dai186
- Apr 9, 2018
- 4 min read

Blue sky day at the most beautiful dam you can get! Carn Gafallt, (Marilyn, Elan Valley, Mid Wales)

Updated: Oct 3, 2020

Carn Gafallt 466m

Well it was one of those rare British days….the sun was shining so I headed off to the Elan Valley where there were three Marilyns I wanted to tick off but today I thought I would just have an amble and do the one, Carn Gafallt. Parking at the visitor centre at 8.30 in the morning the place was deserted apart from another hiker who was soon to depart as well. The visitor centre is a great place to start off any hike in this area but get there early as the car park soon fills up…for a good reason!

I started the hike at the dam wall as I knew I was going to spend some time taking some pictures of what surely has to be one of the most beautiful dams in the UK and one of ‘Dambuster’ fame. This stunning victorian era dam with its cascading overflow emblazoned against the stunning blue spring sky was a great start to the day but soon after I was on trail striding out. Heading over the dam footbridge I started to walk along the far side of the river in a NE direction and past the bridge of the river Elan. A short while later you walk past some stunning stone built victorian houses on the right and then turn right half way along the same cottages to catch a footpath that transverse the lower woodlands of Carn Gafallt in a southernly direction. There is no signpost for this path.

Once on the path just follow it until you come out on an unclassified road, turn right and follow that for a good two kilometres until you get to a sharp right hand bend where there is an obvious farm track going off straight ahead on the left to Pen Y Castell. You simply follow this farm track up through the woods, climbing steadily, until you come out of the trees and then onwards for about another km until you come to a broad wide col. Here there is a an indistinct unmarked footpath on the left that heads north which I took but knew I had to come off it soon. After a couple of hundred meters you break trail to the left (follow the gps route) and as soon as you come off the footpath the ground gets boggy with tussock grass and calf length thorn scrub.

Not long after turning off you have to start to veer west towards the obvious mound of Carn Gafallt and after about another km you have to make a big detour left around an extensive water table (this is winter). Carn Gafallt is high on your left so I picked the best line up it I could following sheep trails and the path of least vegetation. It was reasonably steep and the vegetation made it a little difficult but I had the time so did not mind it so much. Not long after I arrived at the cairn that marks the summit of Gafallt bang on the 6km mark. Here, as it had been all the way up, the views were stunning. I keep saying there is no finer country on earth that I prefer to hike in than the UK when the weather is this good. I paid a personal intrinsic thank you for the farmers of this great country for keeping our landscape in such beautiful order and sat down for my breakfast.

Heading off the summit there was an absence of sheep trails so I ended up taking those giant type of steps downhill through the thorn scrub and headed in a northernly direction. I headed down for about a km and then found a narrow path that headed left in a SW direction. With sublime views of the dam all the way down this path eventually took me into the woodlands and eventually back down onto the same unclassified road that I had walked in on but a tad further north. Now I would follow this gpx route from the summit down as there are no paths and this one was not marked on the map. After meeting the road I headed south for 500m and turned right onto the same defined/marked path that I took in the morning but turned off left after 200m to take a different route back. After I took this turn I came out at the Elan river bridge, crossed over it and turned left to get back to the start point to a very full and busy car park.

Parking and access: Plenty obviously as it is the main visitor centre for Elan Valley. When I started before 9am it was empty but on my return less than three hours later it was pretty much full. There is a cafe here, toilets, information and a £2 all day parking fee.

Route Summary: Maintained trails, road, wide farm tracks and breaking your own trail across to Carn Gafallt. There are beautiful vistas to be had on a such a day as I had. A short hike of 8.5km with 318m of ascent done in 2hrs 18min.

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.’