On arrival for our short trip to Snowdonia for our walk up Cadair Idris, we dumped our gear at our accommodation and given the perfect weather, decided on an early evening walk into the Rhinogydd mountains via the ‘Roman Steps’, remnants of a medieval structure built as a packhorse route through Rhinogydd. In all a 4 mile in/out trip, a steady climb of 1000 ft from parking at Cwm Bychan (£3) overlooking Llyn Cwm Bychan (map at bottom), a large lake with an area of grass and spartan campsite (£5 pp per night) and a truly beautiful setting. The journey from Barmouth took about forty minutes, the last leg on ever smaller single track roads through stunning country.

Starting at the southeast corner of the field through woods following the Cambrian Way, southward ish towards the Roman Steps. The views open up as you leave the light wood as the path rises over a packhorse bridge up the steps towards the head of the pass. We all agreed this was the most beautiful country for walking, more verdant than we had expected and visually stunning. The route is simple and quite easy. Sadly we only had enough time for a short sprint up to the head of the valley with astounding views to the east across the national park where we lingered for a while then back to the car. We agreed this would be a dream to come back to camping by the lake below.  To quote W. Shakespeare: ‘I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.’ We can’t think of a better place to do just that.