Mark Wormald

Wild Places - Places of Awe, Challenge & Peace
Home     Snowdonia     Lakeland Fells     Peak District     About     Advice     Links      
Climb Snowdon     Snowdon Horseshoe     Glyderau     Carneddau     Moelwyns     Visitor Information      
The Moelwyns - Snowdonia's Wilderness
Pause Stop Previous Next View full-sized photos
The Moelwyn mountain range, referred to in Welsh as the Moelwynian, is just to the south of the Snowdon Massive and is the heart of Snowdonia. They run in a band from Porthmadog to Capel Curig and take in some great mountains,
 
These relatively unfrequented mountains are truly wild, though they attain a lesser altitude to their bigger cousins to the north. It is this fact that actually leads to their quietness.
 
Any walk in this complex set of mountains will challenge navigation, and will almost certainly pose perplexing archaeological questions, with abandoned villages & mines, hut circles and much more beside
 
This region is also a fantastic place to camp wild, so far from the crowds of some other Snowdonian mountains
 
The Low Down

Geographically, the Moelwynian are a very complex area, lacking many of the defining features of their larger cousins, it is easy to get lost here

 

Moelwyn Mawr & Moelwyn Bach respectively mean Great White Hill & Little White Hill

 

Access can be obtained to these wonderful mountains are varous locations. Two worth looking at are, Croesor car park (SH632447), a layby at Gelli-lago (SH632484)

 

What is in a name?

As a name Cnicht stands out, as does the mountain itself. The derivision of the name comes from Old English and the word of Knight. Supposedly the shape of the mountain, from some direction is like that of a "knight's hat"

It has another epithah too, The Welsh Matterhorn. This little mountain can look like a certain Alpine peak. It is a great "little" mountain at 689m. In some senses it is a great pity that more people don't climb it

The Main Peaks
  • Moel Siabod 872m
  • Moelwyn Mawr 770m
  • Moelwyn Bach 710m
  • Allt-fawr 698m
  • Cnicht 689m
  • Craigysgafn 689m
  • Moel Druman 676m
  • Ysgafell Wen 669m
  • Manod Mawr 658m
  • Moel-yr-hydd 647m
  • Moel Penamnen 623m
  • Moel Meirch 607m

 

Human Influence

These mountains are probably more famous for the holes under them. Many thousands of tonnes of Slate have been extracted from the various active and disused slate mines. The legacy of this mining leaving intriguing clues in the landscape

This page was last modified on Monday, July 04, 2011 10:16 GMT