Qualla: Carneddau

Carneddau: Introduction

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Rhion assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. The Carneddau is what is left when erosion has finished. North of the great cleft of the Ogwen Valley, where the A5 still threads its way through Telford's masterwork, the land lifts into a vast undulating roof of broken stone and short grass that rolls on for almost 200 square kilometres - the largest contiguous area of ground above 2,500 feet anywhere in Wales or England. There are no spires here, no Tryfan or Crib Goch. The Carneddau wear themselves smooth. Six summits cross 3,000 feet; the highest, Carnedd Llywelyn, reaches 1,064 metres. The whole range is named, plural, for the cairns piled across it by people who have been making cairns here since the Bronze Age.

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Rhion assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

Carneddau: The Shape of an Old Sea Floor

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit James@hopgrove at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Five hundred million years ago the rocks beneath the Carneddau lay on a continental shelf bordering the Iapetus Ocean. The mudstones, sandstones and volcanic tuffs of the Ordovician built up in layers - the Nant Ffrancon Subgroup, the Llewelyn Volcanic Group, the Cwm Eigiau Forma...

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Image: James@hopgrove at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Carneddau: Wild Horses and the Bones of Iron Age Houses

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steve Foster, CC BY-SA 3.0. Above Bethesda, on the north-western slopes of Drosgl, there are clusters of stone hut circles and three cairns piled on the top of Moel Faban. They belong to an Iron Age settlement that endured for a thousand years - through Roman occupation and out the other side. The Romans bu...

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Image: Steve Foster | CC BY-SA 3.0

Carneddau: Princess Gwenllian and the Renaming

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Terry Hughes, CC BY-SA 2.0. The central peaks read like a roll of Welsh royalty: Pen yr Ole Wen, Carnedd Dafydd, Carnedd Llewelyn, Yr Elen, Foel Grach, Foel-fras. For a long time one summit was called simply Carnedd Uchaf, "the upper cairn." In September 2009, after a campaign led by the Gwenllian Society, ...

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Image: Terry Hughes | CC BY-SA 2.0

Carneddau: The Highest Lake and Other Legends

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Terry Hughes, CC BY-SA 2.0. Llyn Ogwen, at the foot of the range, is one of the candidates for the lake in which Sir Bedivere is supposed to have thrown Excalibur after the death of King Arthur. The two small lakes nestled below the eastern cliffs of Carnedd Llywelyn were once believed to be haunted by defo...

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Image: Terry Hughes | CC BY-SA 2.0

Carneddau: From the Air

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Rhion assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. From a flight passing west toward Anglesey, the Carneddau show as a single great whaleback of green and grey, drained by valleys carved at right angles. The Conwy slips along the eastern edge; the Ogwen runs the southern flank; the Irish Sea opens to the north. The plant life on ...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Rhion assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain