From Barmouth across the Mawddach Estuary

Barmouth used to be a seaport, trading the coarse woollen goods of Merionydd with the Americas. In those days the village cottages were strung out across terraces in the cliffs and there was one pub, The Corsygedol Arms. There wasn’t enough room to fit the main road from Harlech between those rocks and the sea, so it bypassed the village and instead went inland, over the Rhinog mountain passes.

In the mid-19th century it all changed. Barmouth built a main street on the beach. Visitors became more frequent and the resort’s sea and sand attracted the gentry from the Midlands. Barmouth also came to the notice of the famous: the poet William Wordsworth said of the Mawddach Estuary that it was sublime and equal to any in Scotland. Artists like J M W Turner and Richard Wilson came to capture the changing light and renowned beauty of estuary and mountainside. In 1867 the railway arrived, and a new bridge was engineered across the estuary sands. It was half a mile (800m) long and had a swing section across the Mawddach’s main channel to allow shipping to pass. Today you can see that Barmouth is still in the most wonderful situation. The view is best when the sun’s shining and the tide’s half-out.

Across the estuary your eyes cannot help but be drawn to mighty Cadair Idris. This is not one mountain, but a long ridge with several peaks, each displaying fierce cliffs that soar above the wooded foothills. The biggest is Penygadair at 2,927ft (892m), but the most prominent is Tyrrau Mawr, a shapely peak with a seemingly overhanging crag.

As you get to the other side you can look back to Barmouth, and you will see how this town has been built into the rocks of the lower Rhinogs. Across the bridge you’re ready to explore those wooded foothills. Through Arthog the path climbs between oak trees and you find yourself looking across to some waterfalls. At the top you are presented with an elevated view of all that you have seen so far: the estuary, the sandbars, the mountains and the yawning bridge. By the time you return to Barmouth you will have experienced that ‘sublime’ Mawddach.

Follow the promenade round the harbour, then go over the footbridge across the estuary (voluntary toll in place). On reaching the path along the south shore of the estuary, turn left to follow the grassy embankment that leads to a track rounding the wooded knoll of Fegla Fawr on its seaward side.

Reaching the terraced houses of Mawddach Crescent, bear right to follow the track that passes to their rear. Turn left onto a tarmac track and follow it along the shoreline, until you reach a gate on the right. Go through this and follow the bridleway across the marshes of Arthog.

Turn left along the old railway track, then leave it just before the crossing of the little Arthog Estuary, and turn right along a tarmac lane by a small car park. Bear left through a gate and follow a raised embankment to a wall which now leads the path to the main Dolgellau road (A493), next to St Catherine’s Church.

Opposite the church gate is a footpath beginning with some steps into woodland. A good waymarked path now climbs above Arthog to meet a track. Turn left onto this and then take the second path on the right to continue climbing steeply, passing several stiles and gates.

Beyond a stile at the top of the woods, turn right to come to a lane. Turn right along the descending lane, then left along a stony track, passing the cottage of Merddyn. The track gets narrower and steeper as it descends into more woodland, beneath the boulders of an old quarry and down to the Dolgellau road by Arthog’s village hall.

Turn right along the road, then left just after a flashing speed restriction sign to join a path back to the railway track and the Mawddach Trail. Turn left along the trail and follow it past Morfa Mawddach Station and back across Barmouth’s bridge.