Aug 23, 20184 min read

Arans, Day 2 - The Aran Ridge (7 x Nuttalls, Dinas Mawddwy, Snowdonia).

Updated: Apr 26, 2021

26.6.2018 - Day 2/4 Snowdonia - The Aran Ridge

Waun Camddwr 620m, Gwaun Y Llwyn 685m, Aran Fawddwy 905m, Aran Benllyn 885m, Gwaun Lydan 632m, Gwaun Lydan 632m and Pen Yr Allt Uchaf 620m,

This was just another gorgeous day that we have had so many of late. Heading north up Cwm Cywarch just outside Dinas Mawddwy I parked my camper van at a national park car park (on the left) near Blaencywarch farm. This is a neat little car park that can hold about 6-8 cars and it has toilet facilities.

I headed out at about 7.30am in the morning along a route that is pretty self explanatory. You follow the obvious signposted trails north towards Bryn Hafod but within about 15 minutes you turn off left over a style and head north west towards Glasgwm mountain up a steep valley that has awesome rock formations either side. I took about an hour getting to the col at the bottom of Glascwm and I must have stopped and dunked my T shirt and hat into streams about half a dozen times…a testament to the still early morning heat and all before 9am.

At the col I turned north east and followed a fence line/duckboard path for a km to the indistinct summit of Waun Camddwr before turning due east to tick off Gwaun Y Llwyn. This done I headed north across country towards Aran Fawddwy. After about 2 kms I was back on the original fence line and basically followed this to the summit for a well deserved respite from the heat which was now 28-30c. It had taken me around three hours to get here and throughout this time it was a sky blue day and the scenery was just fantastic. Simply put it was as good as it gets!

Heading north I went on an out and back 5km route to tick of Erw Y Ddafad Ddu first followed shortly by Aran Benllyn. This section was the best part of the walk. The scenery all around was spectacular and there were some imposing cairns en route. I was back at Aran Fawddwy in an hour and a half having had another rest stop to enjoy my surroundings. The only thing that was spoiling my day so far were the incessant attack by squadrons of horseflies.

Anyway time to head on and I took off south and downhill for a km to an obvious majestic cairn before heading east towards Drysgol and headed a bit further east to tick off Gwaun Lydan. I was a bit of a pillock here and went past the summit by 500m…mainly because it was rough going underfoot with peat banks and I was plagued by horse flies here. Anyway I soon found the innocuous summit of Gwaun Lydan and headed back out on the same route but turned off south west across country after a while to save some time which I did but it was rough underfoot.

I was now heading south on the eastern section of the Hencwm valley. The views west and north over to the Aran ridge were simply gorgeous and the views south to Dinas Mawddwy equally so. It wasn’t long before I got to Pen Yr Allt Uchaf my last Nuttall of the day and I was on the homeward leg. The off leg from Pen Yr Allt however I knew was extremely steep and in wet conditions I imagine it would be purgatory but it was my obvious down route today. It took a good hour and a half of zig zagging to get down to the valley floor but once there you follow the obvious trail back to the car park. A great end to a stunning day out in the Welsh hills :-)

Route summary: A mixture of well trodden/signposted trails and no trails at all. The route over to Gwaun Lydan and after was not much fun being rough underfoot. Some steep climbs but mainly a great ridge walk with an epic steep decent. The scenery though was spectacular and I only saw a few other walkers all day.

All in all 23.23kms in 9 hours with 1,175m of ascent in 28-30c heat.

GPX files: For gpx files go to the Peakbagger website by following this link and go to the bottom right hand of the page and click ‘Download this GPS track as a GPX file.’

Ascent Entry - Aran Fawddwy