Walk: Superb views of the Conwy Valley at Maenan (3 miles)

Distance: 3 miles

Start: There is a small National Trust car park in Maenan provided for the Cadair Ifan Goch viewpoint and walk. This can be reached by taking the minor lane signed Cadair Ifan Goch opposite Maenan Abbey Hotel on the A470 and keeping left at the first fork. The car

park is on the left at the next junction.

Grid ref: 795 665 (Ordnance Survey Explorer OL 17)

The walk:

1. Turn left out of the car park and go through the kissing gate into the woods. Follow the obvious footpath through the trees and were the path begins to rise ignore a right fork staying with the main footpath. Rise steeply and at a T junction where the path levels turn left, then turn right at the next junction in a few yards. In about 300 yards there is a National Trust sign.

Here you can make a short detour on the path to the left to the Cadair Ifan Goch viewpoint (definitely recommended).

Cadair Ifan Goch - Red John's Chair, takes its name from a legendary red haired giant who is said to sit here to bathe his feet in the soothing waters of Afon Conwy. Today, visitors are attracted by one of the finest viewpoints in the area. At almost 500 feet above the

valley floor, you are treated to a wide panorama in both directions - from Ty'n-y-groes in the north, to the wooded profile of Parc Uchaf above Llanrwst. Opposite, the steep valley sides above Dolgarrog rise to the remote hanging valleys of the eastern Carneddau.

Return to the path by the National Trust sign and turn left. This well defined path descends gradually to an old kissing gate by a larger gate across the path (ignore the path/track which curves left just before this). Go through the gate and follow the path down to eventually pass a house on your left.

Continue ahead down the track which becomes an unsurfaced road. Follow the road past more houses until it bends sharp left. On the curve of the bend, turn right through a large metal gate and walk along a grassy farm track. Pass farm buildings on the right and immediately after a kissing gate, bear left off the track onto a faint footpath which runs beside a stream on the left. Cross a footbridge over the stream and go through a kissing gate. Bear half-right up the bank and cut half-right through the centre of the following field to a kissing gate in the far hedge.

Take a direct line through the following field towards a small farm. Go through the gate adjacent to the farmhouse, walk through the farmyard passing the house on your left and continue up the drive. After about 40 yards, on the bend, turn right onto a second farm

track and follow this to the top of the rise under power lines. Go left through the gate here and bear half-left over a small field towards a track up the wooded bank ahead. Follow this faint track up, then left along the edge of the field, before curving right towards a small cottage. Go through a kissing gate to the right of the cottage (Clwt Bedw) and walk down the drive to the lane.

2. Directly opposite, a fingerpost indicates the continuation of the footpath. Keep to the right-hand edge of the field and in the far right corner, go through a kissing gate into woods. Follow the path directly ahead through the trees and join a rough farm track after a ruin on the right. Follow the track past a farm on the right and continue to a second farm. Pass the front of the farmhouse and continue straight

ahead (ignore a driveway to the right) to a metal gate with outbuildings to the right. Go through the gate and keep to the right-hand field edge. In the far corner of the field, a large gate takes you into a second field. Keep to the left-hand field edge and look for a small metal gate in the corner under trees which leads into an open wood with a small field and farmhouse over to the right. Walk beside the fence

through the wood to a stile into a lane and turn right down the hill.

At a T junction turn left and walk along the lane to a signed public footpath which uses the driveway to Tan-y Graig on the right. Walk down the drive and continue straight ahead where this curves left. Enter fields and keep straight ahead to a kissing gate in the right-hand corner of the field. Go through the gate and walk directly ahead to another kissing gate which leads into the lane. Turn right here and

return to the car park to complete the walk.

This walk is taken from the book Walking in the Conwy Valley by Carl Rogers and published by Mara Books (ISBN 978-0-9522409-7-6) Copies are available in local bookshops or online at: www.northerneyebooks.co.uk.