Around and over Manod Mawr

The hills around Blaenau Ffestiniog present a fascinating combination of mountain scenery and industrial archaeology, with quarry remains slowly being softened by nature, and old buildings falling into ruination. Today’s walk starts and finishes in the unspoilt countryside of Cwm Teigl, heading up on the fisherman’s path to the secluded Llyn Manod. Here we take the footpath alongside the lake and then continue on paths and tracks winding through quarry remains and past a scattering of little lakes to reach Llyn Bowydd. We now follow the line of the old quarry railway track round to Manod Quarry, passing Cwt y Bugail and Blaen y Cwm quarries on the way. From here we will take the footpath at the back of the quarry to ascend Manod Mawr. On reaching the old quarry buildings we will decide, depending on the conditions, whether to divert from the footpath to visit the summit before continuing down to Llyn y Manod.  From here we will retrace our steps back to Cae Clyd.