This walk started from the small village of
TREFRIW tucked away in the
CONWY VALLEY on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park a couple of miles from the town of
LLANRWST We have visited these lakes before and I have walked most of this walk last year, in early September but this is the first time from Trefriw which takes in wooded area's and good views of the Crafnant valley and passes through old mine quarries. The first part of the walk starts from the car park in the centre and follows the lanes as they climb steeply up and passed the
FAIRY FALLS which we only saw through the trees as we didn't follow the route for the falls. In fact we nearly missed the turning for our route as the sign was partially hidden by overgrown vegetation!! We followed route 5 from the
TREFRIW TRAILS but adding a few more miles to it as we visited the tea rooms on llyn Crafnant before heading up through the forest and down to the Southern end of Llyn Geiriond. We also took a detour up above the forest before heading back to the woods back to the car making a good six hours at a very leisurely pace around 9 miles.
We had camped out on the Friday night as the weather was more like summer than summer, very sunny and warm with very little wind making it ideal for a good lowish level walk.
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| Our route for the day |
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| The very quiet campsite |
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| Up along the quiet lanes |
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| The partly hidden entrance to the forest |
It was a bit cooler in the woods and made for a welcome break as it was quite warm walking up the steep lanes in the midday sun and also quite dramatic in places as the sun burst through lighting the place up in a golden glow. We came to a couple of clearings where there was some good views down the Crafnant valley and down onto the old
KLONDYKE MILL that ceased operations in 1911.
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| Following the way marked route 5 |
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| The sun lighting up the forest |
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| Through the forest |
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| Having a break above the Klondyke Mill |
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| Klondyke Mill Information Board |
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| Looking down on Klondyke Mill |
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| View over to Clogwyn y Fuwch Quarry (top right) on the slopes of Mynydd Deulyn |
We followed the old Pandora Tramway as we made our way to the shore of
LLYN GEIRIONYDD where there are usually watersports going on but this time was fairly quiet. There is also a Taliesin Monument, which commemorates the sixth century Welsh bard,
Taliesin (c. 534 - c. 599), the earliest poet of the Welsh language
whose work has survived and often referred to as
Taliesin Ben Beirdd
(Taliesin, Chief of Bards). He was chief bard in the courts of at least
three kings of Britain, and is associated with the Book of Taliesin, a
text from the tenth century containing his poems.
He lived in the area, mainly on the shores of Llyn Geirionydd, where he
is also stated to be buried. It was here that we had yet another rest taking in the peaceful surroundings before making our way round to the old Clogwyn y Fuwch slate quarry.
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| Llyn Geirionydd |
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| Llyn Geirionydd |
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| Llyn Geirionydd & Taliesin Monument |
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| Back on track |
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| Approaching the quarry |
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| Having a look round the cavern of level one |
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| View from midway in the cavern |
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| Just inside the cavern |
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| View across the Crafnant valley from just outside the cavern entrance |
After messing about here for a bit, it was on to the very peaceful
LLYN CRAFNANT where we had a nice cake and a cup of coffee at the very pleasant Lakeside Cafe with a great backdrop of Crimpiau, Craig Wen & Creigiau Gleision of the far Eastern Carneddau mountains, a great walk in itself and one that I did a few years ago in glorious weather. It was also here, while at the cafe that we bumped into Keith, a mate I know off the walking forums and we had a little chat. He was enjoying the day and cake, with a few of his friends and hope they had as good a day as we did
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| Llyn Crafnant |
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| The Obelisk was erected in 1896 by the inhabitants of Llanrwst which commemorates "the gift to that town of this lake with 19 acres (77,000 m2) of land" by Richard James. |
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| Yum Yum |
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| The cafe garden, Llyn Crafnanat and Crimpiau, Craig Wen & Creigiau Gleision as the backdrop |
After a good rest it was time to get going again and up through the forest to the service road and back down to the northern end of Llyn Geirionydd where there was quite a few enjoying messing about on the water.
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| Gwydir Forest |
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| Gwydir Forest |
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Coming out of Gwydir Forest and onto the service road
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| Llyn Geirionydd |
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| Llyn Geirionydd |
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| Llyn Geirionydd |
We followed the path that we came up on a few hours earlier but turned off at the path junction with Route 8 that took us up a steep slope to a small cluster of houses at Penralt where we came across a couple of chairs so we took advantage for another rest looking back across the valley. We then carried on up and up to a small rocky outcrop high above Trefriw that offered some fine views.
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| Way marked paths |
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| Chairs and flags out for us |
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| Couldn't resist a play on the rocks |
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| View from the top |
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| Looking down on Trefriw |
From here it was straight down, down through bracken trying to follow a feint path that was a bit tricky in places with moss covered rocks and boulders, tree roots, water and mud that eventually came down on the path leading out of the forest and back to the road that took us to the car park.
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| The slippery slope down |
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| Last of the forest trail |
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| Back on the road |
Another great day in glorious Autumn weather and a place that has a lot to offer via the trails found here
http://www.melynconsulting.co.uk/Trails/Eng_MapsIndex.htm We followed Route 5 with an extension and a few stops making it a very interesting walk.
