This was another week away in North Wales in August primarily to hike some outstanding Nuttalls with an old friend of mine called Rob. The last time we had hiked together was in Chile in 1985 so this was an overdue meeting :-).
12.8.2020 - Post Gwyn 665 (Nuttall), Llanrhaeadr Y Mochnant.
Post Gwyn (665m) is a pretty isolated Nuttall North of the village of Llangynnog in North Powys. There are a few ways to get to it, one being via the car park at the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall. I walked this trail with my friend Rob Kemp.
Parking was at the said waterfall. The road up to there from Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant is long and narrow, an UC road. If you’re in a MH it is confined but there are passing places. There was a road closed sign in the village on our day a Wednesday but a local informed us that the road is only closed Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We thought that was strange, I mean if you close the road then nobody gets to go there right?? Anyway I got my MWB Merc Sprinter up there okay on a Wednesday.
There are two parking places at the end of the road. One is at the waterfalls/cafe area which you have to pay for and there is a good half a field there (but it does get full) or there is a rough car park a 100m before. We parked at the latter as we were there early. Be careful one half of the car park is veryyyy rough. When we were there a family grounded their car and we had to help them out. It was all rather nice actually as the family was Jewish, an Iraqi muslim supplied the tow rope and the christians (us) supplied the van towing power.
Anyhow the walk….if you walk up the road to the waterfall there is a marked footpath going off uphill to the right. It goes around in a big left hand loop to the top of the waterfall. From here you head upstream along the Afon Disgynfa. This is a not so good footpath but off we went. Being August it was not long before we hit the ferns and not long after that we made a decision to cross the river on a Westerly heading heading for Post Gwyn itself.
The going looked okay but it simply wasn’t. There is no footpath here of any kind and it was a hard heather walk all the way to the summit of Post Gwyn. A distance of over two kilometres. If you do come this way be prepared for this heather slog. It slows you down terribly and on a hot 30c day sapped our will to live…sort off!
There is a cairn on Post Gwyn and from here you head SE towards a forestry about a km away. The paths again are literally non existent again and after this leg it is about another km of rough going until you pick up a substansive farm track. This takes down hill for a good 1.5km to a farm gate where you hang a left and follow this path all the way to the bottom of the waterfall.
Now the waterfall is famous for its beauty and rightly so. It was hot so there were people swimming in all the rock pools and the waterfall is simply gorgeous with its double drop and mid way rock bridge. Nearby is a cafe where we called it a day with some ice cream.
Parking: A payable one with ample room at the end of the road or the rough pull in a 100m before that is free. You can get a half a dozen in the latter and about thirty in the former.
Route Summary: About half the route was rough heather going up to Post Gwyn and across the top. It was not nice. There are better routes coming up from Llangynnog apparently. Apart from that decent trails and a farm track. Good views all round and a stunning waterfall.
Route Statistics: 10km with 430m of height gain done in an all in time of 4hrs 15min. The heather slowed us down a lot!
GPX files: For gpx files go to the Peakbagger website by following these links and go to the bottom right hand of the page and click ‘Download this GPS track as a GPX file.’
Ascent Entry on Peakbagger: Post Gwyn
Route overview using ViewRanger.
Parking in the very rough cutting a 100m before the waterfall.
The best pictures of the walk.