Forty Three & Forty Four - Denbighshire - Cadair Berwyn (832m) & Wrexham - Cadair Bronwen (784m)

Pistyll Rhaeder waterfall at start of walk

This is a pretty remote spot, and again a place we wouldn't have visited unless we'd been off finding county peaks. We stayed a couple of nights in a cosy cottage a few doors up from Tafarn Llaw in Llanrhaeder yn Morchant, and the road heading west out of the village eventually peters out at Pistyll Rhaeder where our walk began.  The waterfall  here is  impressive, plummeting down the cliff face so you can feel the force of the air pushed out at you. We parked on the road as it was a quiet Monday ; we were grateful later because the tearoom carpark is not only £4 but also closes at 6 pm and we would have spent the afternoon rushing to get down off the mountain in time to retrieve the car.

Climbing across moorland towards Moel Sych 

We were surprised to get a bit lost trying to find our route upwards at the beginning of the walk. The footpath is geared towards visitors making their way to the top of the falls and this, combined with the fact that our track  didn't quite fit the GPS confused us slightly. Still, after a stiff pull up to the top of the valley the contour lines spread out a bit and the climb got steadier as we ascended to Trum Felin. This is a ridge walk, but the ridge is intersected by a succession of valleys and passes, which makes for a fascinating landscape. It also means that you spend a lot of time losing the height you have gained before hoofing it up the next peak. 

Cairn on top of Moel Sych with 

Cadair Berwyn in background

After Trum Felin our next climb was up to Moel Sych, which was originally claimed as the highest point in Denbighshire. It is clearly not the highest point, so we were puzzled as to how this confusion arose but once up there you can see Llyn Lluncaws (happily translates as The Lake that Looks Like a Cheese) below and the landscape starts to open out in all its wild glory. We were trying to spot the alternative return route that we later intended to take, and although we could see a path on the other side of the lake we couldn't fathom how we would get down there without wingsuits.
We pressed on to Cadair Berwen, our Denbighshire peak and the highest point of our walk, and stopped to look at the fantastic panoramic views.

Cadair Berwyn summit

View from Cadair Berwyn with 

Llyn Lluncaws below

Panorama from Cadair Berwyn summit

Trig point at Cadair Berwyn (North Top)
with actual summit in distance

It was still a decent undulating hike across extensive peat bogs (Denbighshire Council had kindly built some raised wooden pathways across the worst of it) to claim Cadair Bronwen as the highest point over in Wrexham.

Cairn on top of Cadair Bronwen

Return path via Llyn Lluncaws - looking 

back at Cadair Berwyn summit in the distance

From here we made quick time retracing our steps southwards (including claiming the summit at Cadair Berwyn for a second time) until we suddenly found ourselves teetering down a narrow path to the left, off the edge of the ridge, almost without noticing. We had accidentally found our return route back via the lake, and with some care (not one for fog or ice, this) we made our way down. 

Surprised to see a lizard at such 

a wet exposed high spot

GPS plot of our route

This was a fairly vigorous hike, with considerable height having to be lost and then gained again in order to grab both county tops on the same walk. Cadair Berwyn is actually the 5th highest "county top" in the whole of England and Wales, and Cadair Bronwen the 7th - even though both are pretty much unheard of and unwalked. Other than a few people at the tearoom and waterfall when we started the walk, we didn't meet another person for the rest of the day.

Profile of walk - with Cadair Berwyn being 

climbed  twice, & with the lower Cadair 

Bronwen - in the centre of the chart

A short drive back to the cottage, and a couple of well earned pints beckoned in the Tafern Llaw.