Aran Fawddwy in the snow

Looking towards Pen Main

This weekend was spent in the Arans a fantastic walking area in North Wales. The drive up on Friday night was uneventful and relaxing, even getting through Birmingham on the M6 was easy going. The lanes around Dinas Mawddwy were on the other hand more challenging.
Saturday morning and the sun was shining and it promised to be a good day despite the ominous weather forecasts. Beyond Dinas Mawddwy there is a small car park near Cwm Cywarch. The path leaves the track by a bridge across the stream and then a sunken lane takes you out into the valley above Afon yt Hengwm. The path slowly climbs above the valley and swings around to Drysgol.

View from Drysgol to Aran Fawddwy

 The snow was increasing in depth by this stage and the icing on the mountains was rapidly becoming more of a reality. As we followed the ridge keeping the fence on our right Aran Fawddwy could be seen in its full winter glory.

The path passed a memorial cairn for Mike Aspain of RAF St Athan mountain rescue team who was killed by lightning here. The path would normally be fairly straight-forward but with snow and ice covered rocks it was a more interesting experience.

Following the ridge, looking towards the memorial cairn by Drws Bach

The summit of Aran Fawddwy

 The final trudge led to the summit of Aran Fawddwy with its snow caped trig point & time for a bite to eat. The snow in places was up to knee deep and invariably your boot slowly descended through the snow layers making it tough going.

The descent was along the fence line running in a south-westerly direction towards Glasgwm. An extremely boggy path even at this time of year. The sections of board walk were more of a hindrance with their ice covering, but no doubt a blessing at other times of the year.


After 2 km or so the path veers downhill along a gully. The pond beside the fence marks the beginning of the path down which becomes very steep. Now below the snow line the path was still slippery due to film on the rocks and a saturated top soil. The path crosses a few side streams before reaching a wide footbridge and a more gentle path down to Bleaencywarch. The path passes around the farm and back to the car park. In total this was a 12 km walk which took around 5 hours of walking through snow and bog.

The view or lack of it

 The Sunday was an altogether different day, with poor visibility and gusting snow/sleet showers all day. as the day progressed it descended further into the valley and a slog up to the pond below Glasgwm was the limit of the days activities.
The lure of warm soup and time to dry out before the journey home proved too strong.