The extremely steep
east face of
the Aran Ridge

Introduction
The highest summit outside the main Snowdon range - Aran Fawddwy - can be climbed from here as well as other medium height summits providing some pleasant surprises of one sort or another to most hikers.

Aran Fawddwy lies at 905m and is part of a very long ridge that stretches north to south from Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid) to the Dovey Valley. Like all the best mountains, this one hides its 300m high cliff face away from road-side views which faces the east.

The one breach in the cliffs lining Aran Fawddwy. Craiglyn Dyfi lies at the bottom of the steep ramp.

Approaching the arans ridge from the north

The first view of Aran Fawddwy from the north

This cliff face is 4km long and only has one breach in its defence. The lochan of Craiglyn Dyfi is probably another place to try and visit.

The vast area of rolling moorland away to the north east of the Arans

A very distant view of the Rhinogs on the horizon

The mountain can be traversed fully from north to south in a day or equally easily as a circuit of Cwm Cywarch from the south where the lower 400m high vegetated cliffs provide even more photo opportunities.

A view south from the summit of Aran Fawddwy

Descending into Cwm Cywarch after a trek up on the Aran ridge

Out to the west of Dinas Mawddwy lie some medium-height grassy plateaux with steep drops down to the main valley in the form of grass slopes and a few cliffs yielding some waterfalls. Behind these defences lie the grassy tops which fall gently down to vast forestry plantations. This area is also well worth visiting.