All walks › Eryri: Cadair Idris and the Mawddach
Eryri: Cadair Idris and the MawddachCoed y Brenin
Waymarked walking trails through a large forest of river gorges and old gold workings, with a good centre and enough shelter to make it a wet weather standby.
- Distance
- 4.3 mi / 7 km
- Time
- 2 hr 20
- Ascent
- 250 m
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Shape
- Circular
Where it is
The circle shows the general area, not the exact start. Use the directions link below to get to the car park itself. Contours and paths shown are OpenTopoMap, drawn from OpenStreetMap data.
The route
Several colour-coded walking trails start from the visitor centre, ranging from an hour to half a day, taking in the Mawddach and Gain rivers and the Pistyll Cain falls.
Worth knowing
- Primarily a mountain bike centre; the walking trails are separate but cross bike routes in places.
- Pistyll Cain and Rhaeadr Mawddach are both worth the walk, particularly after rain.
- Good in bad weather, which in this part of Wales is a real consideration.
What you’ll see
River gorges, the two waterfalls, gold mine ruins at Gwynfynydd, and mature forest.
Background
Gwynfynydd gold mine within the forest produced gold used in royal jewellery and worked intermittently until 1998.