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Easy Walks in Snowdonia – Dinas Emrys and Cwm y Bleiddiaid
By Dave Roberts 
Published – March 6, 2023
Easy Walks in Snowdonia – Dinas Emrys and Cwm y Bleiddiaid
Further Details
Route Summary:
A short, but surprisingly both challenging and rewarding circular walk on the flanks of Yr Wyddfa / Snowdon with a visit to the legendary fortress of Dinas Emrys.
Start and Finish: Craflwyn Hall near Beddelert
Distance: 6.5km
Ascent: 660m
Time: 2 hours
Timings are approximate and depend on the individual. Calculate the time using Naismith’s Rule and factor in your own pace.
Before You Walk up Snowdon, ask yourself – Are you equipped? Do you know what you’re doing? Are the conditions safe? If you answer no to any of these, stay safe, don’t go! Check the weather forecast and make sure you know about walking up Snowdon in the Snow. If you lack experience – hire a Snowdon Mountain Guide.
Facilities:
There are toilets and an exhibition at Craflwyn, but you’ll need to go into Beddgelert for shops, cafes and pubs.
Public Transport:
Traveline for UK Public Transport
Parking:
The car park at Craflwyn Hall is free for National Trust members but otherwise costs £5 a day (coins ONLY!)
Hazards:
Some sections of the upper path are rough going on proper mountain paths. The final sections to Dinas Emrys has steep drops – so take care.
Navigation should be easy enough on most of the walk as it is waymarked, however care needs to be taken on the descent from Cwm Bleiddiaid as there are a number of junctions.
Remember that we cannot outline every single hazard on a walk – it’s up to you to be safe and competent. Read up on Walk up Yr Wyddfa / Snowdon Safely Navigation and the Gear and Equipment you’ll need.
Check the Weather before setting out.
We reccommend Met Office Snowdonia and MWIS and live conditions on Adventure Smart – live conditions
Snowdon Guidebooks:
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Recommended Snowdon Maps:
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Easy Walks in Snowdonia – Dinas Emrys and Cwm y Bleiddiaid Ordnance Survey Map and GPX File Download
Download file for GPS
Easy Walks in Snowdonia – Dinas Emrys and Cwm y Bleiddiaid
There are a number of easy walks on the flanks of Yr Wyddfa / Snowdon with the walk to Dinas Emrys and the lower reaches of Cwm y Bleiddiaid being one of the best. This route starts off from the National Trust’s Craflwyn and largely follows good waymarked paths. Be warned that the exact paths are not as yet marked properly on the Ordnance Survey maps, and the permissive paths shown do not correspond fully to this route. There’s a mix of woodland, open hillside, waterfalls and pools, a shapely summit and plenty of history and legends along this walk.
It is relatively straightforward to navigate as it largely waymarked and initially follows the green arrows on the Craflwyn Circular Walk, black arrows for a small section and finally red circles for Dinas Emrys.
Full Walk Description – Dinas Emrys and Cwm y Bleiddiaid
1 – From the Craflwyn care park, follow the path uphill from the large notice board, keeping an eye out for the green way markers. Check with the notice board that there have been no changes in these way markings before setting off as this information was correct as of March 2023.
Follow this path uphill for around 200m before you arrive at the junction with a path leading uphill on your left. This is clearly marked with the green way marker, which you’ll need to keep an eye out on the following sections.
2 – This path pulls uphill quite relentlessly through the woodland and you’ll need a good level of fitness to get up this without losing your breath. It is thankfully reasonably short and the path soon levels out as you reach more open hillside. You’ll arrive at a path junction, but the route is clearly waymarked left through a gap in the wall. There’s also a clear path right – with posts – that was the older permissive path.
The next section to the viewpoint is level, skirting around the base of the crag.
3 – From the viewpoint, the path veers right through a wall and continues uphill, taking a complex route but the way markers make it easy to follow all the way.
4 – After around 200m, you’ll arrive at the viewpoint. You’ve earned a breather by this point!
5 – The path continues to skirt the hillside high above Craflwyn and the Nant Gwynant. The views are amazing, but even better if you stop and look behind you as Moel Hebog dominates the view. Keep following the green way markers as the path wends its way through walls and past some ruins.
