Cefn Cyfarwydd

About Cefn Cyfarwydd

Rising above the Conwy Valley, this broad moorland ridge marks the eastern transition into the high Carneddau. The terrain is often pathless and soft underfoot, but the elevation provides a superb perspective across the jagged peaks of Creigiau Gleision and the deep, water-filled trenches of Llyn Crafnant and Llyn Geirionydd.

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Did You Know?

• •The name translates from Welsh as 'Ridge of the Guide' or 'The Expert’s Ridge'. In medieval Wales, a cyfarwydd was a storyteller and a keeper of traditional knowledge, suggesting the hill may have once been a significant landmark for travellers navigating the edge of the mountains.
• •The eastern slopes house the skeletal ruins of Klondyke Mill. Originally the New Pandora Lead Works, it earned its nickname in the 1920s following a notorious investment scam where the site was falsely promoted as a silver mine to mimic the Canadian gold rush.
• •From the summit cairn, walkers are rewarded with a specific view of the River Conwy snaking through its flat valley floor toward the Irish Sea, contrasted against the massive, steep-sided profiles of Pen llithrig y Wrach and Pen yr Helgi Du to the west.
• •It is a point of local irony that a hill named the 'Ridge of the Guide' consists of such a boggy, trackless plateau that it is one of the easiest places in the northern Carneddau to lose your bearings in a thick mist.