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Aran Fawddwy

It is a moot point whether Benllyn or Fawddwy is the finer viewpoint. Rather like Mahler and Bruckner, it all depends on your mood. Fawddwy frames Creiglyn Dyfi, the birthplace of the Dovey, in its giant turrets; but otherwise there is precious little in it. Benllyn, with its focus on the rugged wilder N, plays King to Fawddwy's Queen and the softer hills of the S. Happily both peaks have the gift – shared by so many of the mid-Wales hills – of transporting you into a world where the works of man are subsumed in a blue-green fantasy of hills, woodlands and dales extending as far as the eye can see.

Cwm Cywarch route (AN5)

Driving up the twisty road to Cwm Cywarch the urge to get out of the car and onto the fells is almost irresistible. The sight of that familiar cirque with its massive buttressed crags piercing the sky is an inspiration, even to the most indolent. Park in the field where the unfenced road ends at 854185. March on, ignoring the footpath sign to Hengwm, past the farmstead of Blaencywarch, over a ford and up a springy band of green that cuts through bracken and boulders. (Many signs and arrows on rocks render detailed directions superfluous.) Before long you are hemmed in by lowering crags, serenaded by the music of the brook and marvelling at having climbed so quickly out of the lush pastures below.

The head of Cwm Cywarch

Unless you want some awkward scrambling be sure to spot (near the top) where the path crosses to the stream's true L bank. Once across, the path fades and the best plan is to head slightly E of N until you meet a fence with a well-trodden path alongside. This is a squelchy, oozy mess at first (long white planks have recently been laid over the worst sections) but it firms up later as it winds up the mountain's bouldery slopes to a large cairn marking the S top (860220). The trig point is then a short walk NE across a stony plateau. Shortly before meeting another fence coming off the hillside R, pass a junction of fences (851208), a much-needed clue to the whereabouts of Waen Camddwr, some 150yd S.

Cwm Hengwm route (AN6)

Hengwm is the most popular route up Aran Fawddwy.

My advice for the perfect day would be out via Cwm Cywarch, home down Hengwm when the long slopes that can seem endless on a muggy morning are perfect for a relaxed afternoon.

Craig Cywarch

A footpath sign at 853187 directs you across a bridge, through a rickety kissing-gate and up a rough muddy track beneath a canopy of trees. Turn L when you meet a gravelly farm road and in a few minutes join the long, carefully graded path that slants across the N flanks of Pen yr Allt-uchaf. The trough of Hengwm deepens with every step. Colossal green slopes, smooth and bare, gaze silently down on an empty cwm that curls round as if to feed on its own monumental loneliness.

Above Hengwm the path toils up to the Drysgol spur and a teardrop tarn where, on a still day, you may glimpse the Aran tops reflected round its tussocky shores. The spur caries on to the slender neck of Drws Bach (Little Door) where it narrows to a whisker and a cairn at 863214 commemorates a member of the RAF who was killed by lightning in 1960. The views are tremendous: a 1000ft drop into Hengwm on one side; the Arans' E face on the other, as majestic and thrilling as anything in Wales. Beneath the cliffs lies the sparkling Creiglyn Dyfi, flat and bland-looking as you stand by its shores, but the very quintessence of a mountain lake from this lofty eyrie (never more so than in winter when it mirrors the blacks and whites of the snow-capped peaks all round).

Aran Fawddwy: the final approach from the south

Stay with the fence that straddles the spur beyond Drws Bach until you are invited to cross it at a ladder-stile. The terrain changes abruptly from grass to rock hereabouts and the well-worn path that scales the mountain's final defences, leading first to the knuckly S top and then to the breezy trig point, is amply cairned.The tarns at 860215 scarcely merit a diversion, short though it would be.

Cwm Dyniewyd route (AN7)

For a day with a difference try starting from Llanymawddwy.

You can choose from two routes, both of which are all but forgotten. Darren Ddu is perhaps best saved as a steady downhill trek for tired legs in the evening, but Cwm Dyniewyd gives good sport either way. Both join the Hengwm route at Drysgol.

The lane by the chapel at 902190 is easily missed as you drive through the village, but it is there all right, climbing steeply beneath an awning of pines, then cutting through bracken before entering Cwm Dyniewyd above a glen (mauve with rhododendron flowers in spring). The cwm is still as nature intended; the black slippery rocks at its head festooned with the silver thread of Pistyll Gwyn. At some point you must gain the ridge. Probably the easiest course is to make for the tiny col just W of Pen Foel-y-ffridd, one of the hills that stand guard over Llanymawddwy. A stiff slog but worth every pant.

Follow the forest boundary as it curves above the falls and then let your compass guide you across the barren moors to Drysgol. Be sure to inspect the gaunt unknown cliffs of Gallt Ceiniogau and Llam Llai as you glance back across the Dovey.

Darren Ddu route (AN8)

Leave Drysgol on a bearing of 120° and set out down the peaty fells of Gwaun Lydan. Before long you will see a track wending through the grass near the S rim of Darren Ddu. This will see you safely down to the road at Bryn Hall (907194) via Brynuchaf Farm. In contrast with the friendly tranquillity of Cwm Dyniewyd the harsh gash of Darren Ddu is lifeless and sombre, but impressive nonetheless.

Llaethnant route (AN9)

Follow AN4 to Erw y Ddafad-ddu and then advance L across the stony waste to cross a stile over the fence around Aran Fawddwy's N approaches. A cairned path then weaves up the final rocky pyramid to the summit.

Drysgol N approach (AN10)

You can use this trackless route to make a direct descent from Drysgol to the Llaethnant Valley.

Proceed E from Drysgol for a few minutes until, at about 878212, an easing in the slopes permits a roughish descent over mosses and stone-encrusted grass. You can then either cross the stream to link up with AN4, the Llaethnant route (thus regaining the road at 905212) or follow farm tracks to Pont y Pennant (904203).

W approach (AN11)

It is impossible, unless you have a friendly chauffeur, to combine this route with any other that would form a worthwhile round.

The Arans present a dull face to the W. They are prettily wooded, but the ridge looks rounded and whale-backed with no hint of excitement. This more or less sums up the long tramp which is given here for completeness (and because it is one of the permitted paths) rather than on merit.

The route starts from Esgair-gawr Farm (816224) where a car park has recently been constructed and where a mounted Mosquito engine commemorates two airmen who crashed in the Arans in 1944. Pass through the farm and then bear R on a Land Rover track which leads across fields and a forest plantation (where the path is wet and scrappy) before finally emerging on the open fells. The Arans are by now clearly impressed on the skyline ahead, but the best views are of Dduallt and Rhobell Fawr behind you. As on all the permitted paths there is a proliferation of arrows on rocks and markers on fences to prevent straying – so it is only a matter of time before you meet the fence and path mentioned in AN5 at 856216.