20.9.2020 - The Glyders Horseshoe, Ogwen Valley, Snowdonia, North Wales (4XNuttalls).
A phenomenal day doing ‘The Glyders horseshoe’...four nuttalls en route (all done before) Glyder Fach 984m, Castell Y Gwynt 972m, Glyder Fawr 1,001m and Y Garn 947m. A perfect weather day, superb route and great company, five of us. God’s country at its very very best....simply stunning and world class!
The route, starts at Gwern Gof Isaf (campsite where there is all day parking for £2). Head West along the well trodden footpath that takes you along Nant Y Benglog to Gwern Gof Uchaf campsite. Turn left here just after the quaint footbridge along a path that takes you behind Tryfan Bach. Simply follow this steadily upwards (South) until you come onto the ridge crest near to Llyn Caseg-Fraith. Here turn right onto the footpath that takes you up the steep section of hill to the summit of Glyder Fach where there are majestic views of Tryfan and the Ogwen Valley to be had.
From here it is just a short walk to the famed cantilever stone for a photo opportunity and then straight on a short distance more to the rocky spires of Castell Y Gwynt. To get to the top of Y Gwynt is a lovely little scramble and then it’s onwards along the ridge-line for a couple of kilometres to the mish mash stone spired top of Glyder Fawr. All along of course you have stunning views, especially of the complete Snowdon Horseshoe in the next valley over.
Now you have a steep zig zag awkward decent down to Llyn Y Cwn and then the relatively steep haul (around 300m) to the cairned top of the Garn. Here you have stunning views of the entire Ogwen Valley. It is pretty jaw dropping on a day like today. You are now on the down leg and the decent down from the Garn is long and steep but you are surrounded by majestic mountain views. It took us about an hour to come down to Llyn Idwal where we veered away from the main footpath to take a more direct route back where you entered a quaint little canyon just before coming out by the car park next to Idwal Cottage.
We were still not finished but we stopped here for a coffee and a pastie before we pressed on along the A5 up the valley towards Tryfan buoyed by our great day. At the foot of Tryfan we got onto the footpath that takes you all the way back to the campsite.
This was a great day out, one of the best horseshoes you can do in the UK, superb weather and great company. If you get a day like us…you will be giggling like children.
Parking: All day parking at Gwern Gof Isaf for £2 or anywhere you can fit your car in the Ogwen Valley.
Route Summary: Well trodden mountain footpaths very steep in places. A very steep decent down from Glyder Fawr and Y Garn. Very rocky route in the main and you only need to scramble if the mood suits you. You could take in Bristly ridge as an adventure variant otherwise enjoy the glorious mountain views here on offer. This is a superb outing, one of the best you can have in Wales.
Route Statistics: 16.4km with 1,000m of height gain done in 8hrs 45mins. Our moving time was 4hrs 45mins. This really was a day to savour…and boy this we did!
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: Glyder Fach, Castell Y Gwynt, Glyder Fawr and Y Garn.
OS Overview using ViewRanger.
The first third of the ascent up to Glyder Fach showing stunning views of Tryfan which we had done the day before.
The middle section from Glyder Fach and the Cantilever stone along to Glyder Fawr including Castell Y Gwynt.
The last section up Glyder Fawr and the long decent down to Ogwen Cottage was stunning. The views of the Ogwen Valley on the decent was simply stunning.