Lake Walks from Rhyd Ddu That Do Not Climb Snowdon

Four low walks start from or finish at Rhyd Ddu, and none of them uses the Rhyd Ddu Path.

They are Llyn y Gader out and back, Lôn Gwyrfai towards Beddgelert, Llyn Llywelyn and Llyn y Dywarchen.

Lôn Gwyrfai is graded easy by the Eryri National Park Authority, which manages the path.

The Sherpa’r Wyddfa S3 bus can bring you back from Beddgelert.

The walks by length

Two of those four figures start somewhere other than Rhyd Ddu. The Llyn y Gader out and back has no published distance.

Llyn y Gader, out and back

The walk starts at the Rhyd Ddu car park, and Lôn Gwyrfai proper begins across the main road, according to Mud and Routes, a walking route guide.

At the cottage you turn left towards the lake. Right leads to the Nantlle Ridge. The track then crosses a causeway.

Mud and Routes publishes a 6.5 km circuit here, with 200 m of ascent, 2 hours and a moderate grade.

It climbs to around 300 m on Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and returns over part of the Rhyd Ddu Path. Skip that version.

For an easier day, walk the first sections to the lake and back the same way. Mud and Routes says this has minimal ascent. It gives no distance for the out and back.

What the Eryri National Park Authority and Countryfile say about the lake:

• Slate: according to the Eryri National Park Authority, the lake served the railway from Gadair-wyllt Quarry, which worked from 1885 to 1920.
• Waste: the Authority writes the name Llyn y Gadair, and says slate waste was dumped in the lake for a period.
• Wildlife: the Authority calls the lake and the Afon Gwyrfai, the river flowing out of it, of great ecological value. It names Arctic char and floating water-plantain.
• Winter: whooper swans overwinter on the lake, Countryfile adds.

Lôn Gwyrfai towards Beddgelert

The Authority describes Lôn Gwyrfai as a multi-use path for walkers, cyclists and horse riders. It stretches 4.5 miles between Rhyd Ddu and Beddgelert.

The Authority’s route description names the sections in this order:

• The start, directly opposite the car park entrance in Rhyd Ddu.
• The causeway across Llyn y Gadair.
• Beddgelert Forest, following the Lôn Gwyrfai waymarkers.
• Pont Cae’r Gors, where the path leaves the forest. Take care when crossing the railway line.
• An 18th century stone bridge over the Cwm Du river.
• The climb to Hafod Ruffydd Uchaf, then down to Beddgelert Forest Campsite.
• Farmland on the foothills of Moel Hebog, as far as Cwm Cloch.
• The road down into Beddgelert.

The Authority gives the whole path as easy, one way, 7 km (4.5 miles) and about 3 hours.

• Surface: mostly a well-formed track or path, with some steps and gently undulating surfaces.
• Footwear: trainers or comfortable walking shoes are recommended.
• You do not have to walk all of it. Smaller sections of the trail can be completed on their own.
• Trampers: parts have even, wide surfaces suited to some powered Tramper type vehicles or power-assisted wheelchairs.

The Authority hires Trampers out free of charge, and donations are welcome. Only certain sections suit them.

Part of the walk is currently diverted, and the Authority links a diversion map from its page (read on 20 October 2026). Look at the map before you set out.

For the way back, the Authority names the bus and the Welsh Highland Railway. This is a narrow-gauge heritage railway between Caernarfon and Porthmadog that runs parallel to the path.

The Sherpa’r Wyddfa S3 runs from Beddgelert to Caernarfon to Dinorwig, with a stop at Rhyd Ddu Station.

For walks from Beddgelert itself, see the walks around Beddgelert.

Beddgelert Forest and Llyn Llywelyn

Two published walks reach Llyn Llywelyn from different starts, and their figures do not match.

From the forest car park, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) lists the Llyn Llywelyn Walk. NRW’s page covers Beddgelert Forest.

