NEARLY UPHILL – GREAT WALKS IN NORTH WALES & MORE!

Nantlle Ridge is a ridge walk in Eryri (Snowdonia). It includes the summits of Y Garn, Mynydd Drws-y-coed, Trum y Ddysgol and Mynydd Tal-y-Mignedd which is home to an impressive Obelisk built to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

Y Garn – 633 m
Mynydd Drws-y-coed – 695 m
Trum y Ddysgol – 709 m
Mynydd Tal-y-Mignedd 653 m

It’s a great route, but there is a little scrambling involved. The ridge has severe drops to the right on this anti-clockwise circuit. You’ll need a head for heights on this small section of an otherwise very easy walk. If visibility looks poor or there are strong winds, think twice about this route for your safety.

How do you pronounce Nantlle Ridge?

It’s pronounced “Nahn-tleh” or ‘nant lay’ – do not say Nan-tel (like mantle)

Is the Nantlle Ridge Scramble Hard?

When I was researching this route, the biggest issue with this walk was the scramble. I wanted to take Ziggy but I was worried we’d get stuck on the scrambly bit. I googled loads, watched youtube videos and I couldn’t find a really useful video showing the Nantlle Ridge scramble (please add links in comments if you found them!).

Nantlle Ridge Video Guide

The lack of detailed videos is possibly because it’s actually quite straightforward when you have good visibility and no ice. As you approach it, it looks a bit tricky. Once you’re up close to the stone, it’s not very exposed. Be cautious in high winds and low visibility. You’d need to be experienced and ideally have done the route before in these conditions.

There’s no real exposure on the scrambly section. In low visibility, now that I’ve seen the drops, I would avoid it as for me it would be stressful. This walk, like many others, is all about the views. Plan it on a day when the cloud base is high. My theory is pretty simple. If the mountains are full of cloud, then head to the coast. Alternatively, find a pretty lake and take a low level walk.

Is it ok to walk Nantlle Ridge with your dog?

There’s only a very small section where you have to pull yourself up (I’m 5ft and it was fine). You may need to push your dog up this section, which I did. I think this was because he was on the bungee lead and didn’t have his full bouncy ability. I didn’t want to risk him going over any edges. I also didn’t want him spotting any random sheep. For me, he was safest on the lead.

Ziggy is a fairly large 30 kg dog. Small dogs may need more help on the rock steps and scramble, unless they’re particularly good at scrabbling.

You know your dog best!

The Nantlle Ridge Circular Route – including the Obelisk!

Step-by-Step Nantlle Ridge Route Guide

Where to Park for Nantlle Ridge?

I parked on the little layby on the B4118 just outside Rhyd Ddu. If that’s full there’s a big car park across the road for the start of the Yr Wyddfa Rhyd ddu path… you will find somewhere in this area. It’s also very close for the start of Mynydd Mawr where I have some more parking tips.

The start of the walk is quite severe, its very steep and I advise lots of stopping and view admiring!

You then find yourself in a stone shelter on the top of Y Garn (there is a much more popular Y Garn so don’t get mixed up)

Theres a stone wall, make sure you’re on the right hand side of it and then follow it up over the ridge.

Keep on the ridge do not be tempted to go either too far to the right or left, just pick out the path which on a clear day is not difficult to find. If in doubt go back a few metres and look again.

There is a section which needs a little clamber. This is ok and not in an exposed section of the route so just take your time and and pull yourself up.

You’ll soon be back on a really easy path with the rest of the route extremely easy to follow and no difficult decisions to make.

The only decision you should have is whether to summit Trum y Ddysgol as there is a lower path to the left of the summit which you can see in the image above, which goes direct to Mynydd Tal-y-Mignedd and the Obelisk.

There’s a lovely narrow path as you go between Trum y Ddysgol and Mynydd Tal-y-Mignedd giving another little flutter of excitement but nothing like ridge section before.

The Obelisk is really impressive and the views are beautiful, if you have time you could continue and do a much larger loop, it’s all laid out in front if you have good weather. Some people use two cars and do this route as a traverse instead, that’s definitely on my list as the mountains ahead look very inviting too!

After the Obelisk head back the way you have come and look to head down the ridge which is between Cwm Ddu and Cwm Dwyfor. There’s a path on the ground that’s really clear.

Follow this path until you reach a point at Bwlch-y-ddwy-elor where you turn into the woods and head back on a very straight forward path back to your parking spot.

NB. Be careful in the woods it’s really easy to go off course especially as there are fallen trees, if you find yourself too deep into inpenetrable woodland just retrace your steps and try a different way. Fallen trees are very common here and they’re very slow to be removed from paths.

If you enjoyed this route please let me know in the comments and take a look at some of my other route guides.