I began by walking up the road behind the chapel in Ganllywd to where a left turn led to a bridge below the Rhaeadr Du Falls. After a detour to look at the falls, the route through the woods goes left here to follow the path back along the south side of the river. After a bit, a signpost says going right will take one to a pair of crossed pick-axes. I did that and kept on to cross a bridge at the edge of the woods. I then turned right through a field to meet a road on which I turned right over another bridge back into the woods, then left almost at once. When I got to the point where another track coming in from the right does a big hairpin I left the woods and headed left up the hill towards the ruined buildings of the Cefn Coch gold mines. From here I found a way south up the hillside avoiding the ocean of ferns covering most of it by following a long string of fenced-off old mineshafts festooned with signs warning of the deadly peril of exploring them. This led to a ridge running east from Y Garn.
Turning right along this I soon found my way blocked by a wall crossing the ridge with a second on the other side going of northwest. To the left of the junction with second wall, the first is in good repair, reinforced with barbed wire and impenetrable except perhaps to the bold and gymnastically gifted. To the right it is a crumbly ruin. Crossing this I found a faint path going northwest along some very rough ground immediately to the right of the second wall until the latter is crossed by a stile that is the key to accessing the summit this way. From the stile a short struggle.up rather rough pathless terrain led to the top where wonderful views of the rest of Rhinogs opened up. From here the Nuttalls (Mountains of England and Wales, volume 1, p. 157) recommend heading NE to pick up the wall one was just following a bit further up, cross it and follow yes another wall that continues NE from this point. I headed off this way, saying a little prayer that there would be another stile here over the wall I had to cross. The bad news: there is not. The good news. A bit beyond the wall junction, Mr Wall Maker seems to have run out of barbed wire and the wall is not to hard to climb even for the timorous and gymnastically challenged like myself.
After a long struggle downhill on more very rough ground, I reached the point where the Nuttalls’ guidance reads: “Where a cross-wall is met, go through a narrow gateway and descend rightwards to a field gate in the corner of the forest.” So I turned right straight after the gateway and followed the cross wall back to the edge of the forest. Not a good idea: no field gate, a big crag blocking the way round. Returning to the gateway I found a way if anything a little to the left of straight down almost as far as the big white house at Gwndwn-uchaf. It is here, and no sooner that one turns right to the now obvious field gate and on back through the woods to the start. Having already seen the waterfall I came back through the Plas DolyMelynllyn Hotel. Here a couple of the tiniest horses I ever saw trotted up to the fence as I approached in what I took to be a friendly sort of way. But a bit later a spotted a sign on their gate, the only time I remember ever being advised to “Beware of the Horse”. So perhaps these miniature, seemingly amiable beasts are secretly deadly killers. Or perhaps not. These Rhinogs are rough. I had thought this would be an easy short walk but I found I had averaged about one mile an hour and when I got to the Coed u Brenin they were about to shut, had switched off the coffee machine and were only serving rather unpleasant filter coffee. The coffee and walnut cake was extremely nice though.
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