Moel Hebog

Moel Hebog dominates the view west from Beddgelert, and the standard route to its summit starts right from the village car park. The name means hill of the hawk. Geologically the mountain belongs to the Snowdon Volcanic Group, built from a complex sequence of Cambrian and Ordovician rock.

The plantation on its lower slopes is Beddgelert Forest, planted by the Forestry Commission from 1926 and handed to Natural Resources Wales when the Commission’s Welsh holdings transferred in 2013. The route follows the easy, level Lôn Gwyrfai trail out of the village before turning uphill onto open ground, where the gradient steepens noticeably and the final approach to the summit needs hands as well as feet on a couple of short sections. The descent drops back through forestry plantation to Beddgelert. From the top, on a clear day, the view takes in Snowdon and the rest of the Eryri massif, the Nantlle Ridge, and the coast of Cardigan Bay.

Moel yr Ogof, the neighbouring summit and part of the same ridge system, holds a cave where Owain Glyndŵr is traditionally said to have hidden from the English during his uprising (an old mineshaft nearby is sometimes mistaken for the cave itself). Reaching it means extending the walk beyond the standard route described here.

At 8.9 kilometres and 758 metres of ascent, this is a half-day mountain walk rated moderate rather than hard, a sensible step up for walkers who have done a shorter Eryri hill and want more height and more solitude than Snowdon’s crowded paths offer. It does not suit anyone wanting a flat or gentle outing, since the scrambling near the top is unavoidable on the direct line.