Snowdonia’ scenery insp

ON Sunday, October 28, walkers from the Halton area travelled south to visit the Snowdonia National Park and the ‘honeypot’ of a village Betws-y-Coed.

The village has a magical and a distinctly alpine feel, with its gushing rivers, majestic mountains and dense forestry.

The village was founded around a monastery in the late sixth century, growing slowly with the development of the local lead mining industry.

It is situated in the valley where the River Conwy is joined by the River Llugwy and the River Lledr.

The area is most popular with outdoor enthusiasts having many footpaths and cycle ways, but also fishing in the rivers and mountain lakes.

The first group to start their walk was the longest A group led by Ian Hilditch. They left the coach at Tal-y-Cafn where they crossed the River Conwy, and the group steadily climbed on the west side of the river, looking down on the villages of Tal-y-Bont, Dolgarrog and Trefriw. Still climbing they made their way up to Llyn Gerionydd, a beautiful lake nestled in the mountain range – a difficult lake to access by car but people do, to take their power boats and go water skiing.

The walkers then headed across moorland before entering into Gwydyr Forest, picking up the Llyn Parc trail before descending to Betws-yCoed.

Phil Gregory led a hard B walk of just over 10 miles. The group left the coach at Llanrwst and headed to the small village of Trefriw, where they started their climb through woodland up to Llyn Gerionydd. The lake is more than a mile long but never more than 50ft deep.

Continuing, they walked up the hillside to cross the dam at Llyn Glangors, entering the forest to follow tracks to the Hafna Mine.

The mine has the most extensive and best preserved remains of any of the mines on the Gwydyr estate, and was once the most important lead mining area in the UK.

The area now has interpretive boards to explain the history.

The walkers then fol-