Arans, Day 3 - Glasgwm and Pen Y Brynforchog (2 x Nuttalls, Dinas Mawddwy, Snowdonia).

Updated: Oct 3, 2020

27.6.2018 - Day 3/4 Snowdonia - Southern Arans

Glasgwm 780m and Pen Y Brynfforchog 685m.

Well this was my third day of baking heat and even the early morning start was hot and worse it was still. I started off at the same parking spot as yesterday so I won’t repeat myself. Instead of heading north however I headed south towards Gesail farm.

What can I say about the start of this route. Well follow the GPS and basically your nose. While the path past the farm was okay, once here and heading uphill or west, there was not much by way of a footpath that was supposedly marked on the map . While I endeavoured to follow the path it was little used, overgrown, un-styled and quite boggy even in this hot dry spell. In short I found it quite impossible to stick to the footpath and wished I had picked the alternative route which would have been to ask the farmer for permission to follow the vehicle track which runs through the farm all the way to the top of the ridge at Cwm Yr Ychen. Worse in the morning stillness the horse flies were out again in their droves.

After what seemed like an age I did come out on the said farm track which is plainly marked on the OS map. Shortly after on a bend with a small stream nearby I gave myself a good soaking as I was already bathed in sweat and it was only nine am. Soon after though I carried on over Cwm Yr Ychen and made my way through Graig Wen forest, still heading west, hoping there would be a way out the other end as an egress point was not defined on the map. So far the views had been great and the forest trek was not too bad either and it was only a three km trek through it.

At the end of the forest however I did have to battle across a 5-600m section of downed tress and tree stumps to get out on the hills again but it was not too hard. I was just glad that the trees had been felled as otherwise I don’t think I would have found a route through here. Anyway as soon as I got out onto the hills again I topped out onto Pen Y Brynfforchog. The views here were pretty good and I then I just put my head down and headed north now around the forest heading for Glasgwm.

This was a long but pretty scenic slog mainly following the edge of the forest and fences all the way (3km) to the top of Glasgwm. Here it was a delight, a great cairn, a picturesque little lake and stunning views. I was also grateful for a bit of a wind to take the bite out of the oppressing heat and to keep the horse flies at bay. Here I had a great lunch break and some stunning photographs.

After lunch there was a long steep 40-45min descent down to join the footpath I had come up on early yesterday morning. Once here I simply retraced my route from yesterday enjoying the views thoroughly as this is one gorgeous little steep valley with breathtaking views looking down towards Dinas Mawddwy. An hour later I was back at the car park.

Route summary: A mixture of purgatory cross country hiking through an overgrown hell (please take the farm track), forest trails, a forested section of felled trees (thankfully). The rest your normal tussock grass and maintained mountain trail. Great views to be had for around half the hike.

All in all 13.3kms in a slow 5 hours with 785m 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 - Glasgwm