ELIDIR FAWR

Ravaged by man, but loved by us...

POOR ELIDIR FAWR. Not the most junior, but perhaps the least loved of Wales’ 3000 foot peaks. A sullen middle child, it has good reason to feel left out and hard done by. Yet for all its posturing as the ugly duckling of Snowdon’s satellites, Elidir Fawr can be swan-like when you get to know it at close quarters. A pariah on the western limb of the Glyderau Range, its summit is without the distinction of a place among Snowdonia’s classic outings and its lower slopes are excluded from the national park. Seldom visited by coincidence, it’s a mountain you’ll climb because you want to.

Time has not treated it well. On one side the Dinorwig slate quarries have hungrily gnawed away at its contours, tearing tooth marks into a grey waste streaked by inclines and terraces. On the other, the natural bowl of Cwm Marchlyn is overburdened by a reservoir. It feeds a hydroelectric power station buried deep within the mountain: a network of tunnels 10 miles long and Europe’s largest manmade cavern. When Britain needs power, and needs it quickly, a surge of water can deliver 288 megawatts in an instant.

Man has tried his best to put Elidir Fawr off balance, but its rocky summit remains perfectly poised: rising proudly and undiminished above the desecration. Pleasingly pyramidal, this crest of interlocking boulders fans out on either side, leading you out along a slender promontory. Eye to eye with Crib Goch, you’re treated to a Royal Box view of Snowdon’s fearsome northern profile.

Elidir Fawr might have been robbed of some of its beauty by the endeavours of man – but it has lost none of its intrigue.

WALK HERE: Download your route card for a demanding 8 ¼ -mile walk up and over Y Garn & Elidir Fawr at www.lfto.com/bonusroutes

SCARFACE

The quarries of Elidir Fawr ensured that half the peak was excluded from Snowdonia National Park.