In the recent past I have had the opportunity to make trips to Tywyn on the Welsh west coast. Naturally long walks are a staple of my trips, and this article will focus on a walk up Cadair Idris.
Cadair Idris stands a little under 900m tall in the southern region of Snowdonia. Translation to Idris’s Chair it is thought to be the chair of a giant, or derived from a fella called Idris who knocked the Irish a peg or two back in the 7th Century. Either way, it’s a rather nice jaunt to the top and back, so here we go.
My walk up Cadair Idris started on a cloudy and dull morning, after all, it is in Wales. Hitching a ride to the base of the mountain from the wife. I set off on my 4 hour up and down hike. The start of the journey sees you cross a small river at the base and then follow up waterfalls. The first portion of the walk is mostly staircases through the low wooded areas. Soon you pop out of the woods and the staircases dissolve into a comfortable gradient; at which point the world opens up, and so do the views.
The gradient increases slightly until you are confronted with a delightful lake where some of the walkers call it a day. A large protruding rock gives visitors a nice photo opportunity either to look toward the lake or the other direction looking down the valley. The next part of the hike is much steeper than what you will have faced so far on this walk.
At the precipice where the climb starts to level out, I was unfortunate enough to enter the clouds. As atmospheric and cooling as this was, my hike took place on a rather warm day, it meant getting lost was very easy and something I managed to do soon after the clouds came in. It was only when I was knee deep in heather bushes, I realized I must have diverted from the well-trodden path onto a sheep trail, this was confirmed by the sheep trying to walk the other way, startled by myself only 2 feet away through the thick cloud. I turned back and managed to find my way back to the trail and continued to the rim of Cadair Idris ever climbing.
Soon I found myself and somewhat of a false summit where the trail dipped and then began to climb again. The clouds were at this time shifting and I was able to look to my right and see the immense drop all the way back to the lake. I decided to take a couple of steps to the left and continue! It was also at this point I bumped into some other walkers; I’d like to say I don’t mean that literally but sadly that was indeed the case. Fortunately, neither of us fell to the lake and we decided to team up at least till the clouds cleared; they did not. However, we managed to find the summit at which there is a little shepherds hut and a maker stone so you know you can stop walking and crack out the sandwiches. I did exactly that and hoped the clouds would clear so I could take in the view.
Time went by and with only an hour until the agreed pick-up time at the base I had to set off. Luckily as I entered the dip towards the false summit the clouds did indeed begin to lift and revealed a beautiful view over to the sea and into the mountains. In fact, my best views were on the false summit before I made a hasty retreat off the mountain, past the lake and protruding rock, down the valley and the endless staircases. Only to find the wife was late. Typical.
The second of my little jaunts was from the center of Tywyn itself to The Dolgoch Falls. Using trails going through fields, along train lines, passed many scared sheep, through peat bogs and finally arriving at the falls. But that’s for next time.
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