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Heather Bashing in the Hirnant Hills

By Dave Roberts   

on February 9, 2016    3/5 (1)

Posted as a walk in – Europe, Snowdonia National Park, The Aran and Hirnant Hills, Wales

Heather Bashing in the Hirnant Hills

Route Essentials

Route Summary

See the end of the article for local information about parking, public transport facilities, pubs and cafes.

Distance

21.69 km

Ascent

842 m

Time

7 hours

Calculate the time using Naismith’s Rule and factor in your own pace.

Start Location

Difficulty

Hard Walk

Hazards

Navigation and heatherbashing! Wild route that can be heavy going, especially if you dont’ find the easiest path. Allow plenty of time. Walk can be cut short at the bwlch if needed.

Weather Forecast:

Met Office Mountain Weather

Check out our Best Mountain Weather Forecast?
Remember that we cannot outline every single hazard on a walk – it’s up to you to be safe and competent. Read up on Mountain Safety , Navigation and what equipment you’ll need. 

Heather Bashing in the Hirnant Hills Ordnance Survey Map and GPX File Download

View the full route map

Download file for GPS

Heather Bashing in the Hirnant Hills

The hills surrounding the Hirnant valley south of the town of Y Bala are, when they are mentioned at all, often grouped with the Berwyn Hills. It’s difficult to know where the hills of the Berwyn end and the Aran hills begin, and it’s often simpler to call this disputed area the Hirnant Hills (never add an ‘s’ to the end of a Welsh hill range name!).

Whatever this corner of Snowdonia is called, it’s certainly tough, rough and not for the faint hearted. There may not be any exposure, other than the risk from the biting wind owing to the lack of any shelter, but the going is tough. Thankfully, there’s a good track that crosses the main ridge, making the going much easier! This may seem like cheating, but spend half an hour bashing Hirnant heather before making that judgement.

Heather Bashing in the Hirnant Hills Route Description

This route takes in what looks like the benign ridge of Moel y Geifr (spoiler alert: it isn’t) before following the track across the moorland and returning via forestry tracks from which you may or may not choose to make dog-legs to bag some of the outlying peaks.

1 The route starts in Aberhirnant where there is parking for a handful of cars (SH957 327) and follows the minor road for the first 4 km of the route.

Heather Bashing in the Hirnant Hills2 After aroun 4.5km you’ll reach a stone wall, SH950 290 where you pass through a gate and walk up along the wall (some sections wet) before turning right along the fence for 600m.

Heather Bashing in the Hirnant Hills3 The fence turns left at the forestry, and you need to follow the fence up steeply along a rough heathery path. This may be a short section but it’s very steep and would be tricky in descent, especially in the wet. Once the slope eases, the going continues difficult as you yomp through boggy heather. Keep as close to the fence as possible, until you feel you can pick up a route left towards the summit of Y Foel Goch. We turned left where the ground dropped into a boggy section just after the 590m contour, and a faint path does lead to the summit.

Heather Bashing in the Hirnant Hills4 After the effort, the summit is a disappointment, but the view across to the Aran range and the Arenig does make up for it. This is probably the only summit you could pick up and steal in your pack.

5 The path along the ridge is now clear, if not great. It seems to be one of those paths that finds rather than avoids the wet areas. Luckily, they’re more of an annoyance than an obstacle and you’ll pass over the summit of Trum y Gwragedd (Gwrgedd on some maps) without really registering it. More of the same leads you finally to the trig point on Foel y Geifr. There’s no shelter here again, but at least the views make up for it!

6 The final bit of bogtrotting for the day involves finding a way to the minor road, and there really isn’t an obvious track to follow down from the summit. We contoured along the NE of the summit on a heathery track which joins a very faint track that becomes clearer a you descend. Head for the gate in the fence, though it was an absolute morass which meant we had to cross the fence carefully further up.

Heather Bashing in the Hirnant Hills7 From the minor road, you’ll be spoilt. An easy track winds its way along the moors, with the choice as to whether you venture off to bag the summits depending on how sick you are by now of heather and bogs! While most are just off the track, with the number of named summits considerable when you think how prominent they are. The first pull up to Pen y Cerrig Duon, really gets the climbing out of the way, but you’ll need to continue to Pen y Boncyn Trefeilw in order to bag your first listed summit! You can add to this tally after Stac Rhos, by turning south towards Cefn Gwyntog, which is barely a kilometre away but will take considerably more effort to reach.

Heather Bashing in the Hirnant HillsCross Foel Cedig (not prominent enough to be a summit in it’s own right) and finally, the peak bagger realises that the main summit of Cyrniau Nod is a couple of 100m off path along the fence, how desperate are you to tick off that summit? Much easier to stay on the track!

8 Finally, the track descends into the forest, just before Y Groes Fagl, while the hardy could continue on to Foel Cwm Sian Llwyd, but do you really want to leave the track. It’s a direct line down to the minor road and the ruined barn at Foel-y-ddinas where you turn right back to the start.

*Bwlch y Groes can be used as a rather arbitrary boundary for the Berwyn range, though the hills of Llechwedd Du and Esgeiriau Gwynion are more Berwyn than Aran. The lowest point between these hills lies between Foel y Geifr and Pen y Boncyn Trefeilw and is 488m!

Local Information and Recommended Maps and Guidebooks

Route Summary:

This walk includes the 3 Washis of Cyrniau Nod, Pen y Boncyn Trefeilw, Foel y Geifr (Hirnant)

This walk includes the 4 Hewitts of Cyrniau Nod, Pen y Boncyn Trefeilw, Foel y Geifr (Hirnant), Foel Goch (Berwyn)

This walk includes the 6 Nuttalls of Stac Rhos, Cyrniau Nod, Pen y Boncyn Trefeilw, Foel y Geifr (Hirnant), Foel Goch (Berwyn), Y Groes Fagl

Route Start Location:

Distance
 Ascent
 Time
21.69 km 842 m 7 hours

Calculate the time using Naismith’s Rule and factor in your own pace.

Activivity Type: Hard Walk

Summits and Places on this Route

Facilities

Nearest ‘anything’ is in Y Bala.

Hazards

Navigation and heatherbashing! Wild route that can be heavy going, especially if you dont’ find the easiest path. Allow plenty of time. Walk can be cut short at the bwlch if needed.

Remember that we cannot outline every single hazard on a walk – it’s up to you to be safe and competent. Read up on Mountain Safety , Navigation and what equipment you’ll need.

Parking :

Parking at start.

Public Transport:

Not a chance! You’ll need to factor in a walk in from Y Bala if fully dependent on buses or stump up for a taxi.

Traveline for UK Public Transport

Weather Forecast:

Met Office Mountain Weather

Check out our Best Mountain Weather Forecast?

Recommended Maps: 

Guidebooks:

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Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts founded Walk Eryri in 2004, with the aim of providing routes that are off the beaten track. Walk Eryri is now part of Mud and Routes which continues to provide more off beat routes and walks in Snowdonia and beyond. Dave has been exploring the hills of Eryri for over thirty years, and is a qualified Mountain Leader. Dave also established Walk up Snowdon, Walk up Scafell Pike and Walk up Ben Nevis just to mention a few.

More Posts by Dave Roberts

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