Tal y Fan & Foel-ganol
1 SH694739
From the car park at the east end of Llanfairfechan, cross the river and turn left up a narrow lane and continue through a gate to join a farm track. Cross a stream, turn right up a steep track and go left, after patchy scrub, to pass through an area of large boulders - a series of slate waymarkers help point the way. Go through the next gate and join the obvious grassy track heading south-east over the moor. Continue for 600m to the next wall and
pass through the gate.
2 SH706729
Keep ahead for approx. 700m on a broad grassy path, rising gradually through patches of gorse. Fork left (no path) over the open ground and walk east to the foot of the rocky slopes rising to Foel Lwyd. A grassy gully, with boulders towards the top, runs towards the rocky summit. Turn left, with a wall on your right, take the path along the heatherclad ridge, cross a small pass, and reach the trig point by a ladder-stile on the top of Tal y Fan.
3 SH729726
Return to Foel Lwyd but now continue west, with the wall on your left, to drop steeply to the track at Bwlch y Ddeufaen. This is the last pass before the Carneddau range rises in the west and the route once carried a Roman road – today it takes power lines and the old track is regularly used by farmers. Cross the track and walk uphill, with a wall on the left which is soon replaced by a fence. Continue over the straightforward slopes of Drosgl and follow the fence as it turns left to the substantial stone shelter atop Carnedd y Ddelw. (From here, an easy there-and-back extension can be made to the higher summit of Drum, though this is partly marred by a high jeep track).
4 SH708705
Walk north-west and descend gradual slopes to a small col below Pen Bryn-du, crossing the track on its way down from Drum. The ridge ahead is marked by a series of tops, with fine views into the steep enclosed valley of Afon Anafon, and the route continues over Yr Orsedd to prominent Foel-ganol. Beyond the coast, the Menai Strait stretches over to Anglesey and out to Conwy Bay.
5 SH688715
From Foel-ganol walk west-north-west, downhill through thick heather, and pick up paths at the foot of the slope. Turn right and walk north-east towards a crossroads of tracks beneath pylons. Turn left and soon fork left over the minor top of Garreg Fawr. Follow the track as it drops down to a wall and a clump of trees by an old farmstead. The way ahead (signed North Wales Path) passes below small crags and just west of a wonderful ancient hut circle
(SH688732) and continues north over open slopes to a gate. A path drops steeply through fields to a lane - turn right for 750m to return to the start.