It is a circuit of 2.7 miles (4.4 km), with 443 feet (135 m) of climb and 2½ hours. It is graded moderate and waymarked from start to finish.

The 4.4 km walk starts at the forest car park, not at Rhyd Ddu.

NRW describes the trail like this:

• Surface: nearly all forest road, with three short sections of track.
• Mud: one section can become muddy on the gradual climb to the lake.
• Cobbles: one on the descent back to the car park has a 40 m stretch of rough uneven cobbles.
• Railway: two crossings have manual gates to open.
• Picnics: there are picnic tables along the trail.

NRW says parking at the forest car park is free and overnight parking is not permitted. The forest is 2 miles north of Beddgelert, and no staff are on site.

From Rhyd Ddu, Mud and Routes describes a different walk: 9.27 km, 156 m of ascent and 3 hours, graded easy to moderate. It starts on Lôn Gwyrfai.

The guide calls it suitable as an easy family walk. It also notes that the route crosses the Welsh Highland Railway a few times, and that navigation in the woodland can be tricky.

Looking back from beside Llyn y Gader, early on the walk, Mud and Routes says the narrow ridge of Crib Nantlle dominates the view. That is the Nantlle Ridge.

Llyn y Dywarchen and the floating island legend

The Coflein entry for Llyn y Dywarchen describes a ten-and-a-half hectare lake, about four miles north west of Beddgelert.

The name means Turf, after a little island in its waters. The entry says Giraldus Cambrensis, a medieval clergyman and chronicler, referred to the floating island on his journey through Wales in 1188.

The legend is of an island that moved. In Countryfile’s account, Giraldus wrote that the wind often drove it from one side of the lake to the other.

Shepherds, he wrote, saw their cattle carried to the distant parts of the lake as they fed.

Later tellings, according to Countryfile:

• Halley: the astronomer Edmund Halley swam out to see the island in 1698.
• Folklore: the tylwyth teg, the fairy folk, are said to have made it. A fairy’s mother made a magic island of turf so her daughter could talk with her mortal husband on the shore.

No island floats there today. The island you see is rock, Countryfile says, not the floating island that gave the lake its name.

Countryfile adds that a dam built in 1888 for the Drws-y-Coed copper mine raised the water level and the island, presumably, sank. Coflein says the lake was mostly drained in 2013 to repair its dam.

Countryfile’s walk to the lake is 7 miles (11.3 km), about 4 hours and graded moderate. It starts at the narrow-gauge railway station in Beddgelert and follows Lôn Gwyrfai past Llyn y Gader.

• At the gate it turns left onto the road and goes uphill into the Nantlle Valley.
• The return goes towards Llyn y Gader and down the road to Rhyd Ddu.
• The lake is stocked with rainbow trout.

The guides give no distance from Rhyd Ddu to the lake alone.

Getting there and back

The Authority’s guide to reaching Yr Wyddfa says the Snowdon routes start from small villages or areas with extremely limited capacity for parking.

It recommends the Sherpa’r Wyddfa bus.

• From Caernarfon: the S3 to the Rhyd Ddu Station stop, about 20 to 25 minutes.
• From Porthmadog: the S4 to Beddgelert, then change to the S3, about 35 minutes in all.

The S4 runs from Pen-y-Pass to Beddgelert to Porthmadog to Morfa Bychan, and it does not list Rhyd Ddu. The same S3 also serves the start of the Snowdon Ranger Path.

The timetable read on 20 October 2026 runs from 28 March 2026. Times change, so read the current one.

The car park is off the A4085 at grid reference SH 571 526, according to the Authority’s Rhyd Ddu Path page. The Authority owns it, and there are public toilets beside it.

Space is limited, so see parking around Snowdonia for the alternatives.

We compile and explain public route and safety information. We guide nobody and sell nothing on the hill.

Before you leave, read the Sherpa’r Wyddfa timetable and the Authority’s Lôn Gwyrfai diversion map, then take the S3 to the Rhyd Ddu Station stop.