the stony slopes below Carnedd Llewelyn I passed along the narrow connecting ridge and up to the summit of Yr Elen where, given its vantage point sticking out from the main ridge of the Carneddau, the views are stunning stretching all the way out to the Menai Strait and Anglesey. Returning along the narrow connecting ridge, I climbed the stony slopes up to the top of my fourth three thousand footer of the day and the highest in the Carneddau, Carnedd Llewelyn. There are another three three thousand footers in the Carneddau, but they would have to wait till the next day. My next target was several nearby, lower hills that I wanted to bag, in the same way as I’d bagged the western hills of Snowdon earlier in the week I was now keen to bag these, which is really quite pathetic.

An easy descent leads to the satisfyingly narrow ridge of Bwlch Eryl Farchog at the end of which is a short but satisfying scramble. I could have gone around the scramble but since I didn’t then surely I was already beginning to appreciate them. Another scramble led me to the top of Pen yr Helgi Du, a grass topped hill of not modest proportions but still less than three thousand feet. A relatively broad grassy ridge led me to the much broader top, though smaller height, of Pen Llithrig y Wrach where a satisfying descent brought me down to near the inlet for the Llyn Cowlyd Reservoir and a bridlepath that led me all the way back to my car. This is a truly great mountain walk that as I found in 2009 cannot be ruined by bad weather. Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llewelyn are great mountains that are a joy to climb especially in the good weather that I was blessed with on this walk.