YR EIFL Gwynedd
M ountainous in spirit if not in height, Yr Eifl is a trio of granite crags. Its summits have various names but here we’ll call them Garn For, Garn Ganol and Tre’r Ceiri. This walk scales all three.
The first two peaks on this anticlockwise route – Garn For and Garn Ganol – are a bit of a scramble. But there is an alternative, lower route: a path that skirts the valley to the north and east of the mountains.
1. LLITHFAEN
Bus passengers from Pwllheli can get off at Llithfaen and walk to the car park along a quiet road with views to the Tudwal Islands, over the Llŷn Peninsula’s soft hills.
2. BWLCH
From the car park, take the Wales Coast Path to Bwlch. The scratchy heath that blankets this landscape brushes at your ankles as you pass through pastel-coloured scrub scarred with streaks of grey granite.
3. VORTIGERN’S STREAM
Look far below to the west: fringed by a charcoal-grey beach, seasmashed and seal-haunted, lies an old quarrymen’s village, which has now become a Welsh Language Centre – Nant Gwrtheyrn, or Vortigern’s Stream. Little is known about Vortigern, the British king blamed for facilitating the Saxon invasion, but according to legend, he fled to North Wales and died here in this creek, overlooked by the towering black cliffs.
The brackeny hills behind flash red through the mist, and racing clouds chase purple shadows across a brilliant sea.
4. BWLCH YR EIFL
Where the path passes through Bwlch yr Eifl – the gap between the twin peaks of Garn For to the north-west and Garn Ganol (marked simply ‘Yr Eifl’ on the OS map) – there are magnificent views of the Snowdonia mountains to the east, their peaks rising like blue waves above a valley of mist.
5. GARN FOR
A slithery scramble on the left takes you up Garn For, topped by a telecoms tower. The granite quarried here paved the streets of Liverpool and Manchester, and has been hewn into Olympic curling stones. Below, miniature waves crimp the coast and Anglesey lies offshore, over the glimmering Caernarfon Bay.
6. GARN GARNOL
Scramble back down to the track, then pick up the marked path and follow it straight up Garn Ganol. A brisk wind whips the summit and bryophytes (worts and mosses) lurk in the many crevices underfoot. Extending west, the broad Llŷn Peninsula and its two coastlines bask in golden light. To the east, the Snowdonia mountains are clear and bold, blue-brown and framed by granite; a drystone wall is drawn across them as if by ballpoint pen. From here you can look across to the prehistoric hill fort of Tre’r Ceiri, which was still inhabited by Celtic Britons during the Roman occupation.
“TO THE EAST, THE SNOWDONIA MOUNTAINS ARE CLEAR AND BOLD”
7. ANCIENT REMAINS
Reach Tre’r Ceiri by descending Garn Ganol to follow the path across boggy ground. Vaporous tendrils creep around the dark stones of the defensive walls. Within them are the circular remains of 150 huts, abandoned by the inhabitants of Tre’r Ceiri as the climate cooled and crops became increasingly hard to grow. Vortigern, if he did come here, would have found Tre’r Ceiri already abandoned and veiled in a thick, fugitive mist.
8. LLITHFAEN
From Tre’r Ceiri, the path to Llithfaen shines like a silver ribbon between a pair of craggy mounds. Descending, the scree gives way to pasture as you pass through any clouds that dropped at Tre’r Ceiri. At the road, turn right for the car park or continue to Llithfaen, the village glowing gold against its backdrop of rippled hills.
If you have time, it’s well worth paying a visit to the Tafarn y Fic, Llithfaen’s community-run pub.