Great Mountain Days in Snowdonia. Terry Marsh
come to the beginning of Bwlch Main, also known as the ‘Saddle’. From here you can look across Cwm Tregalan to the Watkin Path on the right, and into Cwm Clogwyn to your left.
Bwlch Main is a narrow col, and is extremely exposed to the wind. It is safe, in reasonable conditions, provided you keep to the path.
The path soon starts to climb steeply again and meets the Watkin Path coming from the right at a solitary marker stone. The summit is only a few minutes climb away up a gentle but bouldery slope.
From the top of Snowdon, a constructed path leads down beside the railway line. In years gone by, climbers on their way down from Cloggy would put a slab of rock across the rails, sit on it, and slide down to Llanberis. It’s unthinkable that anyone would do that now; it must have been both a high-risk and exhilarating practice, and it is a wonder no one was killed doing it. Very much a case of ‘Don’t try this at home!’
The Llanberis Path and the Snowdon Ranger Path are one at the top of Snowdon, and closely follow the railway track. On the way down you pass a prominent marker stone on your right, where the Pyg Track descends for Pen y Pass. A short way further on, look for another marker stone over the other side of the railway on your left at the start of the Snowdon Ranger path. Follow this down above the cliffs of Clogwyn Du’r Arddu you reach the pass, Bwlch Cwm Brwynog, where you carry on along the path for a further 1.5km (1 mile).
Clogwyn Du’r Arddu (the Black Cliff) is considered by many rock climbers to be among the finest cliffs in Britain, north facing and remote, and combining unrelenting steepness, seriousness and quality of rock. From the 1930s until 2000, ‘Cloggy’ maintained the record among the climbing fraternity of having the most difficult climbs in Britain, and many routes first climbed by the likes of the Abraham brothers, Joe Brown, Don Whillans, Colin Kirkus and Pete Crew are still high-ranking. To peer down the cliffs you need to leave the descending Snowdon Ranger Path, but do not do so if the wind is likely to be blowing from behind you – and stay well away from the very edge.
To head back to Rhyd Ddu you need to quit the Snowdon Ranger Path (although if you stick with it, you will eventually reach the A4085, and can turn left to walk back along this). For a more direct route, however, keep an eye open for a stile over a wall on the left (approximately at SH576553), just before the ground starts to fall away steeply again. Cross this stile into the moor beyond. The ongoing path is continuous but indistinct at times, aided by white marker posts that lead down to a stile in a fence, and then continue towards slate tips ahead. Pass round the right-hand edge of the tips, crossing a bridge over a stream, then up into the tips.
These tips are fascinating and a famous Welsh poet, T H Parry Williams (1887–1975, who lived at Rhyd Ddu) wrote about how every piece of slate we are walking on has been through someone’s hands.
Parry Williams was the first poet to win the double of Chair and Crown at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, which he achieved at Wrexham in 1912 and repeated at Bangor in 1915.
When you emerge from the tips continue following markers over boggy ground until you reach and cross the railway and arrive back at the village car park.
The summit of Snowdon from Bwlch Main
WALK THREE
The Watkin Path and Yr Aran
The summit of Snowdon peers over the lower slopes of Y Lliwedd, viewed from Nantgwynant
It was Sir Edward Watkin, a rich and influential railway owner and one of the brains behind the original idea to build a Channel tunnel, who directed the building of the Watkin Path, as a donkey track, at the end of the 19th century. Today it forms the most demanding route direct to the summit of Snowdon, and is here coupled with an optional add-on, embracing Yr Aran, a quite marvellous vantage point, and one that is often overlooked. However, tacking it on to this walk makes for a demanding day, one that should be contemplated only by strong walkers.
The Route
Set off from the car park at Pont Bethania by crossing the bridge and then the road to gain the signed Watkin Path, up steps and into light, broadleaved woodland that is a delight to encounter. The path brings you to an information panel just above Hafod-y-llan, which farms most of the land on this side of Snowdon, although centuries ago the valley would have been completely forested.
As you leave the woodland behind, so the valley widens and the path heads towards the lower slopes of Yr Aran. At a gate you enter the Yr Wyddfa National Nature Reserve, special for its arctic–alpine and montane plants.
The path climbs steadily on pitched paving until it intercepts a steep tramway belonging to quarry workings further up the cwm. Down to your right the Afon Cwm Llan puts on a fine display of cascades as you approach an area of quarry buildings. One of these, Plas Cwmllan, enclosed by slate fencing, was the home of the manager of the slate quarry found a short distance further on. It was used as a Commando military target during the Second World War, and still bears the scars.
ROUTE INFORMATION
| Distance | 12.6km/8 miles; with Yr Aran 14.5km/9 miles |
| Height gain | 1070m/3510ft; with Yr Aran 1320m/4330ft |
| Time | 5–6 hours; with Yr Aran 6–7 hours |
| Grade | arduous/strenuous |
| Start point | National Park car park, Pont Bethania, Nantgwynant SH628507 |
| Getting there | Nantgwynant; there is a small car park and adjacent toilets next to Pont Bethania |
| Maps | (Harvey Superwalker) Snowdonia and the Moelwynion; (Ordnance Survey) OL17 Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa |
| After-walk refreshment | Café near start, along the road to Beddgelert; pubs and cafés in Beddgelert; pubs at Pen y Gwryd, and Pen y Pass |
Striding out along the Watkin Path
Tablet, Gladstone Rock
Press on past Plas Cwmllan, and soon reach a huge embedded rock on the left bearing a large stone plaque.
This is Gladstone Rock, commemorating the visit in 1892 of W E Gladstone, then in his 84th year and Prime Minister for the fourth time. Here he addressed the People of Eryri on the topic of Justice in Wales.
The path continues clearly beyond Gladstone Rock, while prominent all around are the remains of the South Snowdon Slate Works, which began operation in 1840, but because of the expense of transporting slates to Porthmadog had to be closed in 1882. The large building on the left is the barracks, where the men slept through the week, returning to their homes only at weekends. Other ruins are dressing sheds and workshops. This wide cwm was used as location for the 1968 film Carry on up the Khyber.
Just past the barracks, the path starts to climb steeply, casting about to ease the gradient as much as possible until it reaches Bwlch y Ciliau, from where there is an exceptional view of Crib Goch and Llyn Llydaw below. There is a large cairn at Bwlch y Ciliau, and from it a path ascends, right, up Y Lliwedd. The Watkin Path, however, bears left, passing first across Bwlch y Saethau, once itself adorned with a large cairn said to mark the site of the death of King Arthur. Indeed, the whole of the cwm below, Tregalan, is allegedly the scene of one of the king’s many battles. Even older than Arthur’s battles, the cwm displays fine lateral moraines – piles of grass-covered rocks and earth deposited by the retreating glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age. Yr Aran rises majestically on the other side, and beyond it Moel Hebog and the Glaslyn estuary.
From Bwlch y Saethau, the path starts to rise abruptly across the southern flank of Snowdon. The section between Bwlch y Saethau and the top of the climb, Bwlch Main, is very steep, unstable, dusty and worryingly loose when dry, and slippery when