From the road in front of the guesthouse, turn right and walk to the roundabout. Bear right into Church Walks. Cross Ty-Gwyn Road and Tan-yr-Ogof Road and continue to the tram station. Buy a single and take the tram to the Summit Station, changing trams at the Halfway Station.
(S/E) For the shorter walk, walk up to the Summit Complex and climb to the trig point at the top of the hill, then follow the path roughly parallel to the cable car down to the Halfway Station, and pick up the walk at step (3).
For the longer walk, turn right out of the summit station past the ice cream kiosk then cross the tramlines to the road. Cross the road and bear right down the grassy slope to a Nature Trail waymark post. Follow the wall downhill.
(1) At the corner, by an information panel about the copper mines, bear right, still following the wall. After a little over half a mile, you pass a low cairn on the left; continue along the wall as it bends to the right. After a short distance, the path leaves the wall through stunted gorse and heather, passing some small areas of limestone pavement. On meeting a wider, grassy path bear right back towards the wall corner, but take the waymarked nature trail on the left that leads through more heather and gorse and passed two prominent glacial erratic boulders. The boulder shaped like a cottage loaf is the Free Trade Loaf. Beyond the boulders the path rejoins the wall and follows a well-defined track alongside it.
(2) After ¼ mile, beyond a gate and a junction with another track on the right, pass Ffynnon Llety Fadoc (or the Roman Well). Shortly afterwards, after the “Sea and Swords” information board, follow the track round to the right, passing the end of the private drive to a farm on your right then curving left across a grassy area towards the road. By a small boulder, leave the track and climb a grassy path on the right towards a distant cable-car pylon, crossing several other paths on the way up. Keep left at a waymark indicating the path to the Summit. Walk under the cable-car line to the left of the pylon and through an area of old mines, passing between two stone structures that cap old mineshafts. Bear right then left to meet a road just left of the tramway. Cross the tramlines and turn left at the road junction to pass the Halfway Station.
(3) At a right-hand bend below the station, turn left onto a track, then immediately right onto another. Climb beyond a barrier, keep left at a waymark post and pass under the cable car again. Pass to the right of the obvious limestone knoll known as Gorsedd Uchaf (“High Throne”) and continue beyond a waymark post to a junction of paths marked with a fingerpost.
(4) Turn right down steps beyond the post, then bear left below a line of crags above the ski centre. Turn right down more steps and descend parallel to the artificial ski slope and chairlift to the metalled path at the bottom. Zig-zag left and walk down through the Happy Valley Gardens.
(5) Before the Gorsedd Stone Circle, bear right to the roadway through the gardens and cross onto a path on the other side with a railing. This curves to the right to a flat glassy area below the Camera Obscura. Walk up to the conical-roofed building, then turn right down a flight of steps. Turn left along the metalled path and then sharp left just before a road. The path heads down past the Grand Hotel, then zig-zags right and leads you down to the terrace in front of The View.(S/E)
