40 great mountain days in Snowdonia with Cicerone

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Updates
• Further Reading

In the minds of many visitors, only the mountain ranges that dominate the north-west of Wales are known by the name ‘Snowdonia’ – ‘Eryri’ in the old Welsh. In fact, Snowdonia covers a much wider area, over 2,000 sq km (840 sq miles), a domain extending far south to Bala, Cadair Idris and beyond, extending from the northern edge of Cardigan Bay to Anglesey.

Welsh scholars tell us that from time immemorial this untamed, rugged region has been known as Eryri, the land of eagles. This assumes that ‘eryri’ comes from ‘eryr’, meaning eagle. Or is it derived from eira, therefore making it the land of snow. Some latter-day scholars prefer a different, rather more prosaic, translation – simply ‘High Land’ or the ‘Land of Mountains‘ – a derivation from Medieval Welsh, meaning high place. The truth is, no one knows, so you can choose whichever suits you: I take the view that the lands of Snowdonia are named after eagles, especially as eagles were once here all year round, while snow most certainly wasn’t. These majestic birds have soared above the crags and cwms across the ages, and provided substance for bards, singers and storytellers. Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis), one of the most colourful, extrovert and dynamic of churchmen in the 12th century, writes of

a remarkable eagle which lives in the mountains of Snowdonia. Every fifth feast-day it perches on a particular stone, hoping to satiate its hunger with the bodies of dead men, for on that day it thinks that war will break out.

The stone on which the eagle is said to stand is known as the ‘Stone of Destiny’, thought by some to be Carreg yr Eryr, near Llyn Dinas in Nant Gwynant, and close to Dinas Emrys, the hill fort believed to be the spot that King Gwrtheyrn, better known as Vortigern, chose for his retreat from the unwanted attentions of Anglo-Saxon invaders.

In the 16th century, Thomas Price of Plas Iolyn sends an eagle on an errand to other poets, writing later of the ‘king of mountain fowl’ that dwelt on the ‘clear-cut heights above the rockbound tarn’ in such a way that it is evident that he was writing about something he had actually seen. But by the early 19th century, Snowdonia’s eagles were reduced to a wandering bird, ‘skulking on the precipices’.

Throughout history the mountains of Snowdonia have performed two roles. For hundreds of years, since the Romans sought to colonise the area, they have been a secure and strong defensive barrier, but over the last 200 years they have become an adventure playground. These two opposing views of the mountains might be said to represent those of the Welsh, who live among them, and those of the English, who come to explore. For centuries, the mountains not only provided the local people with pasture for their flocks and the raw building materials for their homesteads, but also hampered the penetration of the pagan attitudes that had swept across England and threatened the flame of Christianity that burned brightly within Wales.

Today, for better or worse, the mountains of Snowdonia are everyone’s playground. In Great Mountain Days you will come to know the tang of wild places, the companionship of solitude and the sound of silence, for all are here, waiting.

About this guide

The 40 walks in this book are grouped as defined by valleys, starting with the Snowdon massif, and then rippling away southwards until you reach the Tarrens north of Machynlleth. The grouping arises more from convenience than geographical exactitude.

At the start of each route description is a box containing all the key information for the walk: the distance, height gain, time and grade, and details of suitable parking places; some are Pay and Display car parks, other roadside or off-road parking areas where the emphasis should be on parking without causing inconvenience to local people and businesses. Also provided are details of places for refreshment after the walk, where they conveniently exist.

Appendix 1 summarises all the route information at a glance.

Walk grades

The grading of walks anywhere is a very subjective issue; what is ‘easy’ for one walker can be a scary experience for someone less experienced. In reality, nothing in Snowdonia can safely be regarded as easy; the terrain is often bouldery and complex, marshy and trackless, or, more usually, a mix of all of these conditions. But, in order to convey some notion of the effort and walking skill involved in each route, four grades have been employed to categorise the walks:

Timings

As with grades, timings are also subjective; those given are the times taken by the author (40 years experience, and a pensioner, but no slouch – for the present), plus a little extra. It is far better to learn by experience what your own pace is, and then use the distance and height gain information to get an idea of how long it will take you given your personal level of fitness. But be sure to allow for the difficulty of the terrain: for example, the ascent of Tryfan by the North Ridge has a horizontal distance of 1km (just over half a mile), and height gain of 615m (2020ft). This would suggest you could be jumping from Adam to Eve in less than 90 minutes, and, indeed some can (I did it myself in 45 minutes, but that was a long, long time ago), but for many walkers, 2 hours would be nearer the mark because of the nature of the terrain.

Mapping

To aid visualisation, routes are depicted both as line diagrams and as customised HARVEY maps. The former, drawn by Lakeland author and artist Mark Richards, give an aerial perspective of the walks, while the latter pinpoint the key detail covered in the route description. HARVEY maps owe their origins to orienteering, and their bold symbols and distinctive colours make them well suited to outdoor use. Note that key landmarks that feature on the maps and diagrams appear in bold in the text to help you plot the route.
Although the guide contains map extracts and diagrams, you are strongly advised always to take with you the relevant sheet map for the route, not only for safety reasons, but also to give a wider picture of the landscapes you are walking through.