Route Master
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magazine autumn 2012 magazine autumn 2012 Wales Wales Aberhosan, Powys Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd 09/08/2012 17:20 Route 05 Route 06 master G Distance 10½km/6½ miles G Time 3½hrs G Type Hill master G Distance 18km/11 miles G Time 7hrs G Type Mountain NAVIGATION LEVEL FITNESS LEVEL NAVIGATION LEVEL FITNESS LEVEL Plan your walk Plan your walk G Snowdonia Chester G GWYNEDD POWYS TRAWSFYNYDD ABERHOSAN G Shrewsbury G G Newtown Rhayader G Aberystwyth G Lampeter G G Llandrindod Wells Brecon WHERE: Circular walk WHERE: Circular walk from Aberhosan via the from Trawsfynydd, in Vaughan-Thomas memorial central Snowdonia’s PHOTOGRAPHY: NEIL COATES PHOTOGRAPHY: viewpoint and Glaslyn. FIONA BARLTROP PHOTOGRAPHY: Rhinogydd mountains. START/END: Aberhosan The village of Aberhosan is The spot was a favourite START/END: Trawsfynydd This is Snowdonia at its most handgate and up a walled track village bus stop (SN810974). situated a few miles south-east viewpoint of his. village car park (SH707356). remote, with few people and past a stone barn to a stile. Drift TERRAIN: Stony and grassy of Machynlleth, off the scenic TERRAIN: Lanes, rough even fewer paths. But the rewards R, roughly parallel to the wall, upland tracks, mountain paths and pathless mountain mountain road that goes via 1. START From the bus stop for your perseverance are an to a higher stile. Climb over and road and country lanes with terrain, which can be the old mining settlement at at the top of Aberhosan incredible Bronze Age monument, aim ahead-L to walk up beside some pathless stretches. boggy. Some scrambling Dylife (once one of the biggest (SN810974), follow the village superb views and an airy stroll the far wall. The path here MAPS: OS Explorer 215; required, and very diffi cult lead producers in Europe) to lane uphill to Ty-gwyn farm. high in the craggy landscape of becomes indistinct, but keep the Landranger 135. underfoot in places. Llanidloes. Glyndwr’s Way Continue ahead on a track that the little-visited Rhinogydd range. wall to your R, rising to another GETTING THERE: Limited MAPS: OS Explorer OL18; National Trail also links the two climbs gently, affording ever- The way back is particularly ladder stile at a corner. Looking bus service T37 from Landranger 124. towns following a route that improving views back towards challenging, with scrambling back reveals a last view over the Machynlleth to Aberhosan GETTING THERE: Arriva roughly, but far more circuitously, the Tarren Hills, with Cadair Idris and much mire to tackle. lake, dwarfed by the enclosing (Monday to Friday, book bus 35 runs from Blaenau parallels the road. You’d need a beyond. The gradient increases mountains. Continue ahead at least two hours before Ffestiniog and Dolgellau to couple of days to walk it (this as you continue the ascent past 1. START From Trawsfynydd over the low col, revealing views travel, ✆ 01654 702100, Trawsfynydd, while the X32 route samples a short section), a conifer plantation to reach village car park (SH707356), take ahead to the Llyn Peninsula; to www.powysbus.info); coach runs from Caernarfon but the drive is worth doing the Wynford Vaughan-Thomas the road (Cefn Gwyn) opposite your L erupt the cliffs of Diffwys mainline train services and Aberystwyth (✆ 0871 in any case – don’t miss the memorial just before the the Cross Foxes Hotel down to and the northern peaks of the between Machynlleth, 200 2233, www.traveline. impressive view of the gorge just road. At the gate just below a playground. Go R along the Rhinogydd. The essentially Pwllheli, Aberystwyth and org.uk). east of Dylife. This walk provides the memorial, there’s a walled track, then slip L through pathless way is often squelchy as Shrewsbury (✆ 0871 200 EATING & DRINKING: a view of an equally dramatic Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust the handgate before the farm, you drift L down into the valley 2233, www.traveline.info). Cross Foxes Hotel, ravine – the Dulas – seen from a information panel about the dropping to cross the long of Cwm Moch, eventually crossing EATING & DRINKING: There Trawsfynydd (✆ 01766 stretch of Glyndwr’s Way, and Glaslyn and Bugeilyn audio trail. footbridge across the Trawsfynydd the stream on a small slab are plenty of hotels, pubs, 540204, www.crossfoxes. also takes you past the Wynford Yellow posts mark a route up nuclear power station’s lake. bridge, before rising to use a restaurants and cafés in org.uk). Vaughan-Thomas memorial the pathless hillside to the top Turn R along the lane and keep ladder stile above a wall junction. Machynlleth, including the SLEEPING: B&B at Cross viewpoint. The memorial is of Foel Fadian (564m/1,850ft), R, presently passing the Cae CAT’s (Centre for Alternative Foxes Hotel (as above); named after one of Wales’ which affords excellent views Adda campsite entrance. 