For the final day of our holiday, from our base in southern Snowdonia we headed north again into the mountains. Our plan was to park at the Pen y Pass car park and take the Miners Track (one of the paths to the summit of Mount Snowdon) and walk to Glaslyn, a glacial lake high up in the mountains and said to be one of the most beautiful of Snowdonia.
But things didn’t go to plan… we hadn’t realised you need to pre-book the Pen y Pass car park and the other option was to drive to the next village and wait for a Park n Ride bus to take you back to the car park. These buses run every 30 minutes. Having just driven for over an hour and with 5 people and 4 dogs this seemed like too much faff so we continued driving towards Llanberis.
We all felt a coffee was in order to consider our options and happened to park next to Llyn Padarn (Padarn Lake). After coffee and cake and in a somewhat sombre mood we decided to wander down to have a look at the lake.
What a surprising little gem this lake turned out to be! Actually I later found this wasn’t a little gem at all… Padarn Lake is 2 miles long and one of the largest lakes in Wales! But around the edges, near the car park was a whole series of gorgeous little mini ‘mirror’ sections of the lake.
The lake was popular with paddle boarders and this is understandable with all of these little nooks and crannies to explore!
Having spoken to a couple of people along the way we discovered there is a trail where you can circumnavigate the entire lake… Promised with many attractive and scenic viewpoints we set off…
To the left of the path we found another small lake which was covered in lily pads.
We had to walk under a tunnel, then we had a small section near the road and after crossing the road we were back next to the lake. Shortly afterwards we came across some people abseiling down a steep rock. A sign next to the rock explained this is called ‘Union Rock’ as it is the site where in the 1870’s, 110 quarrymen declared themselves to be union members and used this rock as their meeting place. These meetings led to the creation of the North Wales Quarrymen’s Union.
As we walked further round the lake we came across a wild swimming spot! There was a small stony ‘beach’ area and a blue mat which stretched into the water, enabling swimmers to enter the lake without hurting their feet.
As it was a hot day, Chris and Yvey decided to go into the lake for a swim. Little Chino, Yvey & Matt’s 6 month old miniature sausage dog decided to go in for a swim too… He is a beginner when it comes to swimming and his little legs took him to a rock in the water where he decided to perch and whimper for a bit!
We all sat at this lovely part of the lake and had our picnic lunch.
After lunch we followed the quiet road as it climbed uphill for a mile or so and came to a hamlet called Fachwen.
Shortly afterwards we found the footpath entering a wooded section where we walked downhill back towards the lake. We came across a waterfall with a carved hobbit like wooden bridge.
The path then opened up some great views of the lake.
Looking towards Mount Snowdon.
At the other side of the lake we came across a slate mine at the Vivian Quarry. The ‘V2’ slate incline was restored in 1998 and is the only working incline in the UK today. It was used between 1875 to the early 1930s to transport slate down the steep slopes.
From the quarry we continued around the lake for another couple of miles until we reached the car. On the way back we stopped at a viewing point as we drove back through Snowdonia National Park.
We stopped again for food and drinks sitting in the sun in the gardens of the Oakeley Arms Hotel. The menu was extensive and the food was excellent so highly recommended if in the area!
Summary
Llyn Padarn was a great and unexpected find with plenty of interesting features along the way.
This is the last of our Snowdonia posts. A few more ‘Throwback Thursday’ posts are scheduled, beginning with Salzburg, the first destination of a 2005 Austria backpacking trip…
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