Walking the Carneddau Traverse – starting with Pen yr Ole Wen
Walking the entire Carneddau Traverse is one to add to your bucket list. I was bought up with this view of Snowdonia from my mother’s garden, as you can see from the pic above! We often talked about the idea of walking all the way from the first of the Carneddau peaks, Pen y Ole Wen right back to the house, but we settled on a traverse starting at Llyn Ogwen and ending in Conwy, taking in 11 Carneddau peaks en route.
Pen yr Ole Wen Carnedd Dafydd Carnedd Llewelyn Foel Grach Carnedd Gwenllian Foel Fras Drum Carnedd y Ddelw Foel Lwyd Tal y Fan Mynedd y Dref (Conwy Mountain)
It could be achieved with a very early start and late finish, or like we did, starting in the afternoon and an overnight camp. OS maps says 9hrs, I think it took us more like 12 hrs of walking as we had lots of stops to admire the views eat snacks and drink coffee (and a few swigs of brandy!)
Where to Park
We left our car in Conwy and then got a lift to Llyn Ogwen. You can easily get a bus to Llyn Ogwen from Conwy too. There’s plenty of free parking, we just left the car in a housing estate not far from the centre of town.
The Start
The start of the path we took up Pen yr Ole Wen is just opposite the Llyn Idwal visitor centre / YHA (I have recently stayed a night in this YH and it is fantastic!).
Pleased having climbed the steepest section of Pen yr Ole Wen
Pen yr Ole Wen
Turn left and head down the road until you see an obvious gate to start up the very steep route up. The path is fairly clear, there is an easy scramble available but you can avoid this by sticking to the right side where an obvious detour path emerges – useful if you have a heavy backpack!
Looking at the fabulous Tryfan!Looking back towards Tryfan as you progress along the ridge
From the top if you have good visibility the route is clear before you to Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llewellyn and it’s a lovely walk with stunning views across to the Glyderau.
Pushing on towards Carnedd Llewelyn which is just out of site around the ridgeEnjoying a coffee at the top of Carnedd Llewelyn, the 2nd highest peak in WalesYou’ll need to make sure you have your bearings or a decent gps as in the cloud it can be very difficult to find the right way toward Foel Grach and Carnedd GwenllianThere’s a little shelter just beneath the summit of Foel Grach, I imagine if the weather came in it would be a very welcome sight!The shelter was built in the 1960’s, it’s pretty grim inside so you’d definitely have to be desperate to spend much time in there.Looking back towards Yr Elen as we approach Carnedd Gwenllian and you can just see the perfect pyramid of Elidr Fawr peaking out as well as the start of beautiful views of the coastline.If you are in thick cloud the beginning of this wall will be a very happy point to make sure you’re on the right track to get to the next summit Foel Fras.Looking back along the wall to the bigger CarneddauThe rocky top of Foel Fras which is the final peak if you do the Welsh 3000s in one go. Looking back at the summit of Carnedd Gwenllian as the light starts to failStunning views from our camp for the evening on Foel Fras We were lucky to have a fairly clear night (with a view of Venus!) and found a decent grassy and flat spot to camp on the other side of the wall.Beautiful morning light!There’s such a clear path ahead on this route, although we’re probably only just over half way through the walk at this pointLooking down to Llyn Anafon with one of the many carneddau ponies we encountered posing for me!The summit of The Drum with Foel Fras and Llywtmor behind.Losing height as we make our way along the path with a fence as a handrail to ensure we are heading in the right direction. Looking across to Anglesey.
There’s just a few more hills to climb on this path, Foel Lwyd and Tal y Fan and then it’s all down, all the way to Conwy.At this point we are looking on to the Great Orme, Llandudno with Foel Lus and Penmaen Bach in the foregroundWe crossed a road at the Sychnant Pass – this is a really popular layby and path but sadly the ice cream van which was often there in our childhood was not!Conwy Castle in sight and the end of the walk
[…] Carnedd Llywelyn (Llewelyn)Height – 3484 feet / 1064 metres Mountain Range – Carneddau English Meaning – Llywelyn’s Cairn – Llewelyn ap Gruffudd was the last sovereign prince of Wales before its conquest by Edward I of England.)Carneddau Traverse […]
Pen yr Ole Wen
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