Tal y Fan may be small, but it literally left us breathless! Having been 10 years since we last hiked up a mountain, we thought that Tal y Fan would break us in gently. We were wrong.
Getting There:
We began our route in Rowen, a very small village in the north of Snowdonia. We parked in its small, but free car park, on the east side of the village on Gwynant. There were public toilets nearby, just up the road to the northeast of the carpark. Nice.
Our Adventure:
After parking up, putting on our boots and gathering our bags, we set off at about 8am. This was day 3 of our week in Snowdonia and we were feeling fresh, as the thunderstorms the day before kept us from doing much more than mooching around Llanberis and then watching the rain from our hot tub.
Even with fresh legs, about 5 minutes into this trail we were both wondering why we started it! The tarmac road and initial gravel track leading out of Rowen are steep. Really steep. I pulled a butt muscle during my over-enthusiastic trudge up. Occasionally, we were rewarded with some nice views across the countryside with rolling hills in the distance. Eventually, though I’m sure it felt much longer than it actually was, the track levelled out a bit and we found ourselves on a wide dirt/grass track on the edge of sheep fields. There were plenty of lambs and sheep, including a particularly majestic one that was just crying out to be photographed!
If we hadn’t kept looking behind us occasionally to take in the views, we would have missed Maen y Bardd. In fact we had to walk back a bit to go check it out. Maen y Bardd (Stone of the Bard) is thought to be the remains of a dolmen from 3500 BC. It is also sometimes called Cwrt-y-Filiast (Kennel of the Greyhound) in reference to a legend where a giant threw his spear across the valley at his sheepdog who was sheltering in the chamber. It is a fascinating feature and makes a nice place to perch for a bit to take in the views after the relentless trek out of Rowen. We sat on it for a bit and did just that. We sat on a structure that dates from 5000 years ago! This kind of stuff just blows my mind and is part of what I love so much about the UK.
We carried on through the fields, making a couple of turns to follow the path through gorse-covered fields towards the top of Tal y Fan. The path crossed over a small stream, and eventually led us around to the north side of the summit. We continued through the gorse until we found the path leading to the short rocky scramble to the summit. We were rewarded with a trig to bag (I love a trig) and some beautiful views of the sea to the north and the beauty of Snowdonia and her mountains in all other directions.
We spent some time admiring the views, taking photos and some videos before climbing back down the way we came to find a place to sit for a bit and enjoy some lunch. We perched on some lovely big rocks, with Tal y Fan slightly sheltering us from the wind. Today’s lunch was Black Bean Wraps and an apple Soreen for a little sugar hit. We enjoyed the views of rolling hills and ocean in front of us before heading off to continue our adventure.
We continued on through uneven gorse-filled fields and then onto a slate track. We saw a group of wild horses, looking majestic while grazing on a hill with the ocean as their backdrop. Soon after we came across a disused quarry with an unusual small body of water between two towering rocks. We had a little mooch around before moving on. After a bit, I spotted a large standing stone in the field next to our path and took a moment to admire it
The next point of interest was the Llangelynin Old Church (St. Celynnin’s), built in the 12th century. It was raining heavier now, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to duck in, check out the interior and then take shelter in the porch area. The interior was subtle except for the Lord’s Prayer in Welsh at the front of the altar, punctuated with a skull and crossbones at the end and the old Viking longboat that is being used as the interior roof. Whilst taking some time to charge our phones, air our feet, and munch on some trail mix in the porch, we met a lone walker who had come up directly to the church on the Coffin Path from Rowen. Interestingly, he was using a guidebook for “bagging churches” in Wales.
After gathering ourselves together, we continued our trail back to Rowen through grassy fields punctuated by rocky outcrops and patches of gorgeous bluebells. We had to choose our own adventure here a bit as the route we were following on All Trails seemed to suddenly wind all over the place. I can only assume that whoever created the trail was trying to dodge the worst of the bog in the fields. If you choose to walk this trail (link below) I suggest finding your own route after the church, maybe taking the Coffin Path back to Rowen. To be honest, aside from some lovely bluebells, the best of the walk was over! It was also around this point that my IT band started playing up. So I spent my time from here on limping on our downhill stretches. I soon found myself a stick Gandalf would have envied, which helped a bit. We finally found ourselves on the last bit of the road we had started out on, and reached the car.
Facts ‘N’ Figures
Tal y Fan is part of the Carneddau range in Snowdonia and at 610m (2000ft) it just makes mountain status. The route was very quiet – we only saw 2 other people during the entire hike, which was bliss!
Length: approx 7 ¾ miles, 3 ½- 4 hours depending on your pace.
Terrain: This route has it all! Very steep roads and lanes to start which then level off a bit on a gravel track. Well-worn field paths around the back of Tal y Fan, with a very short scramble to reach the summit. Then some boggy fields with much less obvious paths in places. Ends with a short steep section of road (though it definitely missed the worst of what we climbed up on the way out.)
All Trails link: https://www.alltrails.com/en-gb/trail/wales/conwy/roman-road-and-tal-y-fan-circular
Watch our YouTube video of this beautiful walk here:
If you’ve done this walk, let me know what you thought. Have you been somewhere else in Eryri that you want to recommend? Leave a comment below!