MOEL CYNGHORION
The one that (briefly) pretends to be Snowdon...
I HOPE IT’S not sacrilege to admit that I once took the train up Snowdon.
In my defence it was with extended family and a three-year-old, and it was a rotten October day. So we took the train, even though every fibre of my being screamed to get out and walk.
But it revealed one fascinating feature that I hadn’t truly appreciated before: a mountain called Moel Cynghorion.
As the train chugged its way up towards the Clogwyn ridge, an enormous grass-and-crag dome appeared across the valley. It looked stunning. So much so that the train suddenly buzzed with chatter and awe: “Wow, is that one Snowdon?”
It’s an easy mistake to make, as at this point it looks far more dramatic than the portly rump up which the train is slowly chuffing. But it’s not Snowdon, it’s Moel Cynghorion. I know because I looked it up on the map there and then, dumbstruck at its shapeliness and splendour.
Later on, as the train climbs higher, it becomes clear that Cynghorion is nowhere near Snowdon’s height (at 2211ft, it’s some 1400ft lower). But for those precious early minutes, it looks better than Snowdon – and very few peaks can pull that off around here.
At that point I resolved to come back, minus steam or diesel, and climb it.
Moel Cynghorion (say ‘kun-horion’) is Snowdon’s next-door neighbour to the north-west. The pair almost touch, with Snowdon’s Clogwyn Du’r Arddu ridge dropping to the gap at Bwlch Cwm Brwynog where Cynghorion takes over.
Despite the sheer face it presents to the train, the back of Cynghorion is a smooth green slope, shelving gently up from the Snowdon Ranger station on the Welsh Highland Railway. The route starts here and partly borrows the Snowdon Ranger Path, perhaps the least well-known of Snowdon’s ascent routes and certainly the most under-rated.
The climb is grassy all the way. Navigation is easy, and only the descent down the ridge of Clogwyn Llechwedd Llo presents any steepness.
And when you get to the top, the ground just vanishes. Instead of any more mountain there is just Cwm Brwynog, 600ft below, with the railway and the Llanberis Path way over on its farthest edge. You’ve reached that craggy, vertiginous face, and it’s breathtaking.
And away to the south-east is Snowdon, on possibly its least wellknown flank, a side it hides to all but the most discerning walkers.
The last time I went to Moel Cynghorion, I did it at sundown. Lying to the west of Snowdon, it catches and keeps the dying sunlight better than any peak on Snowdon’s east flank, lighting up the summit of Wales in a golden corona before letting it sink slowly into blackness beneath a billion stars.
I recommend that. Particularly if you’ve ever sat on the train and wondered what that big exciting hill was. Now you know. And, I hope, you’ll love it. Nick Hallissey WALK HERE: See Walk 23 in this issue.
“When you get to the top, the ground just vanishes… and it’s breathtaking.”