below. Follow the N rim of the plateau round to the trig point with ever-widening views of the Migneint.
Llyn Arenig Fach route (AG11)
Leave the A4212 through a gate at 845418 and thread your way up gently wooded slopes until the crags guarding Llyn Arenig Fach rear ahead and you stand on its shoreline. Lack of a path is barely noticed. Continue to the N tip of the lake where a playful track snakes up the bilberry/heather-clad slopes with consummate ease, breasting the summit plateau close by the cairn.
Bryn Du ridge route (AG12)
The best way off in thick weather.
Leave the trig point in a SE direction but bear E after 0.5 mile for the ridge. The only problem is gaining access to the road. You could do worse than aim for 845418 and AG11.
Migneint route (AG13)
Do not underestimate this round trip of a good 12 miles of trackless walking. There are obvious shortcuts, so have a go – but choose a fine day!
This walk through the Migneint follows the grain of the land (in so far as there is one), takes in most of the sights and throws in an ascent of Arenig Fach for good measure.
Start from Pont ar Gonwy (778446), keeping W of the stream. The first objective is the minor top of Llechwedd-mawr (779436) and its small cairn. Then on to the first of Migneint's two lakes, Llyn Serw, where a 5min diversion W reveals one of the few rocky outcrops in this vast morass – an unsuspected little cliff watching over the infant Afon Serw.
Spot height 479m at 786425 is the next target, bringing the second cairn of the day. You are now on the crest of a shallow rise. Follow this SE until it falls away to a broad marshy depression. Nearby is an isolated farmstead, Cefngarw, still used for sheep shearing. Keep well S of it to ensure an easy crossing of the Serw.
So far, though trackless, the going has not been at all bad. However, reaching the next checkpoint – the cairn at Carnedd y Gors-gam (813417) – involves 1 mile of deep heather. Pretty to look at, but an ankle-twisting tormentor with only the odd sheep track for respite. Panting up the steep slopes beyond (past a primitive shepherd's hut) seems welcome relief and you will enjoy lunching on Arenig Fach's breezy top, reclining on springy cushions of heather and bilberries while marvelling at the mottled splendour of the Migneint below.
Arenig Fawr and Moel Llyfnant across the Migneint with Llyn Serw
For a fresh way home head for Mochowgryn (tussocky heather again) and then Carnedd Iago (easier going restored). Iago is the highest point of the day apart from Arenig Fach and a splendid vantage point for admiring the arc of encircling hills. When you resume, follow a faint track along the perimeter of the woods W, trending N of W. As you do this, look out for a line of boundary stones. Follow these for 0.75 mile after the woods desert you L, then strike out W for Llyn Dywarchen. Lying in a shallow, windswept hollow it is as cheerless a sheet of water as any in Wales.
For tired walkers the easiest way home is N to regain the road near Rhyd Cerig-gwynion. However, purists may prefer to take a compass bearing and keep to the moors via Llechwedd-mawr.
Carnedd y Filiast
The simple heathery mound called Carnedd y Filiast seldom merits a second glance, yet first impressions can deceive. It may have no mountain ruggedness, but for crisp moorland walking with long vistas, peace and solitude it ranks among the best.
The view from the twin-cairned summit (one cairn encircling the trig point, the other sporting a boundary stone) is dominated by the Migneint and the two Arenigs, while E Foel Goch displays a shapely pyramid above the glittering blue of Llyn Hesgyn. The W foreground is filled by Carnedd Llechwedd Llyfn and it is an easy task to combine the two peaks. Simply follow the fence from Carnedd y Filiast W until, after 1 mile, you come to a rounded cairn marking the start of the spur ridge to Carnedd Llechwedd Llyfn.
Llyn Celyn route (AG14)
Park by the lakeside at 857410 and walk E along the road for 0.25 mile, looking for an overgrown path that slants up the embankment and disappears into the forest through a rickety old gate. You are soon enveloped by trees and ferns while moss-encrusted boulders abound in the dank, dark air. An evocative start, especially when shafts of light pierce the shadows after a shower and the scents of the earth vie with the glistening raindrops.
The path leaves the forest at a gap in a wall (857413). Proceed half-R now, under power lines, to pick up a white Land Rover track that cleaves a sea of heather so vast that in summer the air is heavy with its scent. After 1 mile the path bears E beneath the minor top of Foel Boeth before descending to cross the Nant y Coed. Bear L where it divides (the R fork leads into Cwm Hesgyn). You can save time at the end, where the path arcs round in a long curve, by heading direct for the cairn as soon as it comes into sight.
Alternatively (AG14,1) leave the path around 865427 to walk over wiry stone-studded heather to Foel Boeth. Next make a beeline for Carnedd y Filiast, first crossing the Nant y Coed over a footbridge at 867434 and then scrabbling up Brottos over more trackless heather.
Cwm Hesgyn route (AG15)
The Hesgyn Valley, enclosed on three sides by gently rounded heather-clad hills, reminds one of the Pennines or the back of Skiddaw. A gorgeous sight on a bright autumn day.
Go through the gate off the A4212 at 884403 and follow a farm road through pastures. On topping a small rise at 882414 the long secluded Hesgyn Valley comes into view.
Another 0.5 mile brings you to a lonely dwelling R – only sheep and wind from here on! Keep R where a track breaks away L to skirt the slopes of Foel Boeth, and cross the Hesgyn by a bridge at 884428. The scene is wilder now and soon your cup is filled as Llyn Hesgyn springs into view. Set in a hollow, dotted with trees, it is a pretty sight and as blue as the best on a sunny day.
You must now cross the valley. It looks simple but there is no track and the intervening ground is an energy-sapping morass of bog and squirmy tussocks. Allow 30min to an hour for this sample of purgatory. If you are in any doubt, rather than risk spoiling a pleasant day, why not settle for exploring Cwm Hesgyn instead?
N approaches (AG16)
Carnedd y Filiast can also be approached from either Ysbyty Ifan (842488) or Blaen-y-cwm (882472). However, these routes start a long way from the usual walking centres and involve mainly trackless moorland walking.
Carnedd Llechwedd Llyfn
Carnedd Llechwedd Llyfn tops the minor ridge W of Carnedd y Filiast. It is unlikely to feature in anyone's plans apart from Carnedd y Filiast, so try combining the following descent with AG14.
Llyn Celyn route (AG17)
Leave Carnedd Llechwedd Llyfn on 150°, aiming for Foel Boeth on grass and stubby heather. Glimpses of the Hesgyn Valley and Craig Ddu enliven the scene L with Llyn Celyn to the fore. However it is the two Arenigs that steal the show, looking veritable giants with Arenig Fach, for once, yielding nothing to its senior colleague. If the sun is out you may see Llyn Arenig Fach sparkling high up (or so it seems) on its slopes, one of the rare occasions when it is coaxed out of seclusion. From Foel Boeth stay on 150° and AG14,1 back to Llyn Celyn.
Foel Goch
Foel Goch is a loner, surrounded by roads and looking its best towering over Bala from the N. Although its S and E slopes are prettily wooded it is a bare windswept hill of empty grassland. Peak-bagging apart, it is best kept for a quick blow on a rain-shortened day. However it is a fine viewpoint with Snowdonia, the Berwyns, Hirnants, Arans, Dduallt, Rhobell Fawr, the Rhinogs and Arenigs all splendidly arrayed.
The top is thrice crowned, sporting a trig point, a cairn and a boundary marker. Yet despite