Betws-y-Coed, Highs and Lows. Great Autumn walk.

Go into the station,turn right along the platform and cross the railway by the footbridge. Come down the other side and walk past the railway shop and museum, go in front of the old railway carriage cafe, and then straight ahead through the gate into the churchyard. You may want to look inside the old church.After visiting the old church turn left outside the church, and left again, and start walking along the river bank, going down stream. Leave the churchyard by a slate stile onto a tarmac road. At the entrance to the golf club, take the path on the right by the river. Our path takes us along the River Conwy, between the golf course and the river. On the river if you are lucky you may see Herons, Dippers, and other small river birds. (A)Betws-y-Coed Railway Station Originally built as a terminus, to be fed by narrow gauge lines from Slate Quarries. Became a major tourist excursion point in 1900,s.(B)The old church is St Michael's built in the fourteenth century. It was lucky, as the Victorians replaced it with St Mary's (built in 1873), rather than alter it.

Eventually you reach the confluence of the River Conwy with the River Llugwy by a seat. Turn left here through a kissing gate. We follow the River Llugwy up stream, again between the golf course and the river. When the golf course ends we go under a rail bridge, past Betws y Coed sewage works and some stone dwellings. We then pass Royal Oak Farm Cottage, through a steel gate until we reach the stable block for the Royal Oak Hotel. Turn right here onto a tarmac road, which leads to the Royal Oak on the main road. The Llugwy comes all the way down from Capel Curig and the high mountains. Like the Conway it is a fine salmon fishing river. You might want to divert into the Stable block to go to the tourist information centre and some interesting shops.

You continue on to the the Royal Oak. When you get back to the Royal Oak, there is a gap in the wall on the left leading into Betws y Coed green called Cae Llan. Follow this parallel to the road, past the new church and Post Office, and turn left (past some toilets) back to the railway station. The top of the village once had two chapels, now one, and the Memorial Hall was built to commemorate those from the village who lost their lives in the first world war. If you go down on the rocks above the bridge, watch out they can be slippy. At the Royal Oak, you may want to turn right and walk a hundred yards up the road to the Pont Par Bridge, just below small water falls, and then return to the Royal Oak. On your right as you go up is an outdoor pursuits shop, which was once the petrol station, and hardware shop, and opposite were the Council Offices. You will want to walk out on to the Pont Y Par Bridge, and look down on small waterfalls. In the rock beside the falls is the site of a rock canon.If you go on up the A5 you would come to the chapel, and on the North side of the river is the memorial hall. Then return to Royal Oak.

You are now back at the Station. The second half of the walk, involves a steep climb, and you may prefer to use a car for the climb, particularly if you want to split this walk into two evening ones. If you take the car, go to point 10.If you want to walk it, go back over the railway bridge, over the level crossing over the miniature railway, turn right to take the road past the Old Church, and go through a kissing gate down to the suspension bridge over the River Conwy. The path continues through a small gate at the farm, goes round the farm onto the farm road which leads up to the main A470 road.At the main road turn right up the valley and walk for about 100 metres. The suspension bridge is known as the Sappers Suspension Bridge, and has a plaque saying David Rowle & Co Ltd, Engineers of Westminster dated 1930. This A470 is a trunk road with a lot of traffic using it.

You will see a single track road on your left. Cross the A470 carefully, and take this minor road going up towards Capel Garmon. The road climbs steadily uphill, and after about 800 metres you pass a building on the right where there is a footpath sign. This is where you will turn off this road later on the way down. Keep walking up the road and you eventually reach a terrace of houses on your left. Immediately past the last house, there is a kissing gate. If you are splitting the walk into two, this is where you would park for the second half. Go through the kissing gate and then up some flights of ancient stone steps to reach a stone track. Turn left and in 30 metres reach a cattle grid. There is a ladder stile to avoid having to walk over the grid. You will see ahead a way mark at the start of a footpath right into the wood. Take this.A little way along the path it forks, so take the right had fork which goes slightly uphill, and then the left hand fork a few metres further on. The path winds through scrub, gorse and bracken, and soon through the remains of trees, burnt down in a fire. You can see a rocky outcrop ahead, which is what we are aiming for. Eventually you cross a fence at the edge of the wood over a step stile. The road is narrow, and some cars go up and down rather fast so take care.

This is a view point right in the North West corner of the Mynydd Garthmyn. It is the only point where you can see down on to Betws-y-Coed. After crossing over the stile there are no well defined paths, but there are a number of sheep trods heading in the right direction, keeping the rocky top of the "Picnic Point" on your right. Using the many stretches of pasture passing scrubby trees, you will eventually see a tall boundary wall ahead. Now look to your left for some rocks over which is the view down to Betws-y-Coed and up the Conwy Valley. In Autumn you get wonderful views of the village and the high mountains behind (as long as it isn't cloudy or misty).As the rights of way are not defined on the ground, make your best way up to the topmost point where there are more fantastic views. You can see the whole of the Carneddau range on a clear day.From here you can also see the stile back into the wood, so aim for this using more patches of pasture.You then retrace your steps back to the road, and start down back to Betws-y-Coed. It is brilliant for flying kites if you have children

A little way down the road you reach the footpath sign which you passed on the way up. Follow this sign down a track between two stone gate posts for about 50 metres. Here there are more footpath signs - follow the one going downhill alongside a stone wall. The path then crosses a track, but continues to follow the stone wall which eventually turns off to the right. However our path continues steeply downhill to eventually become between two stone walls. The path is very steep, but has good Autumn colour.When you come out onto the main road, cross over, and then continue over the Waterloo Bridge, towards the petrol station. We now follow the road and turn right just before the Post Office, and so to the station. Along this stretch of Road you pass the Gwydyr Hotel, the hotel for the fishermen. The bridge was open in the year of the Battle of Waterloo, as part of Telfords improvements to the main road from London, to Holyhead on on the Dublin At the bottom, go slowly down the steps onto the main road as there is no pavement.