Mawddach Trail

Description

(D/A) From the front of the George III facing the river, turn right and cross the road beside Toll bridge into the National Park car park. Join the Lon Mawddach Trail beyond and follow it for a little over a mile, with views over the estuary and marshes.

(1) Cross the Afon Wnion on the old railway bridge and walk through the Bont y Wernddu car park to the A493. Cross over and, instead of continuing along the Lon Mawddach Trail, turn right to recross the river.

Turn left at the road junction (signposted ‘Dolgellau’) and follow the vergeless road for 300 yards. By a postbox, turn right into a narrow lane that climbs a hill, and keep right through a pair of gateposts with a footpath sign.

(2) Turn left through a gate at the entrance to Glyn Farm, then immediately bear right off the track along the wall to a step-stile. Climb the wall then swing right, behind the farm, to pick up a track heading left up a valley. At the top of the slope, follow a grassy path alongside a wall to a corner, where you turn left then immediately right (ignoring a path ahead).

Descend to ford a stream to a stile by a gate into a field. Turn left to another stile, beyond which bear right, climbing through the trees with the stream to your left. At the top of the bank is a gateway, with a stone step-stile to the left.

(3) Cross the next field to a stile in a fence, with the stream on your left, then bear slightly right to climb the neck of the narrowing field, with a pond below and to your left. Near a ruin, cross a stone slab stile on your left and follow the wall beyond to a track.
Keep left to a gateway and cross the field ahead, between two low tree-capped, stony ridges.

(4) Go through a gate in the garden wall of an isolated cottage (Gwern Barcud), and turn right to leave the garden via another gate in front of the house. Follow a track across the grass then, before a gate, turn left over a ladder-stile and then a step-stile into trees.

(5) Descend through the forest to emerge on a track above a triangular pond; turn left, downhill. Just before a house, turn right onto a signposted footpath that winds through the garden down to the main road. Turn right to return to the George III. (D/A)