Cadair Idris by the Minffordd Path

The Minffordd Path is the steepest and most dramatic of the three main paths up Cadair Idris, and the only one of the three that passes Llyn Cau, a glacial corrie lake held in a rock amphitheatre with cliffs falling almost a thousand feet into the water on one side. Local legend calls the lake bottomless and gives it a resident monster; a different, equally old story says anyone who spends a night alone on the mountain’s summit wakes up either mad or a poet. The mountain’s name refers to Idris, said in one telling to be a giant who used the boulders scattered on the lower slopes as ammunition against rival giants, and in another to be a seventh-century prince skilled in poetry, astronomy and philosophy.

Climbing through ancient woodland on stone and timber steps beside a stream, the path reaches Llyn Cau, then follows the rim of Craig Cau around the corrie’s edge to join the summit ridge. The top, Penygadair, is marked by a trig point and a small stone shelter at 893 metres, the highest point of the whole Cadair Idris range.

This is not a walk to underestimate. The National Park Authority and Natural Resources Wales, which manages the surrounding nature reserve, both grade it hard or very strenuous, covering 9 kilometres and 788 metres of ascent there and back, and the upper section is not waymarked, so navigation matters as much as fitness. It suits confident hillwalkers looking for the finest of Cadair Idris’s routes. It does not suit anyone who wants an easy introduction to Welsh mountains, since there is no gentle version of this particular path.