![]() All the while the hollow of Cwm Tregalan lies to your left and rising to your right are slopes leading up to Y Lliwedd. ![]() This is where the Watkin Path starts ascending again, quite steeply, away from the barracks and towards Bwlch Ciliau. In this sheltered spot lies the remains of the south Snowdon slate quarry workers’ barracks. You can imagine this was a good place to address them all.Īs you reach the head of Cwm Llan, you’ll notice the steep slopes of Yr Aran to your left and Snowdon’s south ridge looming above you. It was opened in 1892 and the crowd that stood around the then prime minister William Gladstone, was a large one. The Watkin Path was the first ‘designated summit path’ made with the sole intention of walking to the summit, for ‘tourists’. ![]() ![]() A popular place to picnic on hot, summer days (please take any litter home with you again).Īnother five minutes on, and you will pass a rocky outcrop, Gladstone Rock, with its stone plaque commemorating the opening of the path to the summit. This takes you down to a slate bridge, crossing the stream. If you’re interested in seeing the waterfalls a little closer up, there is a narrow path that descends from the gate. You’re on a well-made path now, with large rocks laid into the slope and you can’t help but now notice the fine waterfalls to your right. You’ll cross the old tramway on your way up to the final ‘mountain gate’ that denotes you’re onto open access land. This gap was cut into the rock to allow a tramway to be built, to take wagons full of slate from the South Snowdon slate quarry down to Pont Bethania, where they were then transported by cart to Porthmadog, and then out to sea. Look to the mountain skyline and you’ll notice a large cleft in the steep slope, Clogwyn Brith, to your left. This must have served as a very good lookout post for King Arthur’s knights! You will see bluebells and wood sorrel, among other flowers, depending on the time of year.įollow a good path round and up onto a definite ‘bowl’ shape and notice the aptly named ‘Castell’ rock feature, now behind you and what you have just walked around on the path. These woods are a lovely example of native oak woodland, part of a larger wooded area that stretches down to Porthmadog.
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