Arenig Fach, Snowdonia
Short of time but hungry for big views? Head to Snowdonia and follow this bite-sized outing up a tough cookie.
Imagine, if you will, an oversized pudding, heather-clad and largely pathless, dumped on the edge of a vast tract of featureless moorland and adjacent to a magnificent edifice vying for your attention. Then, if it’s not too much of a stretch, picture yourself walking up it. What’s that I hear, the sound of boots being removed and rucksacks thrown into cupboards?
It is said that in life the journey is more important than the destination, and it’s a view with which I have a great deal of sympathy, but in the case of Arenig Fach the converse is true. I first climbed the mountain not because I really wanted or needed to but, as a great man once opined “because it’s there”. The day had an inauspicious start, with cloud as low as my mood, and I pondered on why I was putting myself through the ordeal of wading through bog, bilberry and heather searching for a non-existent path. An hour later the cloud broke and I bumped into the luxurious summit shelter where the most incredible view greeted me – and in that moment I knew.
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SH831407 This is where the hard work begins! A path now develops and follows the fence upwards, a steep climb on which views down to Llyn Arenig Fach ease the burden. Before too long the angle relents and the summit plateau is underfoot. For such a nondescript mountain the summit shelter and cairn are rather beautiful, the view even more so. Arenig Fach’s position affords a wonderful feeling of space and remoteness; across the vast sweep of the Migneint are seen the great peaks of northern Snowdonia. The southerly vista takes you into an enigmatic mix of moorland and unfamiliar mountains which will surely fuel your wanderlust.
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SH820415 The next leg of the journey is short but requires attention lest you should find yourself drowning in a sea of heather. Leave the summit and gain a narrow path down to the minor top of Y Foel.
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SH823406 At the col beneath Y Foel’s highest hump bear right and allow yourself to be funnelled into a wide heathery gully. Descend to meet a stream and then turn left. Upon meeting a wall, follow it leftwards and go through a gap and down onto a permissive path which delivers you to the roadside and a short walk back to your car.