Читать книгу Hillwalking in Wales - Vol 2 - Peter Hermon - Страница 11

Manod Mawr

Were it not for its unsightly quarry workings Manod Mawr would be a popular peak. When viewed from S or E, with the quarries hidden, it is still a fine-looking mountain. Its stern, steep slopes (a mix of crag and scree) and above all its compactness convey an impression of great bulk and solidity. By the same token it calls for respect in mist when the only safe way off is N to the col and then down on FG1 or FG2.

The trig point is almost entirely hidden by a large nettle-infested windshelter which surrounds it. Just N is a second shelter, unusually deep and narrow – good for loners, cramped for a party!

Cwm Teigl route (FG1)

Cwm Teigl is wild and desolate, almost oppressively so.

From Ffestiniog proceed up the minor road that branches off the A470 at 704423. You could drive all the way to the Manod slate quarries, but if you are planning a round trip combining FG1 and FG2 it is best to park just beyond a gate at 715431 where there is space for a few cars.

Manod Mawr and Manod Bach

In Cwm Teigl massive screes bear down from Manod Mawr and the fierce, almost malicious-looking crags of Carreg y Fran lie in wait up-valley. However relief is only a glance away as you plod up the long mountain road for behind you, resplendent in its greenery, is the sylvan softness of the Vale of Ffestiniog and the distant blue of Tremadog Bay.

After a long mile the road levels off and you pass between a rocky knoll L and what is now a much tamer and more friendly-looking Carreg y Fran. You even get a brief glimpse over Llynnau Gamallt to the Migneint. Such joys are short-lived as the harsher medicine of the Manod slate quarries starts to desecrate the scene. This is your signal to abandon the road and take to the purity of the hillside. Scramble up to the nameless lake at 727451. Here you will find a medley of playful little tracks, weaving between boulders and bilberries, and in minutes the top is yours.

Llyn y Manod route (FG2)

This is described in descent because it dovetails neatly with FG1 to provide a complete circuit of Manod Mawr (the round could just as well be done the other way).

Leave the summit cairns N, but bear slightly W after a few minutes to avoid the quarries. Soon, coming down the slope, you meet a quarry path, green with age, descending the mountain’s W flanks. The grim sight of Blaenau Ffestiniog is tempered with the quiet, mirrored calm of Llyn y Manod as it gradually unfolds below. Y Manod is a remarkable lake. Tucked in a hollow between Manod Mawr and Manod Bach, it is sheltered not only from viewers on the nearby hills but also from the ugliness that totally surrounds it – truly an oasis of peace and tranquillity.

Near the foot of the slope at 718446 is a prominent sheepfold where the path becomes sketchy for a time. However it soon returns, good as gold, hugging the cliffs of Clogwyn Candryll to drop down to the derelict homestead of Caecanol-mawr (720439). It bears R just after this and then, just short of a stone barn, bears L. From here you can freelance back to Cwm Teigl and FG1, but if you do be sure to locate the little stone bridge over the Teigl at 723436.

W face direct (FG3)

A cruel test of wind and limb!

From the sheepfold mentioned in FG2 it is possible to gain the summit by a rough scramble straight up the hillside, following a broken line of quartz. This is conspicuous from a distance (less so nearer to hand) where it seems to start along with a vague zigzagging grassy rake.