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This proved to be an interesting walk in that it provided something of a reality check on the likely landscapes and challenges to be found on the less popular Hewitts of North and Mid Wales. I am still fresh from several journeys into the North Pennines where finding a good fence to follow often delivers a reasonable tread to the summit. The route up and over Foel Goch and Foel y Geifr offers everything from forestry roads, non-existent footpaths, wild tramping in heather and moss and a bit of spectacular road walking. There is also a chance to add three Hewitts on the other side of the road if you don’t mind an extra six or seven miles on a good day.
Access to the route is from the minor road heading south after passing across the head of Llyn Tegid. The road passes through Rhos y Gwaliau and becomes a single track with passing places, so parking needs to be carefully considered. I chose to use the footpath crossing the river by a footbridge about 2.5 kilometres up the road. There was a parking spot by a single picnic bench about 400 metres before the footbridge. For anyone deciding to follow this walk, a better suggestion will follow towards the end of this report.
The signposted path crosses the footbridge and heads up the hill over grass. I crossed over the inviting forestry roads, then over a stile in the fence to the right before spotting a gate with yellow direction markers, which leads across another forestry road and continues as a footpath on caterpillar tracks across a messy bit of forestry harvesting. It’s certainly miserable, but quite quick if you are light on your feet. Obviously, it will be a different landscape in five or ten years after re-planting.
Eventually the tracks disappear, and this becomes a green route up to a near perfect forestry road. The surface is more regular and dependable than the main road up to Bacup from my house in Rossendale. I followed this for a half a mile where there is a choice between the route I had planned, continuing on this main track which heads off downhill, or continuing to climb on a lesser forestry road. I changed my mind here and continued gently uphill on what I knew was a dead-end route, but intending to take the footpath which cuts across after about 300 metres.
Well, I stood there looking for the path at the right spot but could only see impenetrable forest on either side of the road. The choice was therefore either to go back, or to head on to the end of the gravelled road and fight my way through the 200 metres of forest to open country. Given that this seemed to be a nicely managed bit of woodland, I decided to continue. And, indeed, there is a sense of a route continuing on into the trees, which only gave me a light battering with their branches, before I arrived at the fence marking the beginning of open country.
It is worth mentioning two route alternatives at this point. The first option is to stay with the super- route I mentioned earlier. It will emerge lower down the slope. The second is to park further along the minor road and come up to this point via a steep climb on the footpath through Maesafallen farm. I reckon this latter option is a good bet.
For me, I stayed about 50 metres away from the fence across the field on the basis that it was slightly higher and drier. Quite pleasant at this point, but on approaching a fence, with a gate next to the forest boundary, it does get quite wet and muddy. I found an ATV track which can be followed up to the 550m contour, but it then drifted away to the right. I spotted a narrow tread ducking and diving through the heather rising up the hill on what appeared to be a direct line for the summit of Foel Goch. It’s not that easy to follow but stay with it. It will be your friend all the way to Foel y Geifr. Lose it, as I did for a while, and you will end up shin deep in heather and the going will then become very slow. The line works towards the fence, which then heads off to the right, whereas the summit is straight on, rising over difficult but not impossible ground before the tread re-appeared for me with a firmer line up on to the rounded summit of Foel Goch.
The clouds had come down on what had been forecast to be a bright sunny day so unfortunately, I cannot wax lyrical about the marvellous views of distant higher snow clad Aran hills to the west above Dolgellau. The top of Foel Goch is marked by about six stones arranged in a near circle.
This wonderful tread continues onwards, very clear now, as a thin ribbon, descending briefly and then rising again to a 612m subsidiary summit before the final approach to the cairn on Foel y Geifr. The section between the two Hewitts is about 1.5km and takes about 15 minutes or so.
Now for a tricky section. I had decided that I wanted to take a direct line down the hill to the road, where it meets with the track which leads up to the three Hewitts on the eastern section. I had not been able to spot any semblance of a path on the satellite image, and standing on the top of Foel y Geifr, my friendly tread seemed to continue south, whereas I wanted an eastern line.
There was no other option therefore than to take the direct line across the heather. It was tussocky (is that a word?) to begin with, but I gathered pace as the slope turned into lumpy mounds of grass and moss and soon spotted the road and the track I was aiming for as I dropped below the cloud line. This turned out to be a faster descent than I was expecting, and I was on the road less than twenty minutes after leaving the summit.
The choice for me now was the long route, heading up to Pen y Boncyn Trefeilw and a return via Maes Hir, or a short route legging it 3.5 miles down the road back to the car. To be honest I had already decided that the three peaks to the east would make a good round for a warmer and clear day in the summer. I didn’t want to end up seeing nothing but murk from height and the temptation of local coffee at lunchtime was compelling. However, a younger and braver walker would have none of this weakness. The day was still young, and it had taken just two hours and twenty minutes to arrive at the road / track junction with two Hewitts completed and the potential of a good track to follow.
But off I jogged, downhill, in a rather attractive valley, with only the occasional passing car. Targeting a near three-hour finish. Now, a point on parking here. If anyone intent on bagging these two Hewitts ever follows this route, there is a large inset clearing about halfway down, probably used by snow ploughs and road repair vehicles. It’s big and can be seen on the satellite image. If I was doing this walk again, which I won’t, I would park here and walk down to Maesafallen farm and ascend the ridge from there before completing the circuit. The final sections of the road also allowed me to spot the track I will take up to the three eastern Hewitts, which rises south at the bend in the road marked as Bwlch yr Hwch on the OS.
That’s a lot of detail for a 14k walk, but it is an interesting and challenging landscape where you do need to use some hill craft and make decisions based on the conditions and how you are feeling.
