Cadair Berwyn trail head at Tan-y-pistyll.
| Cadair Berwyn from
Tan-y-pistyll Cadair Berwyn |
| Estimated net time | 2½-3 hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | The only stable running water is from the stream below the waterfall at trail head. | ||
| GSM coverage | No coverage at trail head, and also some sections higher up without coverage (March 2014). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at trail head car park. This a pay & display car park with daily cost of £2.00 (per 2014). | ||
| Start height | 308 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 620 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 7.3 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From the town Bala, along road A494 in north-west Wales, drive road B4391 from the A494/B4391 junction at the north end of the town. Drive 24.4 km (15.2 mi) to where road B4396 exits right, and continue another 100 metres on B4391. Turn left where signed for "Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant" and drive 4.1 km (2.6 mi), and then turn left onto the narrow road signed for "Pistyll Waterfall". Drive 6.2 km (3.9 mi) to the end of the road and park at the car park (this is a pay & display car park, with a fee of £2.00 per 2014).
Locate the start of the path at the far corner of the car park and follow it towards right through the small forest. Fork left onto another path when you get out of the forest, and then turn left when you meet a wider path at 395m. Follow the wide path 110 metres, to a few metres past its highest point, and turn right onto a vague path. Then make sure you fork right onto a vaguer path after 60 metres. This path soon becomes well defined and can be followed all the way up to the top at 827m. Cross the fence, turn right, and follow the vaguer path towards north-east, on the left hand side of the fence. This path takes you down to a saddle before climbing up to the summit, which isn't marked in any way.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
After two days of extensive hiking, pursuing my aim to visit the 50 most prominent Welsh mountains, I was due to fly back home this Sunday. But before heading for Heathrow airport I had one more hike to do before having completed my list. I decided to start early in order to have plenty of time for my drive south, and was on my way already 06:30, after having stayed the night at the nice Bron Heulog Guest House (+44 (0)1691 780521) in Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant.
It was a very nice day for hiking, with clear sky and a relatively dry ground, but a few minutes before I got to the summit some mist started to build up around the summit itself. This spoiled potential nice views from the summit, and was even more annoying since five minutes after I had started my descent the mist was all gone.
Back at the guest house I had a shower and packed my stuff before a several hours drive to London, which included a more than one hour delay because of an accident on the M6. But I didn't really care since I had plenty of time before my flight, and I was quite happy in having completed my Welsh ambitions in one less visit than planned.