Arans, Day 4 - Cadair Idris, Craig Cwm Amarch and Mynydd Moel (2 x Nuttals, Snowdonia).

Updated: Oct 3, 2020

28.6.2018 - Day 4/4 - Snowdonia - Cadair Idris 893m, Craig Cwm Amarch 791m and Mynyddd Moel 791m.

Well having been up Cadair more times than I can shake a stick at this was another day on this stunning mountain and what a day it was. Parking at the ample National Trust car park (no picture of the car park on this entry but the car park is big and busy!) with its associated tea room at 8am soon saw us heading north up the Minffordd path to do the Minffordd horseshoe which is one of the finest outings in Wales.

Once past the well way marked path that heads past (west) the tea room you soon start up the fabled Minffordd steps. This is a steep but beautiful pull up a wooded gorge and after about half an hour you come out on the mountain proper and it was not long before we took a break at the beautiful slate bridge that holds the path coming down from Mynydd Moel. On we went and around to Llyn Car where we had a late breakfast in this beautiful amphitheatre in the baking heat of the morning. This was going to be a day to savour!

Not long after we plodded up Craig Lwyd and up onto the ridge line that takes you up to Craig Cwm Amarch the first of our Nuttalls of the day. With beautiful views all round and the baking heat we took a nice easy pace and surmounted the steep little pull that takes you to Cwm Amarch where we basked in the glorious views of Cadair itself, Llyn Cau and the remainder of our route. The next part down towards Graig Can and up to the summit of Cadair is my favourite part of the hike as the vistas are simply superb. After a leisurely 3hrs 45mins and 7kms we got to the summit where for a change we didn’t have to shelter in the summit bothy from oppressive Welsh weather. Instead the summit looked like Tenby beac! What a day, what a summit and what views!

After lunch we trekked 2kms over the undulating plateau over to Mynydd Moel our second Nutgall of the day. Still basking in glorious views we then started to head south to decend steeply towards Ystrad Gwyn. This is a really steep decent for an hour plus but on good footpaths but quite lose at times. In the hottest of afternoon heat we have experience in many a year however we got perturbed here on two occasions after coming across two groups, one a family. To cut a long story short we had to proffer some robust advice to both parties to turn round. They had already run out of water and were trying to find Llyn Cau? They had somehow turned right at Ystrad Gwyn in error and were still heading upwards in an effort to find the lake mapless and waterless.

It wasn’t long after that we got to the slate bridge at Ystrad Gwyn and then we headed back down the Minffordd steps through the woods but couldn’t resist walking past the tea rooms where we spent a leisurely hour eating and drinking. All in all a superb outing on one of Wales’s most popular mountains.

Route Summary: Well maintained/used paths for most of the route. Steep steps to start with, some steep ascents and decents. Stunning views and scenery.

All in all 12.7km in 5hrs 45mins with 942m 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: Craig Cwm Amarch