The YHA guide to Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park

Published on 15/10/2023

Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park, covering 823 square miles of north Wales, is one of the UK’s most thrilling destinations. It encompasses nine mountain ranges and a whole world of long-distance walks, dramatic coastlines, gnarly crags and steep biking trails — as well as being a region packed with life and culture.

Eryri (Snowdonia) is enshrouded in folklore, natural history and tales of human perseverance. Dig into its past and you’ll find stories of bravery entwined in the park’s high mountains, remote tarns and ancient pathways, from the mythology of the giant Rhitta Gawr, said to have been slayed here by King Arthur, to the area’s role as a training ground for early Everest expeditions.

It’s also the most southerly place in the UK where you can find rare arctic alpine plants such as Moss Campion, several Alpine Saxifrages, and the famous but incredibly rare Snowdon Lily. The region is home, too, to a wide array of birdlife such as ring ouzels, wheatears, ravens and peregrine falcons.

The landscape itself was riven by vast glaciers. We know this because it was in Cwm Idwal, in 1831, that large boulders caught the eye of a certain Charles Darwin. His realisation that these were deposits left by retreating glaciers some 10,000 years earlier caused massive controversy in Victorian society, as his proposed timescale contradicted most interpretations of the age of the planet.

Today, Eryri’s remarkable geology represents a world-class playground for the modern outdoor-lover: a busy mess of rock that routinely attracts walkers, climbers, mountain bikers and other thrill-seekers.

In this guide, we’ve highlighted some of the area’s best walks and cycle routes. Be aware, however, that the mountains here can be unforgiving, especially in the months approaching winter. If your appetite has been whetted, be sure to choose routes that suit not just your ability, but the weather, too.

Best for walkers

Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon)

Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) is the king of mountains in England and Wales, a fantastically complex jumble of Alpine-like arêtes, spurs and scooped valleys, all leading to its pyramidal peak. There are numerous ways to reach the summit from almost every angle, with routes for most abilities, from the relatively straightforward Llanberis Path to the knife-edge ridge of Crib Goch (and there’s also the train, of course). But stay alert: this is a vast mountain, and the weather conditions can vary from the top to the valleys. Always check the warden’s report.

The Snowdon Horseshoe

Is this the finest ridge walk in the country? The Snowdon Horseshoe is an exhilarating day out in the mountains and should be attempted by very experienced walkers only. It starts from Pen-y-Pass and leads up to some thrillingly exposed grade 1 scrambling across Crib Goch and Crib y Ddysgl, then on up to Yr Wyddfa, Snowdon’s principal peak, returning by way of the twin peaks of Y Lliwedd, where the dark crags witnessed some of the world’s first formal rock-climbing. The route covers seven miles of jagged, open mountain terrain and requires an entire day. It’s an even more serious proposition in winter conditions: a full-on mountaineering experience.

Glyderau

Few walks anywhere match trotting through the magnificent naughty twins of Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach: the grandeur of the scenery, the thrill of vertiginous passes, the otherworldly geological formations. The Glyderau mountain group, just northeast of Yr Wyddfa, offers a proper mountain day out: head up via the Devil’s Kitchen, a satisfying walk that, while not technically a scramble, requires a little hand-on-rock action and a head for heights. The nearby shark-fin peak of Tryfan is another proper scramble that requires expertise to tackle, and if you’re after a more relaxed adventure, the walk around Cwm Idwal takes in some stunning Eryri scenery.

Cadair Idris

As a bit of an outlier from the Snowdon Massif, Cadair Idris is a stand-alone giant, an intricate structure of cwms, moraines, scree and lakes. The mountain has impressed local storytellers for hundreds of years, with plenty of folk tales set on its slopes. There are a wide variety of ways to reach the 893-metre summit, the Pony Path being the most common. One well-known legend around the mountain is that if you sleep alone on the summit, you’ll wake as either a poet or a lunatic. Not a chance we’d take.

Best for cyclists

The National Park is home to one of Britain’s very first mountain biking centres. It could be argued that it was here at Coed y Brenin (beicsbrenin.co.uk) that modern British mountain biking was born in the 1990s. It began with local enthusiasts carving out a few trails and has grown to the point where it now offers more than 90 miles of routes for all abilities. The ‘Beast of Brenin’ is the trickiest route, being well suited to more experienced riders, while beginners can take on the five-mile Yr Afon ‘green’ trail. There are also trails for children and riders with disabilities.

Alongside the sizeable Coed y Brenin are a couple more mountain bike centres. Antur Stiniog (anturstiniog.com), near Blaenau Ffestiniog, has 14 trails graded from green to black and has previously hosted the British Downhill Championships. It has a café, bike shop and showers, and can offer coaching. Elsewhere, Beicio Mynydd Dyfi Mountain Biking (beiciomynydddyfi.org.uk), in Machynlleth, is a community interest company with four long mountain biking trails.

YHA Snowdon Pen-y-Pass and the Everest of Wales

The Himalayas might be half a world away, but the history of British Everest expeditions is indelibly linked to Yr Wyddfa. It was on the dark, vertiginous cliffs of Y Lliwedd and Clogwyn Du’r Arddu that Edmund Hillary — and, before him, George Mallory with his climbing partner Andrew Irvine — practised their techniques. YHA Snowdon Pen-y-Pass was once the Gorphwysfa Hotel, an infamous haunt for early climbers who often interspersed their rock-scaling exploits with riotous evenings in the hotel: the guestbook (still in the YHA archives) includes names of climbing legends such as George Mallory, the Abraham Brothers and the remarkable Geoffrey Winthrop Young, who would arrive from Cambridge with his outdoor-loving cohorts on annual Easter gatherings from 1903 until the 1930s.

Further down the pass, meanwhile, is the atmospheric Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel, which also hosted the Everest climbing stars of the 1950s. The walls are still covered in photographs of the era, alongside signed pictures and items from the successful 1953 expedition.