Moel y Gamelin trail head in Horseshoe Pass.
The path towards Moel y Gamelin.
| Moel y Gamelin from
Horseshoe Pass Moel y Gamelin |
| Estimated net time | Not more than one hour. | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | No stable access to running water. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (March 2014). | ||
| Parking | Room for 2-3 cars at trail head. | ||
| Start height | 380 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 230 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 3.0 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From the village Llangollen, on road A5 in north-eastern Wales, cross the bridge and turn left onto road A542. Drive 6.9 km (4.3 mi) and park on the left hand side of the road in the second sharp right curve.
Start your walk by heading up to the service road a few metres above trail head, and then follow the path on the right hand side of the gully coming down from north-west. When the path tops out a little right of the saddle turn left onto the machine made path, which will take you across one small top and then up to the summit, which has a pile of stones.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
I was spending the week-end in Wales after a few days of work in Warwick, and I knew very well I only had another nine tops to do in order to complete my goal of visiting Wales' 50 most prominent tops. The realistic plan wasn't to do all nine this week-end, but most of them was realistic. First out this Friday was Moel Y Gamelin, and after having left Llangollen in dense mist I was pleased to arrive at the Horseshoe Pass in sunshine.
The hike to Moel y Gamelin is very straight forward, with one small exception; if you start in the Horseshoe Pass you're greeted with a sign saying "No admittance except on business". I decided to ignore this sign, since I wasn't going to go near any of the work roads, and headed up the narrow path to the pass north-east of the summit. From here it was an easy walk to the summit, from where I could look down at the mist still sitting in the valleys.
After the hike it was straight onwards to Moel Famau.