6 After 0.8km, you’ll arrive at a path junction where the green waymarked path begins to descend. You can cut the walk short here if you wish.
7 Follow the path that continues to skirt the hillside for another 1km or so. It’s a rough path in places and one of the footbridges was a bit rickety, so care is needed. After 1km, you’ll reach a ruined barn and a footbridge over Afon -y-cwm which you’ll need to cross.
8 From the footbridge , turn left along a flooded track that can be avoided by taking the footpath to the left. Continue on this wet track, ignoring the tempting junction you soon pass to your right and continue on the track which soon improves as it descends. The views also open out across to Llyn Dinas and the way down now becomes obvious as the track zig-zags it’s way down the hillside.
9 The track descends to a wall and a junction, but the route to Craflwyn is signposted here to your right. Continue on the track as it continues to descend steadily
10 After around 300m, you’ll reach the junction for the rail up to Dinas Emrys. This is an optional dog-leg, but highly recommended.
11 The route is now waymarked with red circles with a yellow arrow and noted as Princes of Gwynedd – and these can be followed to the top of Dinas Emrys and back to the car park at Craflwyn, so the route-finding is quite straightforward. Cross the stile and follow the good path into the woods. It continues in this vein, being reasonably easy to follow along the wide wooded ridge up to the summit. Beware as you reach the top, there’s a short scrambly section with a drop to the left.
12 The Summit of Dinas Emrys provides some impressive views. It’s quite an extensive flat summit, but does drop quickly at the sides so keep an eye our on roaming kids!
The Legends and History of Dinas Emrys
The summit has the ruins of a legendary fortress, but one with a varied history and plenty of myths. In the Mabinogi two dragons were buried here by Lludd Llaw Ereint. They had been tormenting him with their screams, so at the advice of his brother Llefelys, he incarcerated them deep below the fortress. At that time, it was possibly known as Dinas Affaraon or Dinas Ffaraon, It was said to be the where King Vortigern retreated after the Anglo-saxons invaded his kingdom. The king was having difficulty constructing his castle and every morning would awake to find everything they previously built, demolished in a heap. He was advised to seek out an orphan child not conceived of mortal men, but of the faeries, and the boy they found Myrddin Emrys, Merlin. The original plan was to sacrifice the child, but as with all good stories there’s always a twist.
Merlin noted that the reason for the castle being demolished was the presence of a pair of fighting dragons who lived in a hidden pool atop the hill, the white Anglo-saxon and the red Welsh dragon. The white dragon was presently winning, but the red dragon would soon be victorious, but in the meantime their battles were shaking the battlements to the ground. With the dragons removed (presumably to return to torment Lludd) Vortigern was able to complete the fortifications. After Vortigern’s downfall the castle was given to the High King Emrys Wledig ( Ambrosius Aurelianus), hence the name. There’s a heady mix of legend and history, with some of the stories more easily ascribed to legends than others. Vortigern and Emrys Wledig are probably historic figures, though as with much we know from the Dark Ages it’s not easy to separate fact from legend.
The fortifications were originally an iron age hill fort, but archaeological digs have ascertained that the fort was occupied in the 5th Century, which is around the time ascribed to the reign of Vortigen. Further digs have found a pool, as well as the remains of an 12th Century keep. This is not documented or as well known as other Welsh Castles such as Dolbadarn or Dolwyddelan, but was probably also built by one of the Welsh Princes – probably Llywelyn ap Iorwerth
13 From Dinas Emrys, you need to descend the same way to the stile at point 10 above, and turn left along the path. Again the red circular Princes of Gwynedd waymarkers can be followed, and these lead all the way back to the car park.
14 The path is good, with a lot of improvement work in the area by the National Trust (good to see that car parking money going to good use) and continues to a clapper bridge, with an impressive pool and Waterfall.
15 Continue to the left of the pool, with the occasionally rough path now giving way to a new level path. The work is clearly ongoing so the path may well be improved further by the time you visit. The path wends onwards, taking a complex path through the woods, and past another waterfall before reaching a bench, which keeping to the theme of Dinas Emrys, is shaped like a dragon.
16 down
Dave Roberts
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