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Foel Goch

The best of Foel Goch (Red Hill) is on its E side. Like Y Garn, dull grassy slopes make W approaches monotonous and many walkers avoid the hill altogether, a decision encouraged by the main ridge path which bypasses Foel Goch to the W. A far cry from the plunging arête that captivates the skyline ahead as you approach Ogwen from Capel Curig! The arête is Yr Esgair, the NW arm of Foel Goch and potentially one of the great ridge walks. Regretfully it is not to be. It starts attractively on grass that soon narrows to a fine scrambling edge. However, beyond a conspicuous notch where the angle really takes off, splintered flaky rock and crumbly turf banks, coupled with severe exposure immediately above the notch, render it out of bounds to mere scramblers.

The best route on Foel Goch is over the Creigiau Gleision/Mushroom Garden edge, and if this is combined with Cwm Cywion or another of the Glyders’ NE cwms you are guaranteed a day full of fresh, dramatic scenery, well off the beaten track. The untidy pile of browny-red stones forming the summit cairn sits astride an airy promontory with calamitous drops into Cwm Bual and Cwm Coch. The fence that crosses the top leads sedately down to the ridge path, halfway to Y Garn.

Cwm Gafr route (GL22)

I include this route purely out of duty. It is easy and it gets you to the top safely, even in mist, but it is also deadly dull.

Start from Nant Peris at 608583 behind a cluster of houses set in an alcove. A lane leads to a group of white buildings before trending R up the hillside past a white cottage. Thereon the track plods above, but parallel to, the Afon Gafr for 2 miles of the bleakest, most featureless grassland you will find in many a long day. Even the gradient barely alters. After an eternity you meet a fence near the edge overlooking Nant Ffrancon that leads directly to the cairn.

Esgair y Ceunant route (GL23)

More worthwhile than GL22, because it is higher with better views.

Start with Cwm Gafr but pull up to the narrow finger of Esgair y Ceunant as soon as practical. Then, at about 620604, bear L onto a little-used path that slants across to Bwlch y Brecan. From here follow the ridge path to the foot of Foel Goch’s shattered NW face where a steep zigzag up shaly screes leads to the top. Esgair y Ceunant can also be joined from Cwm Dudodyn (GL23,1) as described under Elidir Fawr (see below).

Criegiau Gleision/Mushroom Garden route (GL24)

I have never encountered another walker on this route.

Few walkers sample the E-facing cwms N of Y Garn and it is quite a surprise to find Criegiau Gleision (not to be confused with a peak of the same name in the Carneddau) sporting a shadowy little track.

Walk up the old road to the Yr Hafod hostel (644604), then follow a stream to the lip of the hanging valley above. This is Cwm Cywion (Cwm of the Chickens), a remote and sheltered hollow cradling the sparkling Llyn Cywion. One approach (GL24,1) is to climb above the lake on steepish grass to gain the col between Foel Goch and Y Garn at its apogee at 627603. You then follow the grooved ridge path to a stile where the path divides. The main track swings W of N, bypassing the summit; the lesser one follows a fence, due N, straight to the cairn.

Foel Goch across Llyn Ogwen

For connoisseurs the more scenic option is to jump the stream as it emerges from a vegetated ravine and climb the long arm of the Mushroom Garden as it swoops down beside a tumbledown wall. A path, exiguous at first, trends W to the slender ridge of Creigiau Gleision proper. Speckled with flaky spikes of rock and soft tufts of bilberries, this is a wild gem, the land falling away sharply N in an intricate maze of gullies and fragile-looking pinnacles. Across Cwm Coch is the savage, dipping crest of Yr Esgair and its prominent notch. The ridge veers NW later to merge into the grassy nose culminating in Foel Goch from where, looking back, Creigiau Gleision rears as a fierce dark comb reminiscent of Cyfrwy near Cader Idris.