The walk starts off on a fairly well-surfaced road which, partway up a steep bank beside the river, becomes a rough slate track. The trees are encrusted with mosses and lichens — testimony to the quality of the air. Those on this side of Cwm Cynfal are relatively widely spaced; those on the opposite bank form an impenetrable forest.
The track eventually comes to an end at the door of lonely Cwm Farm, which was built in 1492 and has undergone little alteration since. The farmhouse stands by the river, over which two large slate slabs form a bridge, creating an island (this is the farmer's shortcut to his nearest neighbour, one mile away in the forest).
The walk continues across two fields used as sheep pasture, then rises steeply past a pair of small cascades and curves around a high, solitary hill. On the other side of the hill, a little way to the right of the track, the ground falls away almost vertically into a narrow ravine, at the head of which is Rhaeadr y Cwm, a 600-foot mares-tail of cascading white water.
Rhaeadr y Cwm is made up of six falls in all, appearing and disappearing in steep crevices at times until it drops into a rocky gorge. Take time to enjoy the spectacle — it is an awesome sight, particularly a few hours or so after heavy rainfall.
The track continues uphill towards the Ffestiniog to Betws-y-Coed road. As you climb, you can hear and sometimes catch a glimpse of the waters, but once you are on the road, the walk back towards Ffestiniog takes you past two memorable viewpoints.
The first is a small stone-walled platform through a gap in the wall lining the road, which provides a high oblique view of the Rhaeadr y Cwm cataracts.
The second viewpoint, a little further along, is much larger and has a car park. There is a spectacular panoramic view which includes the Vale of Ffestiniog, the sea glinting in Tremadog Bay, and the southern mountain peaks of Snowdonia National Park. It is a scene of richly wooded hills and distant craggy mountains, of green trees and greener fields speckled with white sheep. In the foreground are the ruins of two farmsteads perched precariously on the lip of the valley top.
The walk continues along the road, then heads across country past another isolated farm, Bron Erw, down to the valley bottom to meet up again with the Afon Cynfal, which is followed back to the start.
Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.
