All walks › Eryri: Ogwen and the Carneddau
Eryri: Ogwen and the CarneddauGlyder Fawr and the Devil’s Kitchen
Up the steep ground beside Twll Du onto a summit plateau covered in shattered rock, which looks like nowhere else in Wales.
- Distance
- 5.6 mi / 9 km
- Time
- 5 hr
- Ascent
- 750 m
- Difficulty
- Strenuous
- 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
From Llyn Idwal, take the path that climbs steeply to the left of the Devil’s Kitchen to reach the upper cwm, then continue to Glyder Fawr. Return over Glyder Fach and Y Gribin, or reverse the ascent if the weather is poor.
Worth knowing
- The plateau is a boulder field with almost no landmarks. In cloud, navigation here is genuinely difficult.
- Castell y Gwynt, the castle of the wind, is the rock tower between the two Glyderau and is worth the detour.
- Allow five hours. People underestimate this because the distance looks modest.
What you’ll see
Shattered rock stacked on end, the Cantilever Stone, and views down to Llyn Idwal and Llyn Ogwen.
Background
The frost-shattered rock on the summit plateau is periglacial: it was broken up by repeated freezing at the edge of the ice sheet, and has barely changed since.