3. The wall drifts away to your R Technology) Quarry Café Old Mill Farmhouse, Fron most well-known and respected on a fi ne day. There’s another and you’ll soon pass through a L (✆ 01654 702624, L Oleu Farm, Trawsfynydd broadcasters, war correspondents opportunity further on to climb 2. About 200m past Tyn Twll cross-wall gap, putting a wall and environmental champions. farm, go L through a fi ngerposted immediately on your R. Keep ▼ ▼ it, if you wish. 59-60 WALK36 ROUTEMASTER_WALES.indd 1 59-60 WALK36 ROUTEMASTER_WALES.indd 2 Ordnance Surveymap Ordnance Surveymap Continued... START 3 START www.cat.org.uk) and FINISH FINISH The Wynnstay Hotel ping ©Crowncopyright.AM34/08 1 ping ©Crowncopyright.AM34/08 (✆ 01654 702941, www. 1 2 wynnstay-hotel.com). SLEEPING: Selection of hotels and B&Bs in or near 4 Machynlleth, including The Wynnstay Hotel (see above) and The Escape Guest House (✆ 01654 791206, www. machynlleth-escape.co.uk). 4 VISITOR INFORMATION: 2 Aberystwyth TIC, Terrace ✆ 5 Road ( 01970 612125, www.visitmidwales.co.uk). GUIDEBOOKS: Glyndwr’s Way by Christopher Cattling (£10, Cicerone, ISBN 978 6 1852842994); Walks Around Machynlleth by Mike Thompson and Märit Olsson Map not to scale. Representation of (£4.95, Kittiwake, ISBN 978 OS Landranger MAP 124 1902302904); Walks in the 3 1:50,000 Dyfi Valley by David Perrott www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk (£4.95, Kittiwake, ISBN 978 1902302522). LOCAL RAMBLERS GROUP: Map not to scale. into a marshy area, but persevere At the junction, turn sharp-L up Meirionnydd Ramblers Representation of Continued... OS Explorer MAP 215 ahead to rise gently past a low a grassy track past a neat pile of (✆ 01341 247693, www. 1:25,000 rocky exposure on your R. Walk stones. Remain on this cartway ramblers.co.uk/groups). www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk ✆ ( 01766 540397, www. ahead on the level path (not L above the rocky landscape far oldmillfarmhouse.co.uk); uphill) to reach a lone waymarked below. Bend L with a wall to find Cae Adda campsite, post (Taith Ardudwy Way) lonely Llyn Du and walk to the ✆ Trawsfynydd ( 01766 beyond a wall stub. Turn L over a col beyond its far end. 2. Vaughan-Thomas (1908–87) A Montgomeryshire Wildlife while. Another track joins from 540441, www.caeadda. low rise to reach the Tolkienesque had a great love for the Welsh Trust information board tells the R and you continue down co.uk). cairn of Bryn Cader Faner – from 5. The thin path plunges down a landscape, and this viewpoint you about the reserve, and past the caravan site and farm of VISITOR INFORMATION: a distance it resembles a crown boulder field. At its foot, turn R on the slopes of Foel Fadian there’s a circular walk around Esgair Fochnant. Carry on down Dolgellau TIC, Ty Meirion of thorns. Marking an ancient alongside the wall. The going is was a particular favourite. the lake you can do if you to Nantyfyda farm, where you ✆ ( 01341 422888, burial, it stands at the heart of difficult, with gulleys and drops. The toposcope identifies the want to. swing round to the R and join a www.eryri-npa.gov.uk). what many experts recognise as At the old sheepfold, slip through various peaks that can be seen tarmac road. GUIDEBOOKS: Mountain the greatest landscape of Bronze the wall and turn L beside the in the distance, the closest and 3. Return to the junction and and Hill Walking in Age remnants in Britain. nearby cross-wall. Cross this at most easily recognisable being turn L onto Glyndwr’s Way. 4. Bear R at the first fork to Snowdonia (Volume 2) the first opportunity (over a those of the Tarrens and Cadair The trig point on top of Foel continue on the route of by Carl Rogers (£10.99, 4. Face the cliffs that are way boulder in 150m), then walk the Idris. There’s a depiction of Fadian can be seen ahead and Glyndwr’s Way (though this Mara Books, ISBN 978 behind the stones, aiming to reedy, boggy path across several Vaughan-Thomas pointing you’ll pass a yellow-topped post turns off L before long). 1902512228). walk to the L edge of them (on a ladder stiles and side streams to towards Snowdon, which is just on the hillside to the R, which Carry on along the lane past LOCAL RAMBLERS GROUP: bearing of 128 degrees). There’s reach the abandoned cottage. visible on a clear day. Turn R marks another (pathless) route the farm of Cefnwyrgrug. North Wales Ramblers no path, so trace a rivulet up to along the road for about half a to the summit. Over to your L Approaching Aberhosan, ignore ✆ ( 01352 715723, www. a tumbled enclosure, then climb 6. Keep ahead to the red-roofed mile, then turn R along a track is the dramatic Dulas ravine.