Llyn Llywelyn near Beddgelert
Wales Trails

Wales Trails

Wales Trails in brought to you by me, Claire. I’m a native of Nant Ffancon in the lower reaches of the Ogwen Valley. I now live in Caernarfon with my husband and two children. It rains a lot less here by the coast but, oh how I miss the mountains of the Ogwen Valley.

I started this blog so that I could share some of the more out-of-the-way locations, hidden gems that you wouldn’t necessarily come across if you happened to search online for ‘north wales walks’ or ‘snowdonia walks’

Wales Trails focuses on family walks but as the children get older and more confident, and I get more time to roam solo I’m sure this will evolve.

I count myself very fortunate to have been lived in this gorgeous place, our former family home looks out across the valley to Carnedd Y Ffiliast and behind the house is Pen yr Ole Wen.

My Story

As a family we always enjoyed the outdoors and spent time going on family walks or holidays to other mountainous areas in the UK or abroad.

My father, Roger was a well known figure within the the Mountain Rescue Community, an early member of the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation he dedicated over 50 years to the team before he sadly passed away in 2016 from the blood cancer myeloma. As a family we still have a connection with OVMRO as my brother is a current team member and has been for many years.

It was losing my Dad so suddenly as an active 71 year old that made me revisit my passion for hillwalking, rambling and generally exploring Snowdonia, at first to help the grieving process but the more I got out there the more I realised that I’d really missed this connection to my cynefin.

In the last 15-20 years I’ve watched with a mixture of pride and dismay as my beautiful home as become more and more popular.

Pride as people discover what we have known all along – what Wales in an area of beauty beyond compare. However, this sudden discovery of the area, fuelled in part by social media has put incredible strain on the natural resources and popular locations, we’ve all seen images Llyn Ogwen and Pen-y-Pass on a bank holiday.

5 Family Walks in Snowdonia
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