A long but beautiful walk from Commins Coch through the not so beautiful Mynydd Cemmaes wind power plant, finishing by the River Dovey.

Date walked: 4th July 2019

Distance: 13.4 miles according to the guide book

Maps used: OS Explorer 215 – Newtown and Machynlleth and OL 23 – Cadair Idris and LLyn Tegid

Guide used: Cambrian Way by A.J.Drake (7th edition, 2016) , though a new guide has recently been published which is much better: Walking the Cambrian Way by George Todd and Richard Tyler (Cicerone Press)

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It was about a year since Neil and I had completed the section to  Commins Coch (Paul and I having done so in October 2017. Its a long story), and despite the 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU  we remain part of this dysfunctional, corrupted  and fundamentally undemocratic political alliance. But not for much longer.

Paul , Neil and I assembled in at  Y Llew Coch (The Red Lion) in Dinas Mawddwy with Teresa May having recently thrown in the towel and the Conservative party  not having yet elected her replacement as Prime Minister.  And yet the trains were still running, bringing me very efficiently to Machynlleth,  the buses were operating, giving me the opportunity to flash my pass on the pupil-packed bus from Machynlleth to Dinas, and the Red Lion had plenty of very decent beer.  Life goes on.

The Red Lion with red hanging baskets

Dinas Mawddwy, boasts two pubs, a part-time post office and a cafe, which, whilst very attractive from the outside, never opened its doors for us.

I arrived first at the pub where I had booked us into for three nights and naturally occupied the best room; my friends would have expected nothing less.

After a very pleasant evening  outside eating (OK), drinking (very nice) and  watching locals walking their dogs and following an acceptable cooked breakfast we set off in good time in Neil’s car to Commins Coch and were walking by 9.30.

Good to know that ASDA deliver

We climbed the road  for about a mile….

…..passing a couple of sheep-shearers relieving their captives of their shaggy coats.

It was a beautiful morning and we were soon enjoying some shaded views to the surrounding countryside.

For half a mile or so our route coincided with the excellent Glyndwr’s Way.…

… but we left it to head due north to climb the Western flank of Moel Eiddew, losing the path briefly; this was to be a re-occurring theme for the day.

We reached the wide gravel track that is a service road for the Mynydd Cemmaes Wind Power Station….

… and agreed a brief rest was in order.

For some inexplicable reason Paul took against both my hat and sunglasses, rather unkindly likening me to a frog

At this point Neil resolved that we should attempt to chase some wild geese through a small conifer plantation.

We found no geese, and soon the pleasant track halted at a wire fence.  After scaling this we scrambled down the hill a bit before Neil triumphantly presented us with another access track climbing up the side of the hill which took us to the first of the wind turbine array that has despoiled this remote  and otherwise beautiful landscape since 2003.

I was pleased to read that our Guide’s author had been one of the protesters about this alien development; my companions were enthusiastic about the paltry contribution that this carbunkle of pylons was making to the National Grid and an impromptu and not well very informed debate ensued as we marched passed their whirring blades.

One of the (in my view less important) concerns about wind power turbines is that they kill birds. I had a brief search for evidence under one, but found no corpses. (Of course, such casualties might well be quickly found and consumed by all sorts of  carnivores).

The turbines are strung out over about two miles of the ridge of Mynydd y Cemmaes…

… after which we had another little rest (it was really quite warm by now). On our map a clear path was shown passing round and then through a wood. Our guide describes this as an “obstructed nonsense right of way”.  We failed to find the path either through or round the wood, eventually settling for a rather unsatisfactory scramble over the tussocky ground at the edger of  Waun Linau (The newer guide offers an alternative way of navigating this section).

“Officially” this was a bridleway and we even saw several rather old posts indicating such. We met a couple coming in the opposite direction who were as unimpressed by the path as we were “I reckon its been years since a horse has set foot here” one of them volunteered.  The route descends for half a mile only to turn sharply right and climb back up. Mildly fed up with the path we were on I resolved to cut across the corner (the new guide advises against this). Neil and Paul stayed on the path proper. I had no more difficulty than I had been doing anyway over this rough ground (through it might well be more problematic if the ground was wetter), gaining me a 5 minute sit  to enjoy the view whilst the others caught up.

If you are viewing this on a big screen and peer at it very hard you might make out Neil and Paul

The path turns off what was now a  wide stony track to climb up towards Esgair Ddu, but again we didn’t find anything that resembled a footpath for half a mile or so. At least it was dry underfoot. Looking back we reckoned that if we were to do that bit again we would follow the side of the wood straight down from the last turbine.

Our view changed as we sought to get back on our path, the valley of Cwm Tafalog appearing below us.

We did find the path eventually and it led us down quite steeply though bracken covered slopes ….

….to a farmstead called Craig For…..

…. where we paused for a breather.

Thankfully we did not have to lose all the height we had gained as the path now followed the contour of the hillside, turning north-west as it did so, heading for Mallwyd.

This was a clear track once more and had served both Craig For and several other now abandoned and ruined dwellings that we passed.

It could only ever have been a cart track and we reckoned it would have been an uncomfortable ride for man and beast.

Talking of beasts, here’s a couple of sheep to keep Anne happy.

As we approached Mallwyd our view was over the  River Cleifion valley and to the hills that we would be climbing tomorrow.

We were grateful for some shade as the ever improving track….

…. became a road as it neared Mallwyd.

All we saw of Mallwyd was the garage at the junction of the A458 and A470 (refreshments!) and the very smart-looking Brigands Inn which was set back for the roundabout.  We settled on the Inn for a drink as it had seats.  Speaking for myself I would have been happy to have stopped at this point, feeling quite knackered but my pathetic attempts to suggest that I might just sit there and be picked up later did not impress my companions.  Our path took a quiet road down to the river Dovey at Pont Mallwyd.

From here it was a three mile walk near the river and would have usually been perfectly pleasant but I was too tired to appreciate it. Just by Meirion Mill we should have taken a footpath that would have crossed the river and given us a view of Pont Minllyn.

We were extremely annoyed to find the path and stile overgrown and completely impassable…..

… forcing us to continue on the road into Dinas Mawddwy.  On reflection, I wonder if we had missed a turning off this road. At any rate I’m still annoyed that we missed sight of this beautiful bridge so here’s an image I have taken from Alamy.

Phew, that was a long walk! I was glad of time to collapse in my room whist Paul ferried Neil back to his car and they drove back. I should have bought them a drink.

Several of these images are available through Getty images if you click this link.  Fees from any images sold of the wind power turbines will be donated to the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales.