At the weekend I stayed in Barmouth at my sister’s holiday home - Goronwy. It’s a lovely, cosy cottage with views of the sea and estuary – a really comfortable place to stay and Barmouth is full of great places to eat and shop, very up and coming. I had planned to walk the Roman Steps by the Rhinogs over the weekend so that’s where we all headed off in the Land Rover. These steps are not Roman and are in fact the well preserved remains of a medieval packhorse trail from Chester to Harlech Castle – so very old, non the less. I’ve climbed Rhinog Fawr a long time ago, from the SW side but I’ve always wanted to go back and investigate the Roman Steps. The drive from Llanbedr to Llyn Cwm Bychan passed some fantastic scenery, some of it could have been the film set for Lord of the Rings – every rock covered completely in thick, bright green moss and fresh looking fern sprouting from moss cover trees, very damp but pretty. We braved the weather and set off from Llyn Cwm Bychan – a well signposted route up through a pretty wood, over a stone bridge and on to the start of the Roman Steps. The views were breath taking. Even though it was cloudy, the clouds were fairly high and added to the amazing colours, making a very atmospheric picture. The path climbs up and up and you get that feeling that in minute you’re going to get an amazing view in the other direction – and we did. Just after this point we took a path to the right up to Llyn Du. This lake, although beautiful, was just below the clouds so we made the decision to go down the same way as we came up. Coming down was slow progress, negotiating every step, literally each roman step was covered in a thin film of water possibly on the point of freezing. Some of the way was completely water logged and the steps were more like a stream. A really good bit of pure fresh air and an exhilarating hike– enjoyed by all of us, so much so we are going to come back in the summer and do a circular walk. Enjoy my photos.
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