A Beautiful Walk in Eryri National Park
I wanted to share a few images from a beautiful walk I went on last week whilst visiting a quieter corner of Eryri National Park in North Wales. The Rhyd Ddu valley is arguably one of the most beautiful areas of the national park but provides a slightly quieter experience which I prefer when out in the landscape. It’s great to see people enjoying the mountains, but I’d prefer to be away from these people…
This walk actually starts in probably the most frequently visited area of this valley at the start of the ‘Rhyd Ddu Path’, one of the popular routes up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), the highest mountain in Wales.
You’ll start by following the ‘Rhyd Ddu Path’ from the carpark at Rhyd Ddu station, which is well signposted as it crosses the railway tracks. You’ll then follow this path as it steadily climbs for about 1 km where you’ll eventually see a fork in the path. Taking the fork to the left keeps you on the ‘Rhyd Ddu Path’ up to Snowdon’s summit, but here, you’ll want to take the fork to the right which will take you away from Snowdon into the foothills of the adjacent peak, Yr Aran (shown in the image above).
I highly recommend those who want to climb Yr Wyddfa take the ‘Rhyd Ddu Path’ because I think the landscape along the route is really stunning, and the route itself is pretty steady. But, in all honesty, Yr Wyddfa doesn’t really interest me, and the walk i’m showing you in this article I think is arguably more interesting and even more breathtaking.
As the path forks to the right you’ll be following an old track created for the long-abandoned quarry. It’s extremely well-defined and as it snakes its way upwards. The landscape along this route is beautiful with views over to the peaks of Moel Hebog and Y Garn on the opposite side of the valley, and there are countless places to stop for a quick photo.
The waterfalls and cascades provide, not only a relaxing soundtrack to the early section of the walk, but also provide some great photography potential… but I feel like the best is still yet to come.
As I mentioned, this path was used as an access route to the quarry further up the valley, and it’s the remains of that quarry that I think provide a unique point of interest that really shows the history of the landscape. There are plenty of ruins to explore (safely) and it’s an experience you won’t get walking up Yr Wyddfa.
Once you reach the plateau, you’ve got a few options. You’ll be right below the peak of Yr Aran and from here you can begin an ascent (I strongly advise finding your route by utilising an OS Map as I didn’t venture up on this visit). You can also continue along the path where you can explore the foothills of Yr Wyddfa, or you can simply head back the way you came which is what I did. I found the route back allowed me to take in the views from a different perspective, and best of all, I only saw one other person on the whole